Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 105 : Prospect Stashes

Transcript

Ep. 105 : Prospect Stashes · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode one oh five of
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I'm Mike cool Eard from bras Ball,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: joined once again by my very good friend Jeremie Brewer
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: from Rasball. You're back again, buddy. How you doing good.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm coming off the I L or
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: something like. It's it's been almost fifteen days, like I
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: didn't get a rid of assignment. So let's hope I can.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: I can just get back in the saddle here and go.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: But I'm glad to be here. Gonna be a little rusty,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: but let's see how this goes.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've been working off the hitting machine. I don't
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: even know what is the podcast hitting machine equivalent. You're
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: just like sinking in the shower, talking in your car.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: There's gotta be something that's equivalent, but talking with AI.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe you're talking with a chatbot out there.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's probably way to go, suggesting my
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: chair settings and call it a day too.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, Okay, Well we've got a pre pack show
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: because we've had a decent amount of news that's come
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: through since the last week's podcast. So if you are
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: just catching on with us, shouldn't we go back over
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the past two weeks. Check out last week's pod with
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Brent Hershey from Baseball HQ covering all things first Pitch Arizona,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and before that we had Duke Hill from Prospects of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: vant On. It was a great time. But with Jeremy Beack,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: we're getting back into our classic kind of cards and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: category setup. We're going to talk news and notes. We've
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: got lots of baseball cards on the release calendar in
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: terms of different sets coming out over the next month
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: or so, so we'll dive into that a little bit,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and then our Megan segment is going to be covering
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: prospects stashes. So I think it's a little honed in.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's our podcast. We're going to talk
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: about lan bites, a little honed in on, especially our
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: leagues that we planned where we're not they're not full dynasty,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I would say, because the main one that we talk
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: about all the time is Autanu from Fangrafts, which is
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: just an absolutely fantastic setup for a fantasy league, a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: forty man roster and salary and everything. But we also
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: play in other leagues where there I would say deeper
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: keeper formats, not full blown dynasties, but stuff league setups
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: where you've got to start stashing dudes from high A
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: and off seasons to be able to make sure that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you're turning around rosters and building them out. So we've
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: got guys who I would say they're not like full
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: blown dynasty likes, kind of diamonds in the rough, because
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: I guarantee you most of these guys were talking about
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: if you're in like a full traditional dynasty, they're already
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: scooped up. But they're guys who if you're in that
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: deeper keeper format, they probably aren't, but I think they've
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: got a good chance of debuting in twenty twenty six
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: or being the buzzy dudes kind of closing out twenty
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: twenty six. So that's why we're going to focus. We
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: are speaking on Wednesday, August twenty seventh, so keep that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: in mind as we breeze through these news notes. Like
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I said, we've got quite a bit. We've got some injuries,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: we've got some returns from injuries, we've got callups, so
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit of the whole gamut in terms of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: baseball transactions. Let's start with the injuries, because this is
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: one that has been confounding, especially if you've been a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker owner out there. As they finally came out
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the Chicago Cubs this did this past week, had said, hey, actually,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker has been playing with a hairline fracture since
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: mid June. So really reminiscent of the twenty twenty four
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: season when Tucker with the Astros had that weird shin
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: injury that kept him out for a long time. Although
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: with this it's a I would say a different setup.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Because Tucker is going to be a free agent this offseason.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: You want to just be able to post. I think
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: when you're going into your free agen season, you want
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: to show that you can play one hundred and sixty
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: ish games, make all the games that are required of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you for that huge contract. And so that's what Tucker
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: was doing. Really did hurt probably his stock a little
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: bit and the Cubs overall. It has ticked up those
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: because I'm looking through his stat line since mid June,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: so I'm looking after June fifteenth, it has been a
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: two forty four three fifty four four oh eight. That's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a one nineteen WRC plus eight homers over two hundred
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and forty plainy appearances, but he also got saved because
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: this past weekend had a Banana's Weekend in Los Angeles
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: against the Angels in Anaheim. I guess I should say
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: three homers with seven rbi right there, so that really
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: boosted the line. Maybe the reset did help Tucker. But
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: what do you think in here long term, because this
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: is now kind of two down years where if you
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: took Tucker in the first round probably sunk you over
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: the past two months, rostering and playing him every day,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: you worried about this going forward with him? Or is
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: this a guy who you still feel pretty comfortable taking
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: him in the mid to late first round going to
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the rest of this year, I'm a
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: little little concerned, just because the hand injury is definitely
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: one that's gonna, you know, it's gonna sting every time
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: you hit that ball, not purely square, it's gonna gonna,
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: you know, cause little pain in there. And I think
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: that's probably what he's dealing with. But you know, things
