Episode 45: 2025 NL Central B-Side Selections

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ninety five miles an hour, riding to his head. He
hopping down first with the lump bonius face, and on
the very next pitch he up and stole second face
with greatst speed. He wasn't born, he had yes uniforn.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
All right, Welcome to episode Birmingham Barons Michael Jordan forty
five of the Prospect B Sides podcast. You didn't like that.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
That's a deep cut. I have no idea what you're
talking about. But wow, MJ is Birmingham Baron's number one.
That's what. Okay?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, who else is forty five?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I don't know, uh, Chadwick Trump or something? What?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, no, MJ. Anyways, welcome to the number.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Everyone associates with.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
MJ.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Forty five.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Dude, Jordan could have been a major leader.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I don't think so. His swing was jank, he was
never gonna hit.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Maybe as it was, but if she had started just
playing bass or just stuck to baseball, I think he
could have been. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Maybe he's tall, like the tall guys, it's kind of
hard to be good at baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Picky. Can't be too short, can't be too tall.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's like a but you could definitely be too short
or short like I'm all about that. It's the tall guys,
especially as a hitter, like there are just not many
tall guys that really really end up like six six
and above. I mean, and what was Jordan like? Six seven?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah, six six six five probably. Anyways, this intro has
gotten really derailed, but uh, welcome to the podcast. It's
been too long.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's been too long, addled by our time off and
the cold air. We're talking muddy b siders though, so
that's always a good night.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yes, yes we are. We are back after the holiday break,
going division by division, picking out what zero to one
to not created yet prospects from every org a, bat
and arm that I don't know the rook and I
kind of have a lik liking to for one reason
or another, and that they might be undervalued, underappreciated in

(02:18):
the Dynasty world, can maybe gain some utility or as
you mentioned last time, that we just like them and
want to talk about them.

Speaker 3 (02:24):
So some of those guys this week just guys that
I like. I don't know how many of them are
going to be good, but some guys that are pretty fun.
In this week's episode.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah, and tonight we're doing the National League Central. I
don't know as a whole how excited I am about this,
but we'll talk about that.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
You have a good holiday, eat some bird and two
of them things.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
Hit no bird for us this year. It's a first
year in a long time that we didn't visit family
or do a friends giving. Two kids by ourselves at home. Yeah,
we eschewed the bird and we'll do I have a
nice turkey on or for Christmas when we will have
some family in town. But yeah, we just did some

(03:05):
of our other traditional Thanksgiving dishes. We do this thing
every year called pumpkins stuffed with everything good, and it's
become our favorite dish every year Thanksgiving. Anyway, Like we
were like, it's better than mashed potatoes and gravy, it's
better than turkey, it's better than all the other sides.
So we just made a couple of those and that
was our Yeah, just quiet, quiet as quiet it can

(03:25):
be with a two year old and a newborn in
a house. But now we survived. It was fun. Had
my son's birthday party here. So the house is as
clean as it's ever been with at least since a
two year old arrived. But yeah, it was a good,
good holiday.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
I was yours, nice good man. I drink a lot
of gin I haven't done a lot of in my life,
but paid for the next day a little bit. But
that was fun. And my sister in law, dude, man,
I don't know, I don't know the recipe of her
marinate or whatever, but I got to give a shout
to her, not that she would be listening at all,
but she kills turkey, dude, like brings turkey to a

(04:02):
whole other level.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Man.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's like the most flavorful, delicious, never eating turkey that
tastes like this before thing. And I look forward to
that every year. Thanks gonna be definitely my favorite holiday. Nice.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
You got to get that recipe and share it out
with the people. We can do a live reading of
your your turkey your in laws turkey recipe next episode.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I don't know. I don't know if they'll give it out.
I don't know. I don't know what the deal is there.
I haven't cried, but any of who met, I don't
know if a lot has happened in the baseball world
per se since uh last.

Speaker 3 (04:34):
Freaking nothing, and everyone is so all up in arms
about Juan Soto where he's gonna go, And I just like,
have we talked about this that I don't think the
signing news breaking thing is a real job, Like like
I don't understand why people care or what the value is,
Like why do you care? Why do you not wait

(04:55):
thirty minutes later, two days later, ten days later, Like
it just doesn't matter, you know, especially this time of
the year. Like maybe if you're a mid draft and
you like see somebody sign somewhere and it's a big
change in value, like you care about that. But what
degenerates are doing drafts right now? You know? So I
the whole news breaking thing in basketball, baseball, football, Like,

(05:18):
I don't understand it. It's really stupid to me.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
I don't know, need everything answered right now sort of mentality.
I don't know. But we did have. As I mentioned
before we started recording one of my B sides, Selections,
has already switched teams. About a week after we recorded
the Al West episode, Juan Mercedes elected free agency and
signed with the Giants, which I think for whatever major

(05:43):
league aspirations or possibilities there might be for him, Like
that's probably a better avenue than trying to break in
with the Mariners.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, maybe and interesting. I'm super curious how their for
an office is gonna run things. The early signs are
kind of baffling, Timmy, Like Buster Posey is the POBO
and he's doing a bunch of really weird stuff, and
our analytics departments all leaving, and he's like, RBIs are
important again. And so I don't know if that bodes

(06:11):
well for mister Mercedes development. But it's going to be interesting, yeah,
to see what the Giants do.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
So maybe the baseball world was a bit quiet in
news and exciting events and stuff, Matt. But I don't
know if this has affected you like it has me.
But I understand this is a baseball podcast, but I
feel like I got to do my part to help
make a shift here. But the second Congressional hearing on UAPs, Matt,
did you watch this?

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Of course, not what I mean.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
We are amidst the unfolding, the unveiling of probably the
most important shift in the human experience in our lifetimes, Matt,
maybe ever, and starting to uncover the government cover up
of information technologies intelligence far beyond our understanding, and it

(07:00):
is happening that we are slowly getting cutting through the
bureaucracy and starting to learn some things about other intelligence
and what.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Have you learned? What have you learned from this? I
am so curious what the cover up and the new
information is here.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, let me just put on a different hat for
a minute. Here. I mean, we have go we have
government officials, high ranking government officials, admirals from the Navy,
Folks who worked on secret reverse engineering programs trying to
reverse the reverse engineer technologies that were recovered. Folks from

(07:41):
NASA testifying under oath about I mean, they're like whistle blowing,
you know, and they're wanting to cover up the hiding
of information to cease and let science start exploring some
of this stuff. I've learned that probably one of the
big hurdles in that is defense contractors have bought probably

(08:02):
rights to information. But these folks all believe there's definitely
intelligence out there that isn't us. They testify as such,
and that there are a retrieval program retrieving what I
don't know, technologies that we don't have. But my point
is like, why isn't this a big deal for folks? Am?

(08:24):
I am I overreacting to this?

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Matt, are you on a Wednesday? Night in December wearing
a tinfoil hat, a literal tinfoil hat, on a baseball
podcast about obscure minor leaders. Are you making too big
a deal about hearing that is a huge nothing burger?

Speaker 2 (08:46):
How can you say this is a nothing burger? There
are I don't know if they're aliens, I don't know
if it's us from the future. But how does this
not make you feel happy? That doesn't this make me
feel good? This is like the most hopeful news I've
ever heard in my life. Like, maybe we don't kill
ourselves because there's a lot of in the future.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
There there is a lot of unexplained intelligence. And I'm
glad to hear that there's some intelligence out there, because
there's not a lot on this podcast right now, and
it's certainly not a lot on in Congress.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Look, we're not the smartest, the smartest beings out there,
Thank god, we are not it.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, of course there are other beings out there. The
universe is basically infinite, no worse, there are other things.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Right, But I mean, I mean here very interested in
our nuclear sites and bases and interfering with stuff there
because maybe they don't want us to kill ourselves. I
don't know. We are going to find out more though,
but this is.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
You think you think the intro went off the rail.
We're thirteen minutes in and you're you ain't be hearing.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
You got to watch it, man, you gotta watch it. Boy.
This is great. You can because it's important and it's
moving from heretical and tabloid realms to becoming legitimized. And
I think that's I think that's fantastic. AnyWho. Yeah, wow,
me to watch it before you before you judge my
takes here, Matt, that's.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Some that's some good stuff. That's got me good. That
was good.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
AnyWho, Let's talk about some loser prospects. Let's start with
the Cubs. I don't know how you felt digging on
this organization, but as a whole, felt a little And
I understand that I'm biased, so so maybe you can
steer me right. But I did come away with a
bat that a young bat that I I don't know.
Maybe he's the top ten beside that for me this year.

(10:45):
And that's Jose Escobar. Oh interesting, who's currently in September
was rostered and zero percent of leagues I don't believe
he's ranked on Pipeline. Nineteen year old second base, left field,
left hand hitter listed at five ten national free agent
from Venezuela. Last year, he spent what time forty seven
games in the Complex three with Myrtle beach and A

(11:08):
ball eighty four a ball played appearances. He hit four
home runs, walked thirteen percent of the time, struck out
twenty four percent of the time two oh nine three
fifty seven four seventy eight slash and that small sample
good enough for a one forty three WRC plus in
that league. But Matt, I don't know if you've watched
Escobar into him very much, but left handed stroke that

(11:31):
I liked kind of a good bit reminds me of
Pinango in a sense that.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Like in they're both Cubs, in that they're.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Both Cubs, but like it's probably going to be a
pretty bat heavy profile. I think. I don't know if
defense and like athleticism is really at the top of
his assets here. I don't know. Maybe maybe you you
thought differently.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
So I did watch quite a bit of Hotel Escobar,
and I'm I'm happy to report that I'll begrudgingly co
sign this one with you. But I think with a
little bit less enthusiasm the guy that I really wanted
to go for that will talk about in a bit.
I think it's just like a little over our roster thresholds.
But we're still gonna talk about the guy who I
think is the most underrated guy in the system. But

(12:15):
for Escobar, we're talking like eighty four played appearances in
a ball at which he ran a twenty three point
five percent home run to fly ball rate, whereas he
hadn't cracked single digits in the last two years on
the DSL and the complex. So while he did a
really good job in a ball pulling his fly balls
and getting some homers, and I watched all of those

(12:37):
homers that were broadcast and they were good, like good
pulled the ball, got it up in the air, and
good things happened. But I'm a little skeptical that there's.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Last one opposite field ways that I liked.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yes, yes, And some of the ones that he pulled
I thought were like good process, it seemed like, but
he's not a guy that's gonna run a teens homer
to flyball rate. I think this is like some small
sample noise for me and nineteen at a ball and
a twenty four percent k rate, Like, okay, that's that

(13:10):
might tick up a bit as he as he goes
up levels. The reason to like him from my perspective
was I thought he was pretty athletic in the box
and seemed like he was trying to be intentional in
pulling the ball and putting it in the air. And
that's good, like as we've talked about ad nauseum, right,
and he should have. I don't know if the exit