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: do seem to turn around. But it's definitely an impact
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: of his performance at the end of the day though,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: like he's still a first round er for me, like
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: it get a full off season. It's a hairline fracture
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: that gets healthy. It's not like it's a wrist or
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: something like that, which is a little bit more concerning
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: for me, and that could be something that lingers. I
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: think this is just get to the off season, don't
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: swing a bat for like two months, heal the hand,
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: and then at the end of the day he's not.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: It's not like it's all about the slugging for him.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: He's a guy that runs. He's a guy that you
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: know gets the this run scored in there. He's he's
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: gonna flare across the field to get the average up
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: like he's If anything, this is a little bit of
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: a buy an opportunity because I still view him as
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: probably right and smack in the middle of the first round,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: and I'm a big Tucker fan, so I'm not too
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: concerned about this, But I ultimately it will hurt him
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: from a contract perspective because there will like it's it's leverage.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: There's all leverage is what we're talking about here. So
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: bring him back next year, first round, no questions for me.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, he got a it's like two years in
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: a row and undisclosed fracture injuries like not the way
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: to go, but let's hope it doesn't happen again.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Okay, next injury we've got
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: is I mean, this is a strange thing to say
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: out of my mouth because it's happened only one other
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: time in his lengthy career. Marcus Simeon is shelved on
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the iel. This is a dude who really I mean,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: his claim to fame is posting. He puts up one
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty games a year, seven hundred played appearances,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and this year he's not going to reach that mark
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: because he's gone down with a Lisphrantics fracture in his
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: foot after fouling a ball off of it. Probably done
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: for the year because it's a four to six week injury,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and at this point too, the Rangers are starting to
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: really fade out of the playoff race, so even if
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: they wanted to bring him back, there's no really reason
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: for them to rush him, especially given he's still signed
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: through twenty twenty eight, so they've got a few more
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: years with Marcus Simeon and would want, would prefer probably
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: him to get healthy back for twenty twenty six. So
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: this is guy. I kind of had lost track how
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: much he had fallen back off the wagon, because for
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like mid June to the All Star break, he had
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: turned back into regular old Marcus Simeon. It was a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: two seventy five three forty six, four fifty nine slash
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: line with five homers over about a month's worth of action.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: So that is right in line with old Marcus Simen,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the the stolen basis of dried up. But I mean,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: that's kind of what you expect. On top of it.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Second base has been so thin you don't really mind
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: if he's kind of posting every day. But the second half,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: even before this injury, was starting to get gnarly once
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: again for Marcus Simen. It was we're looking at just
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: a roughly a two hundred batting average, you know, two
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: oh three overall batting average with a two seventy one
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: OBP and a three twenty two slug that's a sixty
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: six are plus back to what we were seeing early
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: on with Simeon. So there's another question, what are you
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: doing with him going into twenty twenty six He will
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: turn thirty five, and actually just a couple of weeks
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: he's you know, shown these flashes of hot and cold.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: We sold them actually back in one of our pods
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: in May Ish and that's you know, he picked it
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: up a little bit after that, but hasn't been even
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: close to being rosterable here in the second half of
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the season. Now goes down with this foot injury.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Simeons, He's one of the hardest hardest ones to read,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I think in the entire league, because his underlying metrics
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: are pretty gushern consistent year to year. He's just a
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: very streaky player and you have to look at the overall,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you know, line to see a what's it going to get?
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: And you know he's generally a two fifty bat, you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five homers, fifteen steels kind of guy. Yeah,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: his speed's ticked down a little bit, but you know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: if he was healthy rest of the year, wouldn't be
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: shocked to see him hit that fifty steels, maybe get
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the twenty homers. Like he's had a down year, but
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, for a guy that
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: paced roughly twenty fifteen and you know, decent counting stats,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: it's not a bad line for what I would say
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: is a middle infielder like I feel like Simeons stepped
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: back from like a true you know, starting second basement,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: but he's he's performed below some ofs expected statistics. You know,
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: you know, his baby's been low this year. Strikeouts have
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: tacked up a little bit, but nothing like ultra concerning
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: and he's on a big contract. He's gonna keep playing.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And so I still think Simeon's a valuable player, but
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: he's more of that like middle infield, you know, pad
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: year power, speed stats, and hope for the best with
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: the average type of guy. So I'm not gonna be
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: the best heavily on him, but he's the kind of
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: guy like if he does start to drop in the
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: later rounds, I'm like, yep, I'll take it. I know
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: what I'm getting. I know I'm getting the roller coaster.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: I just have to stick him in the whole year
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: and just deal with it when it's painful, because he's
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: gonna have the hot streaks that with it as well.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm still like, slightly on the bus and I'll
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: take him on a cheap kind of contract, cheap draft pick,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: but much more beyond that, He's now aging out of
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: the real productive part of his career. And so for me,
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: like I said, a mid middle endfielder, if that's such a.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Thing, Yeah, I think that's fair. I think it's also
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: going to be something where it'll be fascinating to see
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: where his draft price settles, because this is a guy
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: where I think people will look at this year's line
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: obviously be very much out on Simeon, but if you're
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: using just straight projection values, the projections are going to
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: put him back to old Marcus Simeon. So at that
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: point you're probably looking at somebody who's like a low
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: team's value and a value sheet. So you could see
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: players that play strictly by values really kind of still
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: boosting Simeon up, but lots of people who have the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: bad taste of their mouth from this last year Simeon
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: might be totally fading him. So it'll be fascinating to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: see what Room does with him, because I think he
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: does kind of drop into that more of like am
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I spot where you know, you draft him, pay a
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: couple bucks whe him at the draft table. If he
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: doesn't do anything, cut him and you're not gonna, you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the old Marcus Simon of like a two seventy five
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: thirty homers, twenty stone bases isn't coming back, so like
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the upside isn't gonna kill you. So it's gonna be
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I think a really fascinating case as we get into
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: draft season to see where the Marcus Simeon value settles.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he'll have a big range. I think
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: you're absolutely right he's gonna be. He'll go in the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: early teens and not all the way of the twenties.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Like he's gonna be all over the place, And it's
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: just a matter of how you built your roster. If
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: you build your roster with a you know, high batting
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: average early, then he's actually really really interesting because he
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: can give you a little bit of you know, floor
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: across the categories. But if you've you know, driven into
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: power and you've decided to build around like Kyle Rally
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: and Pete Alonzo, please avoid Marcus Senian.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: All right, Well let's get into I'm gonna pair up
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: this next these next two injuries because they're really the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: same injury and kind of players in about the same
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: spot in their career. One is four years younger, so
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna start with him. We've got Jackson Merrill, who's
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: going down with a sprained ankle hitting the eel. It's
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: been a tough year after a great fantastic rookie season
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: for Merril. This year it's a one oh five WRSC
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: plus after one thirty last year. Last year twenty five
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: homers this year nine. Obviously, it's one fifty six games
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: versus ninety one games this year, but the stolen bases
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: have really dried up. There was sixteen stolen bases last year,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: just one so far through the three hundred and a
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: six played appearances through Meryl so certainly has not come
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: anywhere close to giving back that second round value that
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: he was drafted at. But he's been really banged up.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Started this season with a hamstring injury, went through concussion
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: this year, and now has this ankle. There's also I
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: think been some murmurings of him playing through some sort
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: of knee issue or something too. So it's just never
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: really been a healthy year all around for Meryl. The
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: other one that's going on IL is over in Baltimore,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: all the way across the entire country. Jordan Westburg infielder there.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: He is twenty six years old going on the IL
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: with a sprained ankle as well, but different story here
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: where the WRC pluses are the same. It's a one
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to twenty three last year versus a one to twenty
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: two this year. But the production from a fantasy standpoint
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: has been tremendous. Fifteen homers this year, eighteen homers last year.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: That's in seventy three games this year versus one hundred
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: and seven last year, So you can see where that
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: boosts came. Fifty three runs versus fifty seven last year.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: So he was on pace to do everything I know
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you were projecting for Jordan Westburg to do because you
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: were in on him, but also another guy who's gone
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: through a pretty banged up season, you know, soft tissue injuries,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and it's not kind of the first year we've had
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: that for Westburg. So that's a lot I just threw
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: at you in terms of information in terms of numbers
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: from twenty twenty five versus twenty twenty four. But if
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: you had to pick one going forward to like build
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: your roster round in a keeper league, which direction you're going,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: because we've seen I think a more steady production out
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of Westburg and a little bit higher ceiling. I would
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: say almost in terms of what he's done this year.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, Merrill had a huge ceiling last year, but
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: we knew it wasn't going to repeat as the league
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: kind of figured him out. But Westburg has been more
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: banged up. Do you think Merrill some of these injuries
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: could linger into twenty twenty six? So lots of consideration here.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Which way would you prefer to go between Jackson Merrill
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and Jordan Westburg.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I knew you were going to ask this question, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I'm still conflicted on it because I knew you were
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: We're going to go What's funny is you group them
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: together saying similar players. Actually, if you go on Savant
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: and look at the most similar profiles, is each other?