(13:32):
velows were if we got much out of that, but
if you got any reporting on.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
That, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
It seemed like he squared up enough balls that I
was like, Okay, there's some power here that it's worth following.
But I'm not this is not like a oh Man,
this is a next superstar in the making thing. For me,
it seems like I want to see a lot more.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
I agree with that. I'm not saying that this is
a lock stud, but for a young, unpopular bat, I
think there's some stuff to like here and think there
might be a chance ground ball rate of forty five
forty six percent, which you know is probably not what
we want to see necessarily, but for this system, that's
kind of an outlier in a good way.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, and he's still like and thirty seven percent in
the air, So he's sort of taking those ground balls
in exchange for the line drives. But I don't know
with the way that he swings it, like I kind
of take that trade off, Like I don't think he's
going to be a high babbit guy and a spray guy.
He's like trying to hit some homers and that comes
with some ground balls in his case.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
And I like the look of his swings, like it's
fairly simple and clean and not a lot of moving parts,
but still headn't but uh yeah, it wasn't super you know,
into a lot of bats here and young Jose Escobar,
let's see if it gets a little more popular, he
has a little bit more success than the Lowers.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah. So I mean the CUB system as a whole
is pretty good. I think in that Matt Shaw and
moisse By Steros are both I think big leaguers comfortably
with a chance for you know, all star or really
good seasons mixed in there. Owen Casey, for me, is
a little bit of a boomer bus, but I think

(15:12):
he's a big league regular for sure. You know, a
little higher strikeout profile, but I think the power is
going to be legit. Kevin Alcantra, he's super athletic, maybe
he's starting to pull everything together. I remain a little
skeptical of him and his approach, but he's still pretty
young and sniffed the majors this year and then kind
of further down. But like some hype around your guys

(15:34):
like Jefferson Rojas and Alex Canario is another guy who
I quite like and thought he was gonna mash some
homers in the show this year, but hasn't quite. I
think injuries derailed him the last kind of year and
a half or so. So they've got a lot of
guys that I think are really good on the hitters side,
but the most underappreciated. And James Triontos too, I think

(15:56):
he gets underappreciated for what he does. He's another one
that's way too for our exercise, but his contact and
speed combo. I think he's done really, really well the
last couple of years, and I think he'll be a
useful big leaguer as well. So that's like a lot
of prospects already that are real pretty good man.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
I'd rather talk about Aliens and Cubs pretty boys.

Speaker 3 (16:16):
Well, let's talk about Jonathan Long then, who I don't
know if you recall what his his ownership percentage was,
and we've talked about mister Long before, no relation to
Jeff Long. I don't think I think Jeff would have
mentioned that.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, so Long was that two percent in September?

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Two percent okay, so pretty close to our thresholds and
one would one hundred percent have been my pick if he.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, I just felt like we talked about him enough
this year that that would have been kind of yeah.
I don't know we did.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
But I wanted to come circle back around and highlight
that I really appreciate his patients at even advanced levels.
You know, he made it up to double A this
year and I think was really really good there and
his ability to limit strikeouts. I mean, on the year,
he ran out twenty point seven percent strikeout rate, which

(17:06):
is quite good, especially given the fact that he popped
seventeen homers and twenty one doubles in less than five
hundred plate appearances on the Earth. So that's like those
are pretty solid rates like that poortends some twenty five
maybe plus homer power I think at peak not going
to be one who's going to run a high babbit,

(17:26):
But I think if he can raise his launch agle
just a little bit more, this has been the thing
with him that like it's a little like you mentioned
in this system, touched to ground ball heavy, and he's
got the juice and the contact skills to make the
most of his flyballs. If he can just get a
few more of those line drives into fly balls, there's

(17:46):
a world in which he's a thirty plus homer bat
with good on base and is a middle of a
lineup Masher.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Talking about his launch agle talking about him is lyft.
He's kind of an extreme opposite field guy, right, Yes,
thirty eight percent APO, So he's letting the ball travel
on him quite a bit. And I don't think it's
like you can't catch up the velocity or anything like that.
I think it's an intentional approach to hitting. If you
did start to hit the ball out in front more,
wouldn't that lead to more fly balls just naturally the

(18:16):
way that a swing path works.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
So it's a little bit counterintuitive. I think because we
talk so much about the value of a pulled fly
ball that we associate the two. But what actually happens
with the swing path is that the more opposite field
you go, the more likely it's going to be a flyball.
So flyballs to the off gap, to the other way

(18:40):
are much more common than flyballs to the poll side.
Generally speaking, there are guys who like, if you got
a really flat batpath, you know, Alex Bregman or esk Paratus,
and you're really trying to get it out front, like
you're really kind of selling out for that kind of
pulled flyball. But mostly you see pulled balls are on
the ground. And that is one thing that he does

(19:01):
pretty well is that he's not a huge worm burner.
He's just kind of a spray guy, right Like he'll
go all over the place, and as you mentioned, his
his propensity to go the other way I think does
limit a little bit of you know, he's got the
juice to leave the yard to center and the opposite field.
But if he was more middle of the diamond, more

(19:23):
like you know, Freddy Freeman esque, where it's all middle,
it's all middle, maybe he would get some more of
those homers too. So one thing you know, he wrote,
he wrote a pretty high Babby in double A and
a lot of that was on opposite fields, hits doubles
and singles the other way. He's not a high babbit
guy long term for me, maybe a slightly above average guy.

(19:47):
But I do think that he's got a above average
slightly above average babby skill and the power to hit
homers to all fields. And at twenty two at double A, like,
let's see him start the year keep crushing double A
and make it up to triple A. And I mean,
I think the Cubs have a real first basement on

(20:07):
their hands here if he can keep showing this kind
of stuff, and I don't think enough people appreciate it,
just how good his season was. And last bit for
me on him is that he projects right now. Steamer
thinks if they chucked him in the majors right now,
he'd run a ninety nine WRC plus as a twenty
two year old, and that's I guess age twenty three

(20:27):
season upcoming. That's pretty good. That's a rare thing for
one that young. That Steamer already thinks that he is
a league average bat. Now he's got to be a
bit better than that to really play at first base, obviously,
but that to me says that in a year or
two we might be looking at a guy that is
a real contenders first baseman in the making.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
He had a really nice AFL season. I think that
got him a little bit more attention, but not a
bad pool there from the Cubs with their ninth round
pick from last year. Really good season. Yep, So you
and I were both calling Escobar.

Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, yeah, officially okay, with a head nod towards long
but yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Moving on to the Cub's arms, you're talking about a system.
Most popular guys Kate Horton at fifty three percent rostered,
then Caleb Killian at five, Brandon bird Cell at three,
man Jason Wiggins at three, Cole Franklin at two, like
it is. I don't know. The cubs pitching conveyor belt

(21:30):
here has been pretty lackluster. I think for maybe a
few years, getting down to the zero one percenters. I
don't know. I guess maybe there were a few guys.
I'm still a little bit interested in my pick from
last year, Grant Kip, who has heard a lot this year.
He was in the AFL some but I landed on
an undrafted free agent.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Well, hang on, before you get into your pick. You know,
my boy, Jack Neely, Yankees b side from Yankees beside
arm from last year, got traded into the system this
year and kept doing his thing at the upper miners,
just punching everybody out, kept the walks in check. I
think he still looks like a late inning leverage reliever

(22:08):
for them, and you know it's upper nineties. It's a
hammer slider. He is a power writy that is going
to slot in Nicoly at the back of our pen.
I think next year, Like, I think he's a big
league arm. I mean, he's on the forty two. So
I think Neely is going to be a leverage reliever
for the Cubs next year. Whether the Cubs are good
and whether he's getting holds and stuff like, I don't know,
but Ne's Neelly's going to be in that pen. In

(22:30):
my opinion.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Seems like they might have a collection too of relievers
with some open jobs and who's going to take it
sort of thing. So yeah, the Cub's relief situation next
year is I think interesting for dinas or for fantasy
for sure. But yeah, man, I went with Nico Zeglin. Familiar, Yeah,
right on. Forgive me, I don't remember who it was.
But somebody was chatting about having seen him this year

(22:53):
in the discord, and I had to just like chime
in a little bit and be like, yeah, man, I agree.
Of course he's older. He's twenty four, maybe he'll be
twenty five at the start of the season. And he
pitched just in a ball and High A this year
a total of sixty six innings, so you know, perhaps
he was a bit more of an advanced college arm
from Long Beach State, and like, yeah, maybe he should

(23:14):
be doing well in the lowers like this, but I
don't know. Man, six ' four righty arsenal, Like I
don't know the fastball I saw anywhere from like ninety
to ninety six. He's got slider, curve, change up. You know,
he's got the full starter's kit. I think there's he's
a righty, but I think there is a little bit
of I don't know, maybe a little bit of funk

(23:35):
to his release, maybe a little bit of a lower
lower release point, do you think, yeah, a little bit, yeah,
And twenty seven and two thirds innings in High A
point three three era point eight three, whip thirty one
point four, strikeout percentage eight point six percent, walk rate
swinging strike rate of sixteen point two percent. But I

(23:56):
don't know, man, just video reviewing, I don't know a
dozen guys from this system. Zegland was just kind of
a no brainer for me that I that I liked
the most is a long term potential. Maybe he gets
to the bigs. Obviously it will depend on how it
goes in the uppers. But you know, a full kit,
decent enough stuff can execute it fairly well, Like, let's
see what happens. I don't know, you Goozeglin.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, Deglin was fine. Seemed relievery to me, and in
what way? Just I felt like that, you know, they
were already using him in a reliever type of way.
He's an undrafted free agent and that is old, like right,

(24:38):
he's gonna be twenty five next year, and just sniffed
Hi a uh So, you know, I looked at him
a bit too, thinking like, oh, maybe they're just slow
playing him after long year whatever it is. Ah, maybe, But.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
I think there's there's a couple and this is obviously
just all speculation from from our seats here, but I
think there's a couple of different ways you can look
at that sort of stuff, Like he's an undrafted free agent, right,
there's with the condensing of the minor leagues, there's there's
stress and more pressure. Like the teams will have a
lot of guys that they want to get like three
hundred developmental innings too, so for an undrafted guy to

(25:16):
push guy another guy out and get those innings, that
could be a thing. The strike throw, I mean, he's
sixty nine percent a ball, sixty six percent on the year.
I don't think there's I don't think there's any execution
issues as far as can he start or not. I
think there's there's arsenal there to do it. I think
there's enough ways to attack different hitters. I'm just kind
of leaning and wondering that like this was more about

(25:38):
him just breaking through some guys that they maybe had
some bigger plans for.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, and I don't I don't disagree with that that part.
And maybe he picks up where he left off in
a full starter's workload at high A or or maybe
even up into double A, like they're going to need something.
You know, they're an interesting system as far as their arms,
even their good ones like Horton, you know, older injury.
How much is he going to pitch.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
I don't know. So I don't think there's a lot
of good ones.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Yeah, No, I don't at all like this is this
system was really tough. Even like you said, the quote
unquote pretty boy arms that are higher than our roster
percentage limits. I don't really like.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah. So again, like I'm not saying I'm not rostering,
I'm not drafting them fypds or anything like that. But
watch and you know, I think I think he's got
it in him to get to the uppers this year
and maybe have some success. And if he's doing that
at twenty five in maybe a weaker system, maybe he
gets this. Maybe maybe he has a chance. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah. Well, I mean I can't really talk in this
system because the two guys that I liked along with
Zeglin that I kind of was choosing between. If you
smushed him together, I think he got a pretty good pitcher,
but separately they both have some real issues. The two
guys that I liked were Kenton Egbert and Juan Bellow.