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it's each other. It's the most similar
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: and you can see it, like in the profile what
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: they've done this year. Both of them. Their sprint speeds
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: are impressive, right, you know, Jordan Westburg has a ninety percentile,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Jackson Merril's seventy nine being banged up, and you know,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: they both kind of have a similar approach the play.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: They're not the most patient hitters. They're kind of a
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: little bit more aggressive in nature, a little bit more
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: power in Westburgh's game, a little bit more willingness to
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: run historically in Meryl's but as I look at it
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: right now and I sit there, like Meryl's a little
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: bit younger, so I think that there's a little bit
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: more growth potential. But I feel like Westbrook's a little
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: bit further ahead. It's just been the injuries that have
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: kind of held him back. And when he gets these
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: little spurts, like you can see it being there and
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen like an injury with Westburg, I'm like, man,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: this is really gonna be like a long term term thing.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: So like I'm taken Westburg by a hair right now.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: I don't I feel like it should be Meryl, Like
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: I feel like with what he did last year, and
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: you know, the potential, like he could be this crazy
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: All Star for years, a twenty twenty hitter and all
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: these things like, but I just keep looking at what
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Westburg has done in like limited time, and like it's
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: been consistent, It's been so gushed are and consistent, and
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: it's like it's like I want to come to like
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: an Austin Riley profile when Austin Riley was doing his thing,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: not the Austin Riley we have right now, which is
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: kind of like wishing he was doing his thing, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: so like, I just really like Westberg, and I know
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: that's probably not a popular pick, but it's where I
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: gotta go.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think it's fair, especially if you're looking
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: at Merrill with those stone bases dried up. I mean, honestly,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: this wouldn't have been close to question at the Game
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: of the year. But if Jackson Merril is just a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: twenty two home run hitter with you know, five to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: eight steals, it changes the calculus a lot that Obviously
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: there is the upside, but I don't that really would
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: flatten them out to make them pretty much a coin flip.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: So I'm torn. So I'm not even gonna answer. I'm
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna just let your answers. That's just a fair
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go on the record. Okay, Well, but
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: we got a couple of aces that have gone down
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: with injuries here in the past week two. The first
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: one is really really concerning, and I'm glad that he's
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: doing Okay. We had Zach Wheeler, who was on really
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: the precipice of a cy young season, finally to get
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: that award with a two seventy one era over one
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty nine two thirds innings ten and five
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: record eleven point seven k nine minuscule rock walk rate
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: underneath to a one nine to eight per nine on
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the walks. We knew about the blood clot that kind
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: of came out last week, and I talked about it
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: with Brent, and it was especially one of those things
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: where that becomes a concerning injury where you know, the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: blood clot breaks off, that gets into your your vascular system.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: I hope that's right. I'm not that's right, and you
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: know gets into your heart. You know, you're talking about
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the possibility of a stroke or heart attack. So they
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: did do it forrombosis procedure to be able to get
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: that out. But I don't I was trying to figure
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: this out. I couldn't quite connect. I think it might
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: have been because of like some of the just damaged
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: that the clot did in his shoulder. But now he
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: has thoracic outlet syndrome and his surgery on that that
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: is a surgery that the diagnosis is six to eight
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: to nine ish months. But we've seen, like you know
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: how long it took brandon Wood Drift to get back
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: from his This has been a career ender for plenty
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: of other pitchers out there. So coming into this year,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Wheeler was already saying, like the last two years on
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: this contract that he had after this year, we're going
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: to be his final ones. He's only or he is
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: thirty five, so he's getting up there in age. Is
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: this something where I mean, are you thinking in fantasy
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that you're counting on him coming back or is it
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: more of like a hey, I mean, it's been great
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: having Zach Wheeler around while we have, but we'd rather
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: see him get healthy and I'll jump on that when
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: he finally gets some sort of chart towards actually returning.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I look at this. Wheeler reminds me
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: of Charlie Morton to degree, which is I'm going to
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: retire every year, and then now I'm forty two or
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: whatever Morton is and still playing, and so like I
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I take any of the comments of I'm not going
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: to come back with a grain of salt, Like Wheeler
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: has been an absolute stud for like six years now.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: Ever since he's signed with Philadelphia, like that probably could
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: not have been one of the better contracts out there
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: that that he signed. I mean, it's an even the
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: extension of the how he's just he's it's unbelievable. Uh,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And he's getting paid pretty heptych sum, but it's like
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: been worth every penny. And you do look at the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the thoracic outlet syndrome and the surgery that he's gonna have.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: You know, there are two different kinds of this of
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: this surgery that take place. There is the the vascular
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: that that you reference, and there's a neurogenic as well,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and so one really goes after blood clots and the
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: cause of those, and then the others more on the
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: nerve position, and that's the nerve ones, the ones that
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: tend to be a harder come back to. The blood
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: clots are scarier, but once you're pass that, you have
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: the surgery, it's an easier recovery. That's what Merrill Kelly had.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: Another number of years, Steven Strasburg had the kid. You
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: don't with the with the nerve and that's harder to
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: come back for him because it's just a feeling right.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: You can't feel the ball, you can't grip it, you're
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: in continuous pain. And so if you actually look at it,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: when when Kelly had the surgery back in twenty twenty,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, I can't remember. HE'SAXT twenty year, twenty
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty. You know he had it in, you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: September time frame. He was back by opening day next year,
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: and MARYK. Kelly's probably been better since then he was before.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: And so like there's a use case here that you
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: can come back from this. And like if you think
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: of any guy in the league that's got the strength
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: and goes hard and has the ability to withstand something
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: like this, it feels like Wheeler might be that guy.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: I get it, he's thirty five, but I it's not
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: without a reason that he's back opening day at thirty six,
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: plugging right back in. It's also not a question that
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: it's mid mid year, right. I think you have both
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: both outcomes available here with Wheeler. But you have to
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: look at it is if this didn't happen, he's probably
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: a top three starting pitcher. You his next year, you
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: got schemes, you got scooble, And then it's like sale Wheeler,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: like you're right there, right, and so I'm and I'm
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I'm the guy. I know it. I'm willing to take
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: the injury risk on the pictures and things like that
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: for the upside, But I'm not buying the retirement talk.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And he got the best version of this and he's
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: he's done for the year, we know it, and so
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: he's going to go get healthy. So I think that
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: there's a realistic outcome and we got a few more
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: good years on a wheeler here because it's not a
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: skill issue. Actually, it's arguably the better this year than
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: he has been the last few. Even so I'm still
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: quasi buying. You have to take a discount here, for sure,
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: but I think that there is still a lot of
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: value left in the Zach Wheeler.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really fair and nice work there,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Doctor Brewer updating us on thoracic outlet surgeries. And they're different,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they're different types. I will say. The one thing with
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Meryl Kelly, it is a little tough to kind of
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: like sort through how that impact was because you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one was down here his ear A, you know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: went up to four forty four. Typically, you know, we've
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: seen true talent Meryl Kelly kind of settle into the
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: mid threes. But it was also babbit inflated and the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: walks were a little bit higher, which I mean it
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: makes sense. You know, you're looking at guys who returned
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: from Tommy John surgery that is the last thing to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: return is their control. I mean, I think it's probably
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: pretty similar no matter what sort of arm injury you're
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: dealing with. So something to consider where, you know, if
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: we do get word that Zach Wheeler is rare and
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: ready to go in twenty twenty six, it's another thing
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: just like Sime, and I guess we have to see
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: where the price settles, because I think there'll be plenty
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: of folks that are scared away by him, but some
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that will see the value sheet and if it's a
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: full season Zach Wheeler on the on the projections, it's
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: probably not going to pick up the surgery quite the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: right spot, and it's going to project him as a
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: top five starter. So it's gonna be one of those
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: things where it's going to be really dependent on what
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: your value is in your draft room and kind of
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: what all the news is at the date, like literally
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the date of your drafts. So it'll be I hope
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: he comes back because he really does deserve a cy
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: young and if we're going to put any pictures into
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame from this era, Zach Wheeler might
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: be kind of like one of the test cases because
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he's been so good for so long.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he has, so it'll be interesting to see. But
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: wishing the best for Zach.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Okay. Well, the other injured ace we have is this
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: is a pod favorite. It hurts a lot Nathanofaldi from
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: the Texas Rangers, thirty five year old as well that
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: he has gone down with a rotator cuff injury. AA
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: la Cole Reagan's who I mean, we saw how long
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: it's taken him to get back. But the nice thing
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: with Aovaldi's he's gotten an entire offseason to heal and
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: he does have two more years with the Rangers. This
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: year was fantastic. I mean, this is one of my
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: biggest wins for the year. Like when we do like
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the recap of our twenty twenty fives and go through
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the picks from ras ball, this is gonna be the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: one that pops up because even if it was only
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the one hundred and thirty innings, one hundred and thirty innings
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: were well worth it. This year at a one seventy
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: three ear arra an eleven and three record and one
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty nine k's especially the prices that you paid,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: like he was pretty much like a last pitcher in
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a typical five by five twelve team roto leagues. So
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: this is one where I mean, I'm gonna be in
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: on AOVOLDI going forward, just because especially the prices. I
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: don't think the spots where I got him are keeper
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: leagues too, which will really help. But like it's going
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to be another thing where I think the price might
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: start kind of out stripping him, but then it might
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: kind of come back at the beginning of the season.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: It's going to depend a lot on how he looks
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: in spring training. But you still trust Dale Valdi going
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: forward in twenty twenty six. Been with this rotator cuff issue.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that Evaldi, like it's it's gonna be
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: that the price thing is tough because his he overperformed
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: this year, There's no question about it. He pitched better
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: than he has probably the last well ten years or
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: his entire career. This is a career year for him,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: but the underlying metrics show is like nowhere near what
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: he's done and one seven three Era. You know, this
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: is a three to zero ERA season, and that's you know,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: you expect some regression on that. You know, he's his
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: home run luck has been unbelievable, bad bit luck, all
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: these things have been unbelievable to go on fat top
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: of what he's done. So I do think like Evaldi
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: has all of a sudden like with this season, like
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: put himself on the radar of like, wait a second,
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: this guy might be actually worth taking and so we're
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: before he was just a complete afterthought. So I do
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: worry that that's gonna the people are gonna look at
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: those surace numbers. You're gonna be draft rooms and they're
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: gonna be like, look at the last year's stats, like
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: this guy had a one seventy three and he's pitched
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: in the spring training, is completely healthy. I expect the
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: same thing, right. I think that's there's be a lot
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: of risk on that. So I I think I'm a
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: little word that he's gonna get priced out because people
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: were looking at him as like this this young twenty
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: three year old who's actually thirty five thirty six going
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: into next year, and they're gonna be drafting him that way.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: That's my big concern. I don't have a concern about
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: you Havevaldi long term and like coming back and being healthy, Like, yeah,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: this is not ideal, But I don't know that this