(26:59):
Bayo egg is also an under after free agent from
last year from twenty twenty three who didn't pitch last
year and then started sixteen games, twenty three total in
a ball the whole year, ninety seven and two thirds innings,
twenty six point five percent strike at rate, eight point
one percent walk rate. You know, decent fIF decent average suppression.

(27:22):
The issue was like, he's a funky, long levered guy
with a good fastball. Like this fastball looks like it plays,
it's he looks like he's got a little bit lower
release point but good extension. It runs, it rides, and
hitters really seemed to struggle with his fastball. But all
of his OSCR pitches I didn't really like. I don't

(27:44):
think any of them was all that good. Seeing him
with the like try and get guys out, like I mean,
decent strikeout rate, but a lot of it was on
fastballs up that a ball hitters couldn't really hang, and
he took advantage of that. And he's twenty two already
in low A for the whole year. Like again, he's
probably behind some guys organizationally, but he did enough to

(28:05):
meet for me that I'm like, oh, that's an interesting
ish guy, and he has a fast ball that I
think is interesting. And the other guy, the guy that
I'm actually gonna choose, I don't even feel good about it.
Is Juan Bao Bao great offspeed. I thought his slider
was good, movement profile really got guys all flummoxed, lefties, righties.

(28:26):
I thought it was good. His curveball might have been
even better. And he runs them in different velocity bands,
so they're like clearly separate. And when he was throwing
his off speed, guys really struggled to make contact and
to hit the ball hard. But his fastball is eighty
eight and it's not a like eighty eight with that,
you know, I would defend you know what I mean,
Like it's it's an eighty eight that's not getting whiffs,

(28:47):
it's an eighty eight that's not getting grounders. No, no,
not at all, or a red van scooter or a
bunch of these other guys that we've like, I think
eighty eight mile on air, Isaac Coffee and those kinds
of fast can play when they're unique, when they have
some funky traits to them. BeOS is not that. So
like if you paired Kent and Egbert's fastball with Jean

(29:09):
Beo's offspeed, that might be an interesting picture. Unfortunately, there
are two different guys, and I'm gonna go with the
one that spins it a bit. I don't feel good
about it, though, and I really can't recommend either of
these guys that much.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
We've talked about you talk about K minus BB percentage, right, Yep,
you're familiar. You know. Do you know who Kyle Bland
is pictureless?

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, I been wanting to mention this for what four
episodes now, and I'm finally remembering too. But I was
watching he and h forgive me, I don't remember who
the other two folks were, but Pittreless he was just
kind of talking about and I think maybe unveiling his
projections for this upcoming season. I like Kyle because, of course,

(29:51):
he's like a really smart numbers guy. I mean, he's
like inventing metrics and stuff, right, it has tons of
good information. But what I like about him is that
he's really smart on that of things, but he also
like contextualizes it and like makes it makes sense with baseball,
and it hasn't been like baseball mine too. You know,
I'm gonna paraphrase and summarize yere, but long story short,
he's talking about different metrics numbers and how he's including

(30:13):
different things and his projections and maybe some other people
aren't blah blah and all this stuff right, But then
he also is like, but like, still K minus BB
percentage might really just be more predictive than any of
this as as simple you might think it is or whatever, Like,
it really is one of the best predictive metrics out there,

(30:34):
per Kyle Bland. And if he says that, I believe
that Nico Zeglin K minus BB percentage this year twenty
nine point one percent.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
That's pre period.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, but anywhoo, I thought you'd maybe like hearing that's
from from Kyle Bland.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Yeah. Nice when smart people agree with you. You know, I'm
a big fan of K minus BB. And if a
guy with great stuff isn't doing great on the K
minus BB, I question and how good that stuff actually is.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, So talking to aliens is out of bounds.
But you like playing lego man with two different pitching
prospects and trying to put them together. That's that's okay.
You can do that.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Now. Listen, if you're alien congressional aliens, we know how
to do that. If you're if your alien congressional hearings,
tell me that we can recreate one Bao and and
uh Kent and Egbert in the aggregate. I like, now
we're talking. Now you've got my attention.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
So BeO is your official pick? Right? Yeah, all right,
so we got we got the Cubs out of the way.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
He's like, that's a bottom three b side them for me.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Like, it's okay, fair enough, Matt the Saint Louis Cardinals.
I gotta say, I don't know Matt as a whole.
Just looking at these raster percentages. I wasn't like super
into a bunch of dudes on either side. Yeah, I
don't know the bat that I landed on. This is
a little bit different for me. But I'm gonna go
with Ian Patrus, first year player, guy from Alabama when

(32:04):
but he was rostered in zero percent of leagues in September.
But I know he's getting a little bit of attention
a little bit, folks. I think given Beck was kind
of interested in him.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Curious hat a hell of a debut, right, Like, that's
one of the loudest debuts.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
He did twenty eight games after the draft, all in
a ball one hundred and fifteen played appearances, no home runs,
five stolen bases, pots caught once walked fifteen percent of
the time, struck out only eight percent of the time
three forty four, forty two four thirty three point zero
eight nine ISO three eighty eight babip ground ball percentage

(32:40):
of fifty two point five percent. Curious way smart people
were interested, turned them on and watched him. He's left handed,
corner outfield type. I don't know. He's listed at six
foot I bet you he's not six foot tall, but
a little strong, you know, looking what is he now?
He's twenty not twenty one years old, or at least
he was this last season, But I got I wasn't

(33:00):
like super impressed. Man. I don't like I don't like
the swing. It just seems like a worm burner, really
kind of geared towards hitting ground balls. I think part
of the reason why you don't see the slug or
the ISO there or any home runs. I guess he
had a couple of hard hit balls. A one hundred
and ten one hundred and ten mile per hour single
on ground ball, one hundred and eight mile per hour

(33:21):
sharp line drive, one hundred and six mile per hour
line drive, one hundred and four mile per hour ground ball.
There's not loft in this swing. Now, there was a
guy that we talked about last year, Richie Pealacios, who
was I think very much kind of a ground ball hitter.
I think the Cardinal's unlocked and may have helped him
get some more loft in his swing or change that

(33:41):
up some. I don't not saying that every Cardinal hitter
now will be able to do that or they'll do
that with him. But Patruce is probably bottom five six
bat for me this year, and I kind of just
didn't really like anybody else. But I'm like, hey, this
guy's already getting a little popular. Like maybe I'll just
kind of be a lame out and throw him out.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Well that sounds pretty lame of you. Yeah, No, I
I tend to agree. I watched a bit of Pertrus
as well and think that he does have some swing
loft issues, but good contact and that's interesting to me.
And yeah, maybe there's walk.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I don't even walk twice as much as he's struck out.
You know, from Alabama to a ball, it's not everybody's
doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So like, you know, maybe
there's maybe maybe there's something here. I don't know, he's
what they've they popped him in the twelfth round right
for two hundred and fifty K. So yeah, I don't know.
The imp Patrus probably my waynst pick of the year.

(34:36):
What do you got?

Speaker 3 (34:37):
I you know, the Cards system is interesting in that
a lot of their dudes are are either in the
BIGS or have been, so, you know, their Triple A affiliate.
It's awesome. I don't know, Like when I flipped through
him watching it, like that's a stacked International league lineup
when they're rolling out there with Walker, Gorman, Luke and Baker,

(34:58):
like that's that's a bunch of big league quality hitters
in there. Victor Scott two for a lot of the year.
But there's not a lot of like really exciting even
pretty boy names. Farther down the list for me in
the card system, a couple guys we've talked about before,
Nathan Church and says our Preeto both are this like

(35:19):
slappy contact forward, some speed profile that the Cardinals seem
to really like. Brian Torres was another one that's kind
of an older guy that is very slappy, stole a
bunch of basses, but barely hit extra base hits. I
guess he legged out a bunch of doubles. But guy
had two homers in five hundred and twenty eight play

(35:39):
appearances this year, and all three of those guys like,
that's a fun profile. I like contact guys, think each
of them brings something to the table. But I wasn't. Yeah,
I couldn't quite bring myself to pick another light, small
slap hitting guy. So I went with Matt Caperniac. You
watch a bunch of Coperniac this year.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I'm familiar. He was definitely a guy that I've watched
the last few years. He uh was just added to
the forty man too.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
He was, and I was encouraged to see that I
had picked him before I'd seen that. But I had
a guess that he might be just given both his level,
you know, he was up in Triple A all year,
led the International League in hits this year. Undrafted free
agent from twenty twenty, but really worked his way through
the system and mostly performed really well. Like the only

(36:29):
couple of times he didn't immediately settle in as an
above average bat was his first stint in a Double
A in twenty twenty one, when he ran a ninety
four WRC plus, and his first stint at triple A
in twenty twenty three when he ran a ninety seven
WRC plus. So like, the guy's a good hitter everywhere
he goes, Gonna be twenty seven next year. Probably is

(36:51):
like injury insurance for some of their outfield in Saint
Louis is my guests. But as I mentioned, he led
the International League in hits. He has kind of a funky,
flat swing, but he still has enough juice in there
to leave the yard to the opposite field. He popped
twenty homers this year, stole five bags, and I think

(37:12):
that that's probably right. He steals have never really been
a part of his game. He's kind of hovered in
the high single digits for the most part in stops
in the minor leagues. So not a burner by any means,
but controls the strike zone well enough. You know, never
has had high strikeout rates. Again, you watch him swing
and you kind of see why. It's a flatish swing.
He's definitely gearing up for contact. Has always run decent

(37:36):
walk rates. This year was more league average ish, but
still that's solid when you've got twenty homers in the
bat there maca prettyek to me, is just like reminds
me a little of Matt Krun last year when I
was talking about guy who toiled in the minor leagues
for a decent while. Has kind of an interesting story.
He played for Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic

(37:56):
last year. Because he was born in the UK, I
think American family, I think military family maybe, But he
went to a small school, undrafted free agent and then
has basically just done nothing but hit and do pretty
well and plays all three outfield positions. Seems like a
passable centerfielder without being exceptional to me, but can definitely

(38:18):
play the corners. And yeah, Matt Caperniac. I liked enough
about the overall shape of his production that that seems
like a big leaguer to me. And Steamer projects him
as a ninety three WRC plus coming into the year,
which is fine. You know, you don't really want to
see that in left field or right field, and if
he's playing center field for your team, it's probably not

(38:38):
what you want to see. But as a serviceable backup
that maybe he gets some run, maybe he does a
touch better than that, I could see that playing. So
Matt Caperniac is my B side pick and I don't
feel awful about it. He's somebody that I might look
for in some of my thirties where I need a
bench insurance outfielder kind of thing, and he's free. He's

(38:58):
zero percent.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
When I look, I dozed off. There were you talking
about Matt Coperniac. Yeah, I'm just kidding. He's just boring
that boring profile.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Ye, boring guys who hit above average at every stop
along the way and hummers and we'll stand back.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
He probably better, probably better call the mind. Mine was
lame and yours is boring. But yeah, probably got a
big lead shot coming. Otherwise they wouldn't adden to the forties.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
So that was my thinking.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're probably smarter there than me. All right,
who you got for a Cardinal arm here? Who'd you
go with? Last year? I don't remember.