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: injury is as bad as somebody else's, like a Woodrofe
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: or anybody like that. The Rangers were out of it.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: They're being careful with their ace here.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's her. I think the other big
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: factor here is actually the park factor for GLOBALI Field
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: this year. If you just do a one year factor
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: on Savant by far the best pictures park in the league,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: even below PNC Park, Oracle Park, Petco Park, t Mobile Park,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: all of these classic ones where you knew you had
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to like start Pitchers Texas. Is that now? So something
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I think I'm really gonna try to lean into going
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: into next year is like I mean, even back end
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: starters for that team. I mean, just look at what
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Patrick Corbin did. Patrick Corbin's was usable this year in
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: twelve team formats for much of the year, especially at home,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and so a lot of it is it kills doubles.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: There is which is really strange. I don't know if
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: it's something we've talked about a little bit, like the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: air conditioning or something like that. And then the strikeout
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: factor is a little increase to which I think is
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: a factor of it being closed so often in the LED,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: lighting really messing with players. So something to also consider
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: in the factor with the Aovald just value going into
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: next year.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, well let's get into some more fun news, cause
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: we've got some injury returners. We've got some call ups.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Let's start with those injury returners. And this one, I
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: know tickles you greatly because we had Toronto Blue Jay's
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: starter and maybe Ace now Shane Bieber returned. It was
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: against Miami, but wow, couldn't have looked much better. Six innings,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: nine strikeouts, two hits allowed, no walks, one solo homer
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: given up. It looks fantastic across the board, and especially
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: coming off of the Tommy John surgery that he had,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you want to see that that control was in order,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and was it. Ever he was pounded in the strike zone,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: ground ball rate was right where Bieber is usually at.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: This stuff doesn't jump out to you on a stuff plus,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: but never has for Shane Bieber because he's just such
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: an accurate pitcher. You can see on the location. Plus
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: there's a one twenty four location, plus that's where he
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: makes his bread and butter. So the question here is
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: how high is too high to be ranking Shane Bieber
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: for Rest this season and going into twenty twenty six.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: There are no heights that Shane Bieber cannot achieve in
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: my opinion. Yeah, I mean, let's be honest, like he's
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: gonna go through some rough patches, He's gonna be a
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: little bit up and down, but at the end of
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: the day, he looked good his whole rehab, and he
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: looked really good in the start. I get it against Miami,
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: but I think that there's a lot to like in
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: this profile. He comes coming back and strong, and if
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: the control is there, like that's always the thing that
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: you're concerned about here, and if the controls there, which
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: is like his specialty, then there's little reason to be concerned.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm not gonna say, like I'm proclaiming him a
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: top ten pitcher but right now, but like, if you
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: want to argue top twenty, I'm right there, Like this
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: is the guy that we would argue if fully healthy.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: What we saw beginning of last year was like, you know,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: teetering on top five pitcher in the league, and you
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: know it's the same guy. It's just questions he's healthy
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: and if he's gonna be consistent, and so I'm really
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: excited to hear if he's still available in leagues like
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: he should not be. He should have been, should have
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: been on ils and things, especially as he was rehabbing
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: to get back. It's gonna be really interesting because the
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Blue Jays have no reason to not ride that arm
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: right now, because yeah, he has the choice, you know,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: as far as what he does with that contract and
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: go into the next season. So let's see what happens.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: But I'm all in on Beaber.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Yep. I think I'm right there with you because it
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: was so incredible and there's been really there was that
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: kind of spot where he got had to be shut
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: down on the rehab, but otherwise when he's been on
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: the mountain, it's been unstoppable. So I am lockstep. Next
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: returner we have finally, you're Don Alvarez from the Houston
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Astros has returned to the field for those Astros to
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: get him right before their playoff run. Was a first
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: round pick for everybody this year and looks like you're
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: maybe gonna end up getting about fifty sixty games out
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of him, which is a bummer, and who knows what
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it's going to look like down the stretch because it
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: is still a hand injury they's been recovering from. We've
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: talked about it relentlessly over the time on this podcast.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Wrist injuries, hand injuries for batters are just no bueno.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: They take a really long time to heal, and honestly,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: usually like an off season of complete rest. So is
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: this a situation where you might actually pounce and try
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: to buy a low on yard on maybe at like
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the end of the year, considering, I think you're probably
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: are you first? Are you in the boat where you
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: think he's probably gonna not be Jordan for this last
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: month of the season.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I mean he tore it up
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: in his rehab assignment across the tire four games, doublet
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: a p A, so like shuck Er, not not too shock.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I just I don't see him being fully himself.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna call it seventy five percent on which is
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: still a valuable player, but I just don't see it
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: being there. I'm and I'm also I'm a little hesitant
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: in Dynasty for this one at the end of the day,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: like he has had some challenges staying healthy. He's he's
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: never been fully healthy. He's never had major injury issues
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: until really this year. But this is a guy that
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: he he he's from a first rounder. We've talked, but
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: all the time, you have to either be absolutely unbelievable
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: in a category to not be a five tool player,
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: and your donna's not a five tool player. And he's
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: not unbelievable. He's not Aaron Judge where he can just
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: take you and put you on his back and hit
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: sixty homers and it's worth it because he's also bring
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty RBI and things like that. Like
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: at his best, he's a one hundred rbi, ninety run,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: three hundred hitter with thirty five homers, which is really
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: really valuable. But if you have this injury risk, it
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: slided me into the mid second round for me now