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Ian Bedell was my last year and he was okay. Yeah,
some of the stuff took a little step back. I
thought I wasn't quite as good. I still like him,
and as you know, he's a Cardinals kind of depth
arm where the strikeouts aren't going to be there, but
he doesn't walk a ton, and I think the deal
was still was Legit wasn't as cool.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
As wasn't as cool as mine, But yeah, not a
bad pick.

Speaker 3 (39:55):
I'm fine not being cool. So there were two arms
that I really liked in this system.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
This is a loaded This is kind of a loaded
bitching farm.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
I think there's some fun guys in here. I don't know.
I don't know who you ended up with, but there
were quite a few that I looked at as like, oh,
that sort of an interesting guy, and there's something there.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Well, I don't, I don't necessarily, I'm not just more
like on the pretty boy side, like tink Kent's forty
one percent, Quinn Matthews thirty percent, Roby twenty one percent,
Duerpe nineteen percent.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Give me Matthews over any of those three any day.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Greevy nineteen percent, Grousepo fifteen percent, Robert seven percent, Clough
and Stein is six percent. My guy from last year, Lynn,
he's up to three percent. Yeah, there's a several two
percent guys that were like in the lowers that are
interesting to me. But yeah, a big difference from a
year ago. I think when we bruise this system.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
I agree with that, and that, like, like you said,
there's a bunch of guys in there that are quite
interesting personally set like kind of settled in on two
that you know, check me if I'm if I'm off here,
because maybe one of them is a little more owned
than is our usual rate. But the first one that
I'll talk about is Juan Salas. You watch Solace this year?

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yep, he was zero percent in September.

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Okay, So Solace is super fun. I love the huge
leg kick that he's got. Have you seen that thing?

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yep? He was definitely on my short list of three
or four here, but.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah, super fun leg kick. I thought his spa speed
were really, really good. He had a great year a
ball for the whole year, twenty two starts one hundred
and what eleven innings, one hundred and thirteen innings, struck
out one hundred and nineteen, walked only five point five percent.
Like this guy goes after hitters, he really pounds the zone.

(41:45):
He knows how to pitch. I like all of those things.
My one issue for him is that his fastball was fine,
but I kind of it's not like an elite angle
or anything, and it's I think tops out at ninety four,
so bordering on playable for alrighty, And I really like

(42:06):
his changeup. His change up is super fun, threw it
a lot, threw it in fun counts, and his curveball
was as better of the breakers in my looks. I
don't know if you felt that way as well. I
thought he commanded that one pretty well and could get
some whips with his curve. His slider was pretty mech
to me. I don't know if you felt that way too,
but that was the one that seemed like it had

(42:28):
room for improvement. I almost wonder if he turned that
into a bit more of a cutter, like, threw it
a little harder, if he might have some more success.
But one salce was super fun. I liked him a lot,
and if if it wasn't for this other guy, I
think I would have been pretty happy taking one sauce
like I would have taken nim over. I think any
picture we've talked about so far.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
You know I love young Mexican arms and Unsallas is
that I think ultimately for me with him, it feels
like a lot of the same from past, like young
Mexican Arms that I liked that. I just don't know
if the stuff is going to be enough. And yeah,
I hear that. I feel like I want to bet
on him getting better.

Speaker 3 (43:06):
I hear that for sure, And you know, as a
twenty one year old in a ball it was it
was a really good year, you know. But still that's
a twenty one percent came min as b B, which
is more quite good. And especially at a ball like
you know, you want to see maybe a touch better
or see that at an advance level like double A
or triple A this.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Day and age, you never know. Man. So there's a
guy that we're going to talk about later than unbelievable
jumps and just stuff this year.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
So I'm interested to hear hear that one the guy
that I'm that I want to pick here, and you
tell me if I'm off on my percentages. He was
zero percent when I looked, But Darlin Saladein.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
He was he was two percent, and oh.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
Daggers, Daggers. Well, maybe I have to check down to
Solace for my pick. But Saladin, Saladin was really exciting
to me. I liked him quite a lot. The fastball
has major league looking traits. To me, this is a
Rule five eligible guy. I'm curious if somebody might try
and pop him. He spent about half the year at

(44:05):
low A and halfier at high so I'm thinking maybe
they'll sneak him pass. And the other knock on Saladin
is that he's a little shorter. I think he's like
five ten maybe. But the fastball looked playable to me,
and that is always a good place to start. There's
a curve that he really likes, and he goes to
a lot which I also quite liked, and then a

(44:26):
slider or a cutter. I couldn't really tell. It kind
of a harder breaker that I didn't see a ton
of positive things out of, Like I thought it was
like maybe below average at getting whiffs for a cutter
slider thing. But then in an occasional change that I
thought he could use more because it seemed like it
played like he kept it below the zone one at
that in particularly that I'm recalling where it was a

(44:47):
three to two changeup that he shook two and dotted
it just below the zone and got a whiff for
the strikeout, which I thought was really nice. And I
also liked his motion, like there's good flow to it's
like easy. Everything about it is kind of easy and whippy.
This isn't a smash the button go by this guy,
Go try and acquire him. But I really liked what

(45:09):
I saw. And you know, along these DSL guys that
take a little bit to get going as arms, you know,
he just doesn't have a ton of innings under his belt.
He threw one hundred and twenty some innings and that
like almost tripled his previous career high in the minor leagues,
and he's still just at HI. Maybe someone tries to
scoop him and stuffs him in a pen because they

(45:31):
think he can be a reliever for a year or whatever.
But I think he'll probably pass through the rule five
pretty comfortably and get another year and see what he
can do with the mid to uppers for Saint Louis.
But Darlin Saladin is my guy for the cards.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Pipeline had him fourteenth the last time I looked at
other lists in their system. I like that call. I
decided to go with another teenage armed Matt small sample
look young infante. I don't know if you watch any
of his well, he got in a total of thirteen
point one innings thirteen and a third innings in a

(46:09):
ball and not all that was broadcast. I'm not even
sure exactly. Maybe half of those I watched, but he
was nineteen this year, righty listed at six ' three
from the Dominican his thirteen innings. I don't know, what
do you do? It only struck out nineteen percent, twenty percent,
struck out twenty eight percent in the complex, walked eleven

(46:31):
and a half percent. Don't love that. Three strikes at
fifty nine percent in a ball, but seventy percent on
seventy percent on the complex. Small sample size, Matt, small
sample size. This is UH turning on some video and
getting a little bit on the edge of your seat,
a little bit more excited than anybody else I watched
down at this roster percentage. Well, he's a writing, he's

(46:51):
got a little a little drop and drive a little
bit lower release. I think to him maybe a little
bit of an oddity to his whole delivery there. According
to Savant, through four seamer sinker those what average about
ninety three. But you see there's also something that touched
ninety six. Ninety seven. Curveball was his most thrown secondary

(47:14):
through that seventeen percent of the time. Again, this is
this is a pretty small sample size. So there's a
change up and there's a slider and I kind of
thought all of the secondary the fastballs, all of the secondaries,
and my little watch is like, especially for a teenager,
seemed to be executed fairly decently. I thought like he was,
he was pitching him mixing and I don't just really

(47:34):
really caught me, really kind of impressed me for a kid.
Last year, I went with a guy just kind of
based on stuff and when that worked out, all right,
I guess maybe not quite as much velocity here. I
don't think he's touching one hundred, but I don't think
that this kid has fully grown here. And yeah, I
don't know, man, there could be a real starter year.
I think there's plenty, plenty of time to let this develop.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
I like that change up you shared, that was thanks. Yeah,
he turned it over pretty well.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, there's a couple of the breakers looking real nasty
at times. Like I don't know, man, I was just
I was into it six innings or whatever the hell
it was. Got to be interested in what teenagers they
decide to pull up and give some aall a ball.
It looks too.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yeah, fun little dice roll there. That's not when I
watched Antio, So.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
I guess it's max fastball on the Savant was ninety
six points three or whatever that's worth. Yeah, that'll play.
You can live up there.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
I sure can't throw that hard.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
It's just always kind of interesting you watch some of
these international teenagers come up and you're like, and then
you get to you know, you get the juxtaposition. You
get to look at I don't know, Ben Kundro when
he was a teenager, you know, his first pro season,
or Maddox Brounze or somebody like that, and you're just like, dude,
this this kid that they signed for twenty k or
whatever is like way better right now. So you know,

(48:51):
if they were in the draft sort of thing, where
would they get drafted? I don't know, but I was
into this. Nice let's go to the Pirates Mac because
the Pirates have the guy that I'm most into tonight.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Ooh interesting, okay, but I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
I'm gonna let you go first. Let's go Pirates' Bats.
I'll let you go first though.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
For the bats I, I don't know if we we
mentioned him before, but Sammy Siani Sioni is not my choice,
but like, I think this guy is likely to get
taken in the Rule five because he seems like he
can really play center field. His brother is a good
center fielder in the card system, Mike, and they're you know,

(49:30):
he didn't hit great at Double A this year, but
he was really good at high A to start the year,
and that got me intrigued enough I kind of followed
him a little bit throughout the year. He's another one
that I think is, you know, maybe a twelve homer
bat in the BIGS, but like could have thirty some
steals and play really good center field. Still some production,
but I could see him getting popped. The guy I