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: maybe even a little bit more. And so I'm really
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: interested to see how that hand injury recovers. And I
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: just I don't think I can buy in a dynasty
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: format here because I think there is a little bit
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: more of a downside risk in this next year because
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: you just don't there's a question mark, and I don't
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: like spinning the top two, three round pick on a
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: guy with question marks.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's how fair because the other thing
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: is that like this has covered up and Mays forget
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: about his knee injuries, Like both of those knees have
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: been really rough. I just also, you know, mentioned how
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: tough it is to hit in Texas. Seattle's also tough
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to hit in. It's not a great division to own
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: a bat, and so I'm with you that, Like I
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: took a chunk of Jordan Alvarez in TGFBI this year
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: and guess what, that team's in eleventh place. So not
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: trying to experience that again. Okay, well, I probably should
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: have paired this guy with Shane Bieber the way I
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: did between Westburg and Jackson Merrill earlier. But we also
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: had another returner in Baltimore pitcher returning from Tommy John
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: another ace, another impressive outing, six innings, ten strikeouts, two
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: solo shots, no walks, four hits. But Kyle Bradish did
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: it against the Boston Red Sox, which is a much
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: more formidable light ump than the Miami Marlins that Shane
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Bieber faced. Things were pretty sharp here for Bratish too.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: He has always been a little bit more of a
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: stuff guy than Bieber. The slider was looking great, the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: curveball was looking great, both clocking in at above average
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: on stuff plus scale. But the location plus was great too,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: So this is also crazy. Both these guys came back
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: so quickly from their Tommy John surgeries, bounced right back.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: And this is another guy who bradished. I mean, this
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: is who the Oils probably needed all year. He's only
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: twenty eight. You trusting him the rest of the way,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and is he like rising to the level of where
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: he was in twenty twenty four before he went down
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: for you going into twenty twenty six as a reminder,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: before he went down in twenty twenty four, it was
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: at two seventy five RRA, two eighty three ARRA in
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: twenty two twenty three before that has really pushed himself
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: probably into top twenty five, top thirty starter type of talks.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: If he puts that up again.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not quite as high on Brush that is
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: aim On Bieber, he was a little bit rougher in
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: his rehab, outing some bad bad luck, but he was
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: a little bit up and down. It felt like this
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: is true recovery that we see from these types of
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: guys where you know, the control kind of would leave
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: you for a game then come back like and so
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I think that there's you know, Bieber just seemed like
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: just so solid the whole way through. I think Bratish
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: might have a little bit more of a roller coaster.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: Still really good, still really valuable. His stuff is still
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: gonna absolutely play, and I think that that's really what
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: we ultimately want to see questions. You know, the basketball
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: velocity is down a little bit compared to where it
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: had been. He's he's adjusted his UH release slot a
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: little bit as well as a little bit higher than
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: it was last year. So we'll kind of see how
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: those things play. He's getting a little bit different run
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: on the pitches. But overall, I'm with you there, like
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: if you can finish this season out strong, Like I'm
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: really really excited about Bradish. I was excited about him
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: going into the last year, and then you know, the injury.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: The injury hit and you know, he even pitched through
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: it to a degree and was just phenomenal. And so
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to like here about Bradish,
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: Like I said, I'm probably not gonna put it on
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: the Beaver level, but you know you can argue, like,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: if he finishes this year out strong a top twenty,
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: top twenty five starter, and I'm gonna be very very
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: happy about that. Maybe not on the Orioles with the
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: way that they've forgot how to win ball games, but hey,
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: I mean Paul Skenes is valuable and he pays for
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: the Pirates, so it's okay.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I mean that team has been like a ninety five
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: pace win team for a couple months now, I think
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the Baltimore Oriols. So it's also like, yeah, if they
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: hadn't been their poor start, they'd be right in the
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: middle of it right now. So yeah, I think I'm
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: with you there. I would prefer Beaver, but Bradish isn't
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: too far behind going in next year. All right, let's
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: move into some call ops, because even you missed the
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: big waves of some of the guys that came up
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: after the eight to fifteen deadline. You know, you got
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: to miss out on the Dylan Beaver's talk, which I
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: mean we talked plenty of Dylan Beavers, So.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I don't know, we've we've frown that one dry.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: It's okay, we'll talk about one here at the end
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: because he signed a fat extension. Let's just talk about
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the straight call ups. The first one is the big one. Finally,
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Bubba Chandler up in the big leagues but pitching in
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the bullpen for the Pirates. His first outing this past
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: weekend picked up a save electric electric stuff one hundred
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: miles an hour. But it has been lower on the
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: stuff plus ratings that I think I would have expected.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: It looks like it might be one of those kind
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: of dead zone fastballs where Paul skin says this to
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a little bit where the movement and spin on the
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: fastball isn't great, but because he hucks out a one
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: hundred miles an hour, it works for right now. So
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: something to keep in line in mind, you know, five
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: six years down the road for Bubba Chandler and Paul Skans.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: But pitching tonight too, carved up the Cardinals tonight over
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: four innings for shutout innings, just allowed one hit, one walk,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: three k's. But it isnt relief, And so do you
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: you read into something for that with the Pirates, Like
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: when you look at how they treated Paulstines, they just
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: hustled him through the minor leagues. This year for Buppa Chandler,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: they let him marinate probably too long down in Triple A,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: you know, to a point where he just wasn't pitching
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: well because I think he was stalling out a little
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: bit and frustrated. Now they're throwing him in the bullpen.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Does it give you any second guesses about kind of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: moving him into those upper tiers of pitching ranks going
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: into twenty twenty six.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it does. Chandler has taken a step back.