(49:51):
am gonna pick is someone else that I mentioned a
little while back, Nick Simeo, Yeah, Samilo Samo You and
I talked about him when I meant that he was
having just a hell of a power run down in
High Greenville, Greensboro, Greensboroboro, and in Greensboro. As you noted,

(50:12):
they have a higher park factor anyway, especially for or
especially for rightis, and that's worth noting. You know, overall
it's like a slightly above average for hitters, but for
righty's and especially for homers, it's it's quite high. And
he was taking advantage of that. Right he was lifting
and pulling.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
If you're hitting them the dead center there though I
think it's legit.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
But see, that's the thing is he was doing that
as well. What did I We were talking about somebody earlier, Escobar,
I think for the Cubs, and I was skeptical of
his homer and a flyball rate, and I was like,
twenty three percent. Smeo had a thirty four point seven
homer to flyball rate at Greensboro this year. So yeah,
he probably didn't earn all of those homers, but the

(50:56):
dude mashed seventeen of them two hundred and twenty played appearances.
Seventeen and in two hundred and twenty played appearances is nutty. Now,
of course, I'm not saying he's like the next coming
of Joey Gallo or whatever, but there's real power here.
You know. He's a big right right first base Mnata Rutgers.
He's going to be twenty five this upcoming year and

(51:19):
was more league average at a double A than really
great and that should give you, I should give you
some pause. Al Tuna's like a pretty neutral park, so
you can't blame a ton of it on the park.
I watched a lot of his double A games there
for the curve. And the thing that I like about
him that kind of sets him apart from some of

(51:40):
the other right right kind of first baseman that you
see around the minor leagues is I think his contact
skills have actually improved as he's gone up levels. His
swinging strike rate has gone down. He's I think, doing
a pretty good job controlling the zone, walks in above
average amount. And while Steamer is still skeptical of his

(52:01):
strikeout rate, like project him as a slightly worse than
average strikeout rate guy, and with the can I just
okay OBP and power, I think there might be a
tick better contact skills there than you see. I've seen
him adjust pretty well. There was a really good at
bad I saw late in the season in Double A,
and he missed a slider like one one to go

(52:23):
to a one two count like down and away, good pitch,
and he swung and missed, and previously in that bat
swung and miss at a fastball kind of up middle,
but he adjusted, fouled off like four pitches, couple of sliders,
couple of fastballs, and then Pitcher missed his spot and
dude hit a nuke to center field like in Altuna
like deep and has like that's just a really good

(52:46):
at bat and I think demonstrated some of the Like
you know, he ran an eight point five percent swinging
strike rate in double A over you know, one hundred
and eighty five played appearances, Like that's a decent sample
for your swinging strike rate and that's plus and this
guy also plus power, Like is he a forty homer
bat like he was showing in Greensboro? No, but could
he be thirty and could the strikeout rate help him

(53:08):
get to that? Maybe he also was a flyball dude,
which you know, I love for these power guys, Like
he's going to get to his power and that didn't
show up a ton in Altuna, but again it wasn't
a huge sample size for the kind of home and
a flyball rate to stabilize. So I think he's going
to be a guy that is a corner masher and
has has a real shot to be like a first

(53:30):
baseman for the Pirates for a decent amount of time.
Maybe not next year, but soon. You know, he's a
really interesting corner power bat.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
To me, who is this who is this version of
the Roough just loving on so many right handed first
Basemen tonight.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Yeah, it's just like that's you know, nobody else interesting
in these systems, right, Well, I am.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I don't't lie. I'm thrilled that you did not pick
my guy because I thought for sure you were going
to and I knew that you'd liked some Millo to
some degree. But I'm going with a guy that you
brought up this year, young eighteen year old Xio Plaz.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Yeah. Platz is a great pick.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
I love him, dude. And I was trying to not
pick any catchers this year, but I had I had
to make this, make this call here, my man hits
the ball hard, dude. Yeah, how this is probably a
top ten guy for me. Maybe who I guy for
the draft, I don't know. We'll see Rastered in September.

(54:29):
Not on Pipeline's list. Last I saw Catcher. I think
he did play a little bit of first base, right handed.
Listed at five to eleven. I don't know if he's
quite that tall from.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
VENEZUELA little fire hydrant guy.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Eight games in the complex
this year. I don't know if that was rehab stuff
for something. I don't know. Most of the year in
a ball seventy six games, two hundred and eighty one
played appearances. My man hit fifteen home runs. I swept
the baby. He's not going to be stealing bases, walked
eleven percent of the time. I'd strike out twenty nine

(55:01):
percent of the time. Don't love to see that two
seven three two four thirty eight slash two thirty one iso,
and he ran a two thirty five babbit which was
good enough for a one tow eight WRC plus hits
it on the ground less than thirty five percent of
the time, pulled the ball forty percent of the time.
But mat to me, it's the compact, quick, powerful swing, dude.

(55:23):
I pulled up his hardest hit balls this year. It's
not necessarily the mile per hours that I like, but
the results right. One hundred and twelve and a half
mount so one hundred and thirteen off the bat home
run was his hardest hit ball the year. One hundred
and twelve. It was a ground out. One hundred and
eleven was a double on a sharp line drive. One

(55:44):
hundred and eleven line out, one hundred and eleven home run,
one hundred and eleven line drive, one hundred and eleven
line drive, one hundred and ten home run, his top
what would be his ninetieth percentile one ball hit on
the ground. He's hitting it hard and it's hardest hit
balls are in the air. Obviously, catcher this young. Fantasy wise,

(56:07):
I get hesitancy there. I get a guy who's striking
out almost thirty percent. But mind you two, he's eighteen
and this is what like a little over half of
a season. Yeah, a ball like, I don't know, there's
enough fump in this bat for him to be way
more exciting to me than anybody else. Zero one percent
with the Pirates.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
Yeah, you know, I'm a fan, and I think you
nailed it. There's power, there's some patience, he gets the
ball in the air. He's pretty fun.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Yeah, I was surprised you didn't take him, man, And
I'll be dropping videos of my picks here on Twitter
at pitching Specs so you can see what maybe some
of the stuff that we're talking about here. But yeah,
I was surprised. It just a strikeouts or you just
like Samilo that much and us further along.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
I mean, it's the strikeouts, and I think ended up
sort of being kind of similar profile, right like that,
I think Samila hits the ball harder and strikes out
less at a higher level, Like you know, give me
that reduction and risk. And I still haven't forgotten Plause
for tricking me with his stupid DSL good numbers when
I was going to take Bisio instead of him, and

(57:12):
I took Plause and then two picks later Bisio goes.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
So maybe still there's history there.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
Yeah, I think I mentioned that on the pot at
one point, but I still have some hidden resentment towards Axial.
But no, I think that's interesting. And like you mentioned
this guy at eighteen, Yeah, that's you could see some
progression here in a way that a lot of the
guys we talked about. It's tough to do that, but yeah,
he's got some stuff to like for sure.

Speaker 2 (57:38):
It's kind of fun to think about if he had
played the whole season in the FSL with his home
run total might have been because yeah, fifteen and seventy
six FSL games is pretty freaking unheard of. What was it?
I think the league leader was what twenty nineteen? If
that so impressive power stuff there in my opinion. Yeah,

(58:00):
with the Pirates arm Farm Matt pretty pretty right.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Oh my god, this system is fucking stacked arms.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Yeah, I'm just stucking at the top. Obviously, Skiings he's
not a prospect anymore. But Bubba Chandler thirty eight percent,
Cela medow Is twenty three percent, Braxton Ashcraft was eighteen,
Thomas Harritt Harrington eighteen, Hunter Barcos seven, Xander Moomouth six,
Mike Burrows, who I'm a big fan of, six percent,
Carlson Reid four percent, Michael Kennedy two percent, Josh Hartle,

(58:33):
who's the first year player guy right two percent.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
Was four percent. That's a bummer because I want to
talk about him.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
And then I got to say and then you know
my guy from last year, Erkulani, No, I still have
some interest in him. But there was a know, I
got four or five guys that were, you know, on
my short list here with the Pirates. But if you're
a Pirates fan, I think you got to feel pretty
good about what they've been doing with some arms the
last several years.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
Yeah, and these are these are pretty boys that I
think are actually really good, you know, with Tayler, Braxton Ashcraft,
Thomas Harrington, Mike Burrows, Carlson Reedal. I'll talk a bit
about like Salomatto. I think all of those guys are
the real deal. Hunter Barco, it really impressed me this year.
I was a bit skeptical, but he thought was pretty
good this year too. This arm farm they got going

(59:20):
here in Pittsburgh is really exciting. And you know, if
i'm them, I'm probably trading a few of these guys
to try and bolster their hitters because they're missing some
pieces on the hitting side. But they, I think pretty
quickly are going to have a rotation that can compete
with freaking anybody. I mean, this is this is a
good crop. Let me let me talk about Carlson read
a bit because he was a new new one to

(59:41):
me in diving into the system. And when I looked,
I think he was one percent, but again I looked
kind of late. This He is fun. I mean he's tall,
six or four, lanky, long arms, long legs, gets down
the mound. He's got a sinker, a slider, and a split.
And I think when I was reading up on him

(01:00:04):
doing some background, he mostly had been a reliever and
people thought he was going to be a reliever, but
Pittsburgh popped him in the fourth and we're like, we're
gonna out of West Virginia, I think, and he's like,
we're gonna try and make you a starter. But maybe
Baseball America or somebody was like exciting stuff up to
ninety nine. But it's two pitches, and really one of
those isn't very good. I don't think that's true at all.

(01:00:25):
It's a nasty sinker. He will throw a four seamer
as well. The slider is really good and he'll go
to it a lot. And then the split was nasty,
and that's new, I think. I don't think he had
had that before. But it's pretty good. The one knock

(01:00:45):
on him is that the walks trended a little higher
than I like, you know, approaching that kind of twelve
percent mark. That's really my no go. But there were
a lot of outings where it was like one or
two walks, and so I'm it seems like when he's
got it, it works really well. His arm swing is
a little long for my liking, like he gets kind
of behind himself, and I think that that might be

(01:01:07):
why he can sometimes lose it. But the pure stuff
and execution of that stuff is up there for among
the best arms in the system. Like I'll put him
right up there against Solometto and Ashcraft and you know,
maybe a half step behind Chandler for like stuff. And
he's twenty one, gonna be twenty two. Made it up

(01:01:27):
to double A this was this was like, I guess
he made it up to high. Maybe he didn't quite
make the double, but he was so exciting to me.
I loved my watches of him, and I think he's
he's a really fun one. But I'm going to try
and get some shares of soon.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
I think I was watching him a little bit this season,
but yeah, not a guy that I was like super
tuned in on.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
But yeah, I got just super super jazz when when
I was watching him, and I was just like, dude,
why is nobody talking about him? But you know, I
guess if he's four percent like some people are, some
people are in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
So yeah, would you go with?

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Well, I decided to go with Dominic s Paracchi.

Speaker 2 (01:02:02):
Coach guy.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Yea nice, Yeah, yeah I'll do I'll do the short version.
You can dive a little deeper. Like my TLDR on
him is that he is a solid lefty with a
really nice slider fastball combo, and I think there might
be room for some additional growth in here. But I
liked a lot of what he did. You know, he's

(01:02:25):
a small college guy, late round pick. This is like
our fodder year for B sides. But the walks ticked
up a bit when he got up to double A,
but I think the skills were still there and it
was just a bit of a blip. And his era
balloons too. But he's one that I think a savvy
Dynasty person might target as a throw in in some trades,
and that might be profitable really soon, as like a pitchability,

(01:02:48):
solid stuff lefty that has a chance to be in
a back end of a rotation. So I liked him
quite a lot. I don't know, what did you like
about Paracchi.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Yeah, so Paraci got my attention this year when he
was in Greensboro, because I mean, dude, he was fucking
dominating there. He was dominating in greens Yeah, yeah, striking
out twenty eight point two percent, walking six point six
eer just over to a whip under one. But dude,
the most impressive thing that he did there was zero
home runs, not a one, not a one in Greensboro.

(01:03:19):
That's that's pretty phenomenal. So he got my to I
actually picked him up in a few spots, but then
you know, promotion came to double A where he got
in ten games, eight starts, forty one innings and kind
of I mean, I don't know, cliche, but guy's doing
really well in low A in the lowers, right, But like,
is this stuff good enough to play in the uppers, right?

(01:03:39):
That's a huge question, and I think Paracchi just kind
of fell victim to that. You look at his arsenal,
it's a low nineties fastball, right, a low eighties slider,
mid eighties change, and I think all, like you said,
there's a curve ball in there too, But I think
all of it's just like bit and bit lacking a
bit vanilla. I don't know if he was necessarily like

(01:04:00):
executing his pitches any worse or anything like that. From yeah,
I didn't think so, no, no, no, I think it's
just like really kind of a matter of like this
new level, your stuff needs to be a little bit better.
So that's my that's my hope with him. I like
I like the frame six ' three, I like delivery,
I'm sorry, six four, like all that stuff. I like
him as a picture, but it's I think it's just

(01:04:21):
gonna require an uptick in Arsenal to really kind of
take off and be good and be a more legit
major league candidate. But again, Matt, like, I don't mind
thinking that needs to happen with guys, because it happens
with a lot of guys these days.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
And so much of the underlying things that he does
are there already in my opinion, so that if the
stuff does tick up a hair, now you're really like,
it's it's a super exciting guy. So probably I'm I'm
with you on I think that's a good guy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Yeah, Yeah, I think it's definitely a I don't raster
him anymore in my leagues, but uh, you know, if
it comes out on a ball he's got i don't know,
another tick on the fas a sliders firm, or maybe
he's throwing more of like a cutter thing or something whatever,
if anything's taken up a little bit, looking a little
bit more tougher on hitters in double A, like, I'm
gonna be quite interested. But yeah, Dominic Paracci, I probably

(01:05:10):
in all my NL Central arms, man, I just kind
of loosely kind of ranked them them all, and they're
all my NL Central guys are just like all clumped
up together. I don't know if there's anyone that I'm
talking about tonight that I love significantly or like significantly
more than any of the others on the arm side.

Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
Ooh, I'm interested to see these last couple that we
talked about then, because there's yeah, I'm telling you, there's
one guy I think is so good.

Speaker 2 (01:05:35):
Another note on Paracchi. One thing I noticed watching him.
I'd be curious what Connor would maybe think about about this,
But like he is kind of a fiery guy, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
Like that, yeah, yeah, and he would have.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Especially down in Greensboro, he'd have some just dominant stretches
right where he strikes out like five out of six
batters or whatever, right, get real pumped up about that.
And he was like, I like, I wonder, I wonder
about sort of like his psychology up there, because it
seemed like it didn't happen often in Greensboro, but when
things started to not really go his way, maybe there

(01:06:09):
was a ground ball that got through or bloop single
or something like that. Like I kind of felt like
he like just kind of lost his moxy a little bit,
and like that stuff kind of kind of bothered him
and things started to like snowball on him in that way.
I don't know, There's there's a few times where I
was just like, well, well just just slow down, man,
You got like a you got like another couple of innings.
You got to finish this thing off. And I thought
it was interesting because I think there were times where

(01:06:31):
his velocity was like ticking up a little bit, maybe
the fourth inning and stuff like that, and I'm like, well,
that's interesting. But at the same time, I felt like
he was weaker production wise and didn't pitch quite as
well later in some of his starts.

Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
But well, as we like to preach, you know, velocity
is and everything you hear that you stuff Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
For sure, for sure. But yeah, needless to say, I'm
interested there. Let's move on to the Reds, Matt. There
might not be a difference between one side versus like,
I'm not very I'm not very keen on my bat here,
but I am really interested in my arm. So I
want to start there. Okay, young Jose Montero, are you familiar?

(01:07:12):
No right hander six ' two strong too, like dud
Dude's got some muscle. These Venezuelan zero percent roster spent
the whole season Florida State League twenty five games, sixteen starts,
ninety six innings, three four seven ERA, A one point
three eight whip, a K percentage of twenty one point

(01:07:32):
seven percent, a walk percentage of eleven percent, which you know,
neither of those are super appealing. Swinging strike grade of
thirteen point one percent, three strikes at sixty two percent.
But Matt, I went back and I watched some Montero
from last season, and this is the guy who's fastball

(01:07:53):
went from like eighty eight eighty seven to like maybe
touching ninety to mid nineties on the regular this year.
Oh interesting, Yeah, he added a lot of velocity there.
I think the changeup was looking pretty freaking nasty, and
I don't even think he was I don't even know
if he was throwing one last year.

Speaker 3 (01:08:14):
He's got things looked really good in this video that
you shared.

Speaker 2 (01:08:17):
Yeah, right, he's got a firm hiaties slider, that commanding.
That might be his biggest weakness right now. I really
think there is an MLB caliber like tool set here.
And what's interesting, like with the walks, is that they
weren't a problem last couple of seasons and they really
ticked up this year. I'm kind of wondering, just this

(01:08:39):
guy's got a lot more juicier stuff that he's working with.
Maybe some calibration hopefully that's that's the reason why the
walks were higher. But there were some looks, there were
some outings that I was just like, now, this is
like a good developmental sort of like case study for
the Reds here and this guy has really ticked up.

(01:09:00):
What are they gonna do with this guy?

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Yeah, like the ground ball tendency too, That's that's somewhat interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
He was doing, you know, kind of maybe some piggyback
and stuff. I don't know. He pitched, he went five
innings several times early in the season. Maybe he had
some shorter outings that he was like good in down
the stretch. Maybe his last start wasn't so great. But uh,
I was just kind of wondering if they were they
were ratching him down a little bit just pitch count wise,

(01:09:26):
and who knows. I mean, he's still just an a ball.
Maybe a little fairal relieving could very well, you know,
be the future, but he's got a starter's kit and
I don't know, man I was he might be just
a smidge more interesting to me than the other four
guys here, But like I said before, it's all pretty close.
But Jose Montero and I'm interested. I'm excited to see
what happens with his just I think across the board

(01:09:49):
improved arsenal and if you can rain that in some
might be a dude.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
Yeah interesting shout. He's not someone I watched much, but
that little video you got me get me a little
little intrigued. Yeah, right, doesn't look so bad, well my
arm I Yeah, he's another one that has some real warts,
but some other really interesting things. I'm gonna go with
Nestor Laurent. Can you watching Nestor this year?

Speaker 2 (01:10:14):
I'm familiar? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:15):
First the good. He had a top twenty five season
by k mine. It's BB minimum ninety things I think
as the minimum map, so you know, we're getting starters
kind of workload. He was like twenty third or fourth,
I think, with a twenty nine point seven percent strikeout
rate and a seven point one percent walk rate, both

(01:10:36):
quite good. The problems though, one He was twenty two
at low A this year, where he spent most of
the of the year, so that's like a little old,
you know, he got a bump. His last couple of
games were up in high but his dominating stretch in

(01:10:56):
low A was a repeat from twenty twenty three, and
he was pretty old for not like crazy old, but
definitely old for the level for that being where he
was all year. And I think the reason is because
he's another guy with eighty eight to ninety one mile
an hour fastball, and as a righty, that's tough to

(01:11:17):
see that playing. He's Rule five eligible this year again,
kind of rip and replace what I said earlier. I
don't think he's getting picked, but I do think that
he's somewhat interesting. As his change up is awesome. It
really dives off the table. It was way too much
for hitters at a ball. He ran like a seventeen

(01:11:37):
point eight percent swinging strike rate. I think largely because
he would go to his change up a lot and
it really played off of his fastball. And then he's
got a curveball that I thought was pretty good. He
would spend that one below the zone as well. Command
pretty solid too. He was throwing those pitches to different quadrants,
missing below the zone when he intended to and hiding

(01:11:58):
his fastball up in the zone when he needed to
and made it work. I think he can do that
at a ball, but I don't think there's the outlier
traits for eighty eight to ninety one to play as
he goes up higher. That's why I'm not that excited
about him. Gave up like what one homer this year,
which is pretty impressive throughout the whole year. Three over

(01:12:22):
almost one hundred innings this year, so that's that's pretty good.
But I think that's going to tick up if he's
really just sitting eighty eight to ninety one. If the
stuff does stick up tick up. Though, I really like
the rest of what he has, so I thought there
was plus to maybe double plus pitch in the change up.
The curve ball was maybe average, the fastball was just

(01:12:44):
way below average, and like off to see that working
in the huppers. But I want to see it. I
want to see him really get some run at high
A and maybe double A next year and see if
there is a real pitcher here. Otherwise it's probably just
or depth because of the fastball playability.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Yeah, I had laurent On, I don't know, final five
or six here with the Reds. For me, the breaking
ball game, I think is what I understand, the velocity stuff,
what you're saying with the fastball. But to me it
was like the breaking ball game just wasn't It kind
of turned me off.

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
But you didn't think as kurveball is any good. I
thought it was kurball was solid.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
I mean to be honest at this point, what I
watched some I don't really remember what it looks like. Yeah, yeah,
I mean watched some in September. But my note here,
my final note is fastball, change up guy. Breaking ball
game is poop. Hard to read all that stuff on
you know, just video. But we shall see. We shall
see there. I mean the Reds man their arms, they're
pretty boys there. They got some names, right, I mean

(01:13:44):
Rhet Lauder fifty seven percent, Chase Petty twenty seven percent,
former b Sadder. You only ag you are. It's thirteen
percent of using the Biggs Ty Floyd Chase Burns of course,
first year player, second pick in the draft, Connor Phillips,
Line Richardson Adams Ronowski. I thought maybe you were gonna
pick him, Matt, but he was two percent. I guess

(01:14:05):
were you talking about him?