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Like if you look across the board, he's on Triple
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: A this year versus last year. Like the control seemed
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: like it was improving the last few years, Like it
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: took a big step back this year. The stuff was
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: not as good. He's not been as strong from a
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: strike up perspective, he has not kept the ball on
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: the ground as much. So I really do believe the
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: control inconsistency has been something he is really really struggling with.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: And that's why the bullpen push is one of two things.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: It's his future because the control, they just don't trust it.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: And out of the bullpen and he can be an
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: absolute weapon on the shorter three four extents, you know,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: trying to bridge from a guy like Schiens falls with
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: Chandler like there are some pretty nasty things you can
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: do there that it's that or they're keeping the innings down,
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: which is it's both are very very realistic things here,
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: but I Chandler is taking a step back this year,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: and this is this is one of those things why
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I don't love when teams leave their minor leaguers down,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: especially on the pitching side, when they're tearing things up,
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: because if they don't get up when they're comfortable, and
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: you bring them up when they're trying to figure out
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: some mechanical things, then it hits the confidence and then
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: they just don't really always figure things out. And that's
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: that's what I'm worried about with Chandler here. I'm just
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: gonna have a hard time buying in because I think
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: he's gonna be he's gonna look electric, which he is,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: but it's gonna hype train's gonna get out of the
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: station more than it's worth. And so I'm I'm selling
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: a little bit here on Chandler just because I think
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: the price is going to go up high because he's
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: gonna look he's fun to watch. He actually is, and
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: I think that's gonna drive prices up past where the
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: risk is really worth it.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Yep. I think that's all fair because I think i'd
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: rather have this guy that we're going to talk about
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the he's gonna be debuting Friday, so we haven't seen him,
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: but the numbers have been too fantastic to ignore across
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Double A and Triple A this year. We're talking New
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: York Mets's Jonah Tong, who over those two levels has
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: pitched to a one one hundred and thirteen innings one
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirteen point two innings I should say, a
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: one forty three air ra A one sixty seven to
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: FIP fourteen point two K nine. A little bit of
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: a walk issue in terms of a three point seven
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: walk per nine, but I mean when you're striking out
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: that many dudes and pairing it with the ground ball
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: rate that he's put up fifty three percent across those
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: two levels, it's fine'll play perfect fine the I mean
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: zips and ATC on the projections. I don't think I've
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: captured some of the great work he's put in this year.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: But between Steamer and Oopsie, you're already projecting a guy
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: for a mid threes er as a twenty two year
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: old rookie coming up for the Mets. Great home park,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: great offense to support him. You can tell how much
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: I love jonahanong. Are you in the same boat with me?
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I really do like him. I'm I'm probably not
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: as high on him as some others are. The surface
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: numbers look really really good, but I'm a little little
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: concerned about the pitch mix, and it shows up in
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: a few ways where you know, his control's great, his
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: strikeouts are great, his velocity is great, he keeps them
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: all on the ground. He knows all those things right,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: and he go deep into games like it's great. But
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: where he kind of gets dinged is his ex velocities,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: Like he can get hit hard at times. And if
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: you look at his pitch mix, he's like a five
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: percent fastball guy followed by a thirty two percent change guy,
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: and then he just sprinkles the slider and a curve there,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: and I don't know that he's really found that third
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: in or fourth pitch, And that's where it seems like
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: guys can kind of tunnel him up a little bit
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: here and there like they can kind of guess what's coming.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Is either the fastball to change and so he randomly
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: will get hit hard, is kind of what I'm a
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: little concerned about it, and I'm wondering how much that
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: third pitch is gonna develop. So