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
I think I mentioned him before, but I'm not a
huge Serwenhowski guy.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
Okay, but they got some they got some guys hererors
all right. I was kind of at a loss when
it came to bats here, Matt, I don't know again,
So I just kind of went to my default, like
some teenage hitter that I watched him in a ball
that I was like, Hey, this guy kind of looks
good sometimes. S Smith pineda nineteen year old corner outfielder,
right handed, maybe about listed five to eleven. He's from Panama.

(01:14:31):
Four hundred and twenty seven played appearances this year, nine
home runs, nine stolen bases, walked twelve percent of the time,
struck out twenty seven percent of the time. Not great.
Slash line not great two thirteen, three, sixteen, three, forty six,
one thirty four ISO two eighty Babbitt it was a
ninety five WRC plus pulls the ball some. I felt like,

(01:14:54):
maybe though that season line I don't think represents maybe
kind of how good he was looking towards the end
of the season as the season progressed. But in the
savant sample hit a ball one hundred and ten miles
per hour off of elizer Dishmy, which was a ground out,
but I had some decent evs. I don't know, Matt,
just a young guy. I thought maybe it wasn't nothing,

(01:15:16):
that's all.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't love.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
I really struggled dude, Like.

Speaker 3 (01:15:21):
I didn't love my red choices here either. On the
bat side, you know, they've got some interesting dudes at
the top end of this system of varying degrees. You know,
Hector Rodriguez I thought had an interesting season, and I
know some people really like him, Cam Collier, Sal Stewart,
Sammy Steffera. Each of those guys is exciting in their

(01:15:44):
own way.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
They guy like confidant and who's the other guy who
hits the ball and believably fucking hard? Oh you talked
about Aril Almonte Almonte. Yeah, those two guys were just
one percent hit the ball, like, yeah, zillion miles per hour.
But I don't think they're like legit.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
No, al Monte didn't do enough this year to like
I was intrigued, but he didn't put it together. Maybe
he will next year.

Speaker 2 (01:16:08):
But my guy from last year, Ethan O'Donnell, like, I
guess he was alright for Kyle's guys stole thirty bags,
but he wasn't nearly as good as.

Speaker 3 (01:16:17):
I mean, I was just gonna I was just gonna
follow up and double tap that because I didn't like
really anybody else like and nothing really new to say here.
He wasn't as good as his short, small debut. I
was hopeful that the Reds might unlock something because Virginia
is in a great place to develop as a baseball player.
I think that's been kind of proved out over the years,
so maybe there's still some upside there. Like you said,

(01:16:40):
it's it was some bags. It was I don't know,
maybe there's an approachier, but the strikeouts ticked up, and
I don't love the profile personally, like he's pretty low
down my bat list. But no, I thought it was
a good pick by you last year, and I was
going to give you some kudos and double tap this year.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Yeah, I was. I took him in a d aft
I think like fourth or something. I've had a lot
more hope there than it kind of turned out. But yep,
you know, who knows, he's still what. He's only twenty
two two, and he'll be a double next year. We'll see,
we'll see but all right, so I'm going with uh
some loser teenager. You're going with o'donald. Yeah, all right,

(01:17:21):
let's move away. We got just one left right, just Milwaukee. Ooh,
the Brewers. All right, man, let's start. Let's do the
pitching side first. Okay, so they're pretty boys. They got
Miserowski at forty eight percent. We've talked a lot about
him and his future as a reliever. Robert Asser thirty
eight percent. Guess you're still wait is guys, you're still

(01:17:42):
with him? Okay? Uh? With Krowsky eighteen percent? Your boy
Thatch was a great call last year. Logan Henderson's at
twelve percent, Coas Rodriguez eleven percent, Josh Note eleven percent,
Casey Hunt seven percent. Who is uh you know has
definitely has his stand specially in the discord. Shane Smith
is three percent, Bishop Letson was two percent, and then

(01:18:06):
everyone else was like zero maybe two guys at one.
But who did you go with? Matt?

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Okay, this is the guy I mentioned before that this
is the most I think he's my number one beside
arm this year. There's a couple that might challenge him
for this, but like he was the one that I
was like hell, yeah, okay, Chad Patrick, I'm so in Yeah.
So he got added to the forty.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18:31):
He spent the whole year at Triple A and kind
of dominated. I mean he led the International League in
strikeouts better than everybody else. Other some other guys had
better strikeout rates and would have exceeded, like I think
Bubba Chandler was like one behind him or something and
through fewer innings. But man, Chad Patrick is real sexy

(01:18:53):
as an arm to me, it's a cutter first approach,
which I love, Like that's fun. Who wants to lead
with the fastball when you can lead with a better
pitch and it is good. He's got a four scene
with plus ride and I think a decent release point,
so I think it plays up from his like you know,
ninety four or like ninety two to five kind of

(01:19:16):
range on the four seamer, but it's like twenty four
hundred RPMs, which is plus given that velocity, and a
distinct two seamer that has a totally different shape and
he uses it differently. He uses it into righty's and
runs it away from lefties like he I mean, I
love that, Like that's three hard pitches. That he pitches
off primarily. He has three more pitches that he'll throw,

(01:19:39):
his change up, his slider, and his occasional curveball. I
think his slider is really nasty. He just doesn't really
have great command of that pitch. His command of his
other pitches is really good, but his command of his
slider is not great. But nobody fucking hits it. He's
got like a fifty percent with rate on that slider.

(01:19:59):
He just you know, sometimes has a zone rate of
like ten percent. Like I went through a bunch of
his statcast data and every game it was like ten
percent sliders. Four of them were in the zone and
two got whiffs. The other ones they spound because like
they weren't going to swing it at him. So you know,
he's he's got a really really interesting arsenal. I think

(01:20:22):
he should throw the slider more. But other than that,
I'm I'm just like, this is a big league pitcher,
and I think quite a good one. Like I could
see him slotting in as their you know, number four
or five starter and outperforming a bunch of guys in
in the major leagues as a starter, and at b
side levels of roster ownership. That's like, sound the alarm,

(01:20:43):
go get this guy. He I think is going to
be a good major league starter and not surprising that
Milwaukee just like turned you know, he has been traded twice,
has been around the league. Was a small school guy
like he's you know, Perdue University, Northway, US. What the
fuck even is I don't know, Like I watched a

(01:21:03):
bunch of.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Old videos Indiana somewhere.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
I watched a bunch of old videos of him from
college and they're like working out in like a high
school gym or something else, like he doing. But he is,
he's so good. I'm I'm way way on Patrick.

Speaker 2 (01:21:18):
I think that I didn't see that he's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
And unfortunately, in a couple of my deep leagues, he's
already rostered by the sharpest guy in our league. Like
he's this guy he's he's is so good at this
And this is a classic pickup for my buddy Pat
because he's Pat is really sharp and Chad Patrick, this
is a great, great gift for him, just last little
thing on him. So his last five starts in the

(01:21:48):
International League were against Baltimore, you know, so like a
bunch of those like baby Oh's had graduated but that
was still a pretty good lineup the Cardinals, who are
already talked about that triple A line up was quite good.
A lot of major leaguers and major league talent in there.
The Braves and the Marlins. They're they're fine whatever. The
Braves twice and the Marlins twice. And in that run,

(01:22:10):
the last five starts, he ran a thirty nine percent
strikeout rate, five percent walk rate for a one eight
eight fit. It was nasty to watch, and that included
one like kind of shaky outing against the Braves. But
he came back, you know, five days later against the
same essentially the same lineup and went sticks one hit,
one walk, eight punches against the lineup that had just

(01:22:33):
tagged him for four runs the five days before. Like,
this guy can fucking pitch and it is so nasty,
Like this guy's How was this guy not more owned?
Is my like question?

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
Right? I think he get I think he gets the
is older, Yeah a bunch for like, well, let's hey, guys,
what's his velocity?

Speaker 3 (01:22:54):
Yeah, I mean it's like ninety two to five. It's
not awful. And with the ride that he gets, like
that pad fastball is really good.

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
I don't know, the dynasty. They just kind of hate
these guys sometimes that are dominating these second hardest level.

Speaker 3 (01:23:08):
Yeah, and he was he was a fourth rounder, so
like not nothing, and multiple organizations have wanted him in trades,
so like, I don't know, he's basically been quite good
all of the minor leagues. He was fucking awesome this
year and he's you know, he's like going to be
twenty six going into next year. But Steamer loves him.
Four two three er projection from Steamer for a guy

(01:23:32):
that hasn't been in the major leagues yet, Like that
is so good. And you know some of that is
because they think he might relieve some so that usually
depressed it, like it brings down the era a bit.
But but I think I also saw you know, Sarahs
in his stuff model really liked him too. So yes, man,
I'm telling you this guy is Chad Patrick. If he

(01:23:54):
gets some run, and I'll tell you, like the Milwaukee
starting pitching, I think they're gonna have some openings. You know,
they're they got Peralta at the top, maybe woodruff shoulder is.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
They ain't gonna sign anybody, know that.

Speaker 3 (01:24:11):
They're not gonna sign anybody Tobias Myers was awesome, like
great story for him making good and he's decent volley.
I think I would prefer Patrick straight up. Aaron Ashby
hurt all the time they had him in the pen.
Maybe they're gonna start him again, Gasser hurt like he's
not probably gonna be ready for the start of the year.

(01:24:32):
And then of their you know, like their pretty boy arms,
they've got some good ones, like you know, I love
Logan Henderson, Carl Stroi, Reguez got a little bit of
run this year. Patrick is a more complete pitcher than
Henderson Henderson. I think the fastball change up combo is
is elite, but his slider still isn't quite there. And
he was obviously hurt for a decent check of last
year too. But man, that that Patrick guy so in

(01:24:56):
it is so good.

Speaker 2 (01:24:58):
Nice. He shouldn't be one percent as many thirty team
leagues that are out there and stuff like, you should
not be one percent.

Speaker 3 (01:25:05):
And I'm telling you, like, if it looks like this,
this is like a fourteen team, sixteen team, like this
is an arm that is going to be useful, you know,
like he might not be a start him every single
time out kind of guy. But it's good.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
The Brewers they really like, They really value like stuff
plus type models and the highbrow pitch characteristics types, and
I think it's kind of their efficient, maybe cost friendly
way of doing a lot of their pitch evaluation. So
I'm not surprised that the guy that I landed on

(01:25:40):
kind of fits that. I'm gonna go with Tate Coooner.
I don't know if you're familiar. He was a twenty
twenty three seventh round pick out of Louisville. He was
mostly he was mostly a reliever in college, but I
think he's on a bit of a starter track now.
Like we like lefties that might have a little bit
of a different arm angle. I think he's definitely got that.
He's kind of, I don't know, three quarters side army,

(01:26:05):
sort of more upright guy, a little different looking. He
spent last season one hundred and four total innings, thirty
five of those in double A and sixty eight of
those in HYA. His K percentage went from twenty nine
percent to twenty two percent. His walk rate is not great.
Was that twelve percent went to fourteen percent. And we

(01:26:27):
don't like that, Matt. This is not like our kind
of guy, I don't think, But dude, I think the
whole arsenal I think could be nasty as shit. He's
no excuse me from that sort of different looking fastball.
He gets that up there to the mid nineties on
the regular. It's pretty good for a lefty. He's got

(01:26:48):
a change up, He's got two different sliders, one that's
more sweepy and one that's hard and firm that seems
to be really tough on the hitters. I think there's
a lot of upside in the arsenal all Brewers. Obviously,
the strike throwing and the execution is what you want
to see and has to improve if he's going to
be a starter. But in watching him, like man, there
are stretches where I'm just like, there's no way that

(01:27:10):
this guy is walking eleven percent, like just flowing through
like Montgomery. Dude starting off the game striking well, I
guess that game. I think he started off striking out
seven of the first nine hitters. The other two were walks,
but like, dude, they were bogus walks.

Speaker 3 (01:27:26):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
I mean, I don't we don't have the greatest angle there,
but I was just like, seriously, you're calling that a ball?
Like they were a lot of close pitches, dude, and
I kind of felt like it was kind of like
that a lot. This is a guy that was just
like all over the place and it was just like
a lot of close misses. And you know, maybe still
part of the progression of going from relieving to throwing
some more innings. I don't know, but if there is

(01:27:48):
an improvement in the execution, which is something that I
don't like to bet on, I think this dude could
really take off though. And he's interesting. I don't even
think he made it on Clegg's Top fifty for the Brewers.
Oh wow, I thought was surprising. I bet you're the pitch.
The stuff plus stuff is high on this guy. Yeah,

(01:28:08):
I don't know. Tay Kooner is already in the uppers.
Let's see, let's see what happens here.

Speaker 3 (01:28:12):
No, I like I like this one, you know, even
control concerns aside. He's an interesting arm. Let's see what
the stuff does. And you know that the Brewers kind
of they're they're happy to let that stuff play out,
you know, and yeah, worry about the walks later.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
For sure, you know. Like I think I said at
the discord today talking to Maddy backpack and like, if
you got a lefty with like some unique basketball qualities
and is getting up into the mid nineties, like I'm intrigued. Yeah,
for sure, Milwaukee Brewers bats man, I'm going to uh
go back in time a few years and bring back
up and pick and select Ernesto Martinez Junior. It's a

(01:28:52):
good pick who I liked when he was an a
ball as kind of a unique profile in that he
was a big guy, a big lefty. I don't know
if he was primarily playing first base back then. I
think he might have been. But steels, bags, hits home runs,
and he can play center field, like he was actually
playing some center field this year. I don't think that's
where he like sticks. But I know the Brewers they

(01:29:15):
signed him as a minor league free agent, re signed him,
you know. And I saw a little article at that
time last offseason where they were talking about how they
still feel like there's big league upside here. I know
a lot of his development, there was a lot of
injuries early on in his career. The Brewers said, I
think for a minute now kind of struggled with the
first base position. Looking for some guys. Point is like,

(01:29:36):
I think there is a legit opportunity for this guy
to get a shot in the BIGGS. On the season
all in Double A as a twenty five year old
listed at six six, he one hundred and ten games,
four hundred and fifty seven played appearances, hit thirteen home runs,
stole twenty bags, got caught five times, and I saw him.

(01:29:57):
I know at least two of those were him getting
caught trying to steal third, and I did see him
steal third a few times. Walked nine percent of the time,
struck out under seventeen percent of the time two eighty four,
three sixty five, four sixty six, one eight to two
ISO on a three twenty two babbit That was good
for a one forty six WRC plus in the Southern League.

(01:30:17):
I don't know, maybe probably more of like a line
drive hitter, but he's got enough enough juice in the
bat to hit some home runs. And I don't know,
man just like kind of a different, I think, potential
fantasy profile. If he does ever get any run, the
guy could trip in some home runs and some steals,
And that just was kind of big been a fan
and dude's an all dream I think is still still

(01:30:38):
alive here. And I really love a lot of the
other bats a zero one percent. So I'm gonna bust
out or Neesto Martinez Junior again.

Speaker 3 (01:30:44):
Yeah, I like Martinez Junior. He's a fun one to
watch play. That's something that a lot of walking bats
have in common that there just is something fun about that.
And seeing a big guy like this move around as
ethelically is as athletically as he does is a treat,
you know, Like you see him stealing bags, it's it's
it's like me saying something positive about Jose jos Way Depaula,

(01:31:06):
like he's a big dude and loves to kind of
steal bases and arnessa. Martinez has some of that as well.
Like you noted, it's more of a line drive profile.
He hits the ball pretty hard.

Speaker 2 (01:31:17):
It looks like to me, yeah, yeah, if he could.

Speaker 3 (01:31:20):
Lift it a little more like maybe this would be
And I think did I include in the video.

Speaker 2 (01:31:25):
I think there was just an absolute fucking mammoth home
run that he hit in the playoffs, Like, oh yeah,
he did pull it, he did get it in there
and do it. It was large.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
Yeah, No, he's he's an exciting one. And I almost
went with him. I think he's a fun pick and
I co sign as well in that way. But I'm
gonna end, as we often do, talking about a funny looking,
tiny guy.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
With funny looking fella.

Speaker 3 (01:31:54):
Funny looking fella that we've already talked about him before,
so I won't believer the point, but I'm gonna go
with arganamo for my bat.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
Oh man, Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:32:02):
Just the best batwaggle in the miners. Like it's maybe
more about aesthetics than his actual ability to be a
major league baseball player, but he's just so fun, you know,
plays all over the infield, second, short, third. It's he
hit ten homers this year. That seemed high to me.
I just don't think he's going to hit a ton.
He stings the ball and hustles, so he racked up

(01:32:24):
thirty doubles too, not a burner. But he's a smart
base sealer and two bags. So I think that the
play here is he's a decent defender, maybe plays up
the middle, maybe gets to seven homers, but chips in
a bunch of steals and a decent average to go
with it. He's an interesting one, and that his swinging

(01:32:46):
strike rate is more good. Like it's you know, nine
point six percent at high A this year, which is
is okay, but he only had an eleven percent strikeout rate,
And it's partly because when he's got two strikes, dude
chokes up like three inches up the bat and really
shortens up his swing and makes a ton of contact
with two strikes. And he's a fairly aggressive hitter too,

(01:33:07):
like in the balls in the zone he's gonna swing.
Still still walked seven percent of the time this year,
which was an improvement for him over the last couple
of years. I'm this is not like a huge This
is not quote unquote one of my guys. This is
he's not doesn't have Durban's speed or level of bath
to ball, but he is in that same kind of vein,
and I think those guys get underappreciated, especially in your

(01:33:30):
roto leagues where you need some cheap steals or in
your points leagues where you're really penalized for strikeouts. This
is a guy that could could succeed in that way.
He's still got a long way to go, but he's
just so fun watch him hit. It's it's hilarious. Every
single time.

Speaker 2 (01:33:47):
It was it was more wild. Last year he toned
down it was.

Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
He toned it down a bit. Yeah, yeah, I know,
we talked about it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
So those Carolina Mudcats, all those weird hitters with the
you know, they're weird ticks and things that they did,
are starting to get you know, this year we're getting
up to Wisconsin, right, and Wisconsin will wear those broughtworst
uniforms fromtimes time. You know, they look like German whatever
suspenders and all that stuff. And dude, I had a
game on where it was like Arian Namo and uh

(01:34:16):
Luke Adams who like Adams stilly running. They just have
so many of these silly looking guys and I don't know,
maybe silly's mean, but you know, just just goofy looking, goofy. Yeah,
And they had all these goofy hitters in this line
up wearing those goofy uniforms, and I was just like,
what what's going on here? Man? This is this is
quite the minor league view here. Yeah. Blow yeah. The Brewers, man,

(01:34:41):
they don't shy away from. They don't mind if you've
got a little goofiness in your game. Oh, Tayton Hall
was was one.

Speaker 3 (01:34:47):
I was gonna say, he's another one with a funny map. Yeah,
you said nice things about Luke Adams. I like him.
He's a good hitter.

Speaker 2 (01:34:54):
Yeah, well because he freaking walks like forty percent of
the time or whatever, and you're just so in love
with that. Love it that walk in the first stuff?
All right, man? I think does that cover it?

Speaker 3 (01:35:03):
I think so?

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Wow? Did it got some good alien talking there too?
Talk about some turkeys next aliens they will up?

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Man, oh man, good stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:35:16):
You are you like a skeptic, like like do you
are you in denial like the rest of the world
seems to be on this matter.

Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
I guess I just have to watch the hearings and
have the veil lifted from my eyes.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
So it was like, what are you saying if there
was like some big giant government cover up and all
this stuff. I'm like, yeah, that's kind of exactly what
they're talking about, you know, I'm doing so I don't know,
all right, man, just wild to me, like we're more
interested in like senior citizen dating shows on ABC or whatever,
then like maybe there's intelligence that can save us from ourselves.

(01:35:50):
But whatever world would do that, I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:35:53):
Know if that's happening, But if somebody wants to save
us from ourselves. That'd be great.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
Yeah, it's gonna be some opier Matt. All right, so
I'll do it for episode forty five of the Prospect
B Sides podcast. Again. You can follow me along on
Twitter at pitching Specs. I'll share some videos. I'm also
on the I also started an account on what's it
Blue Sky? Yeah, yeah, so if you're over there, I
don't want Muddy Looks. That's the name. That's my name,

(01:36:20):
Muddy Looks. I've just been posting links to the show
over there. So far, I think I've made one post.
But yeah, next week, well, who do we have left?
We have the Al East left too. I'm excited for
that one. And we've got the Ale Central A Central. Yeah,
maybe you want to do Al East next week or
next time? All right, Ale East next that has my

(01:36:43):
favorite B sider of the year. It'll be well and
uh we'll talk to you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
Sound schedule. Appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:52):
Five miles an hour riding too is Head. We have
it down first, but the lumped on his face, and
on the very next pitch he up and stole second
face with gretest speed. He wasn't born he had the

(01:37:16):
dirty Yes uniform,

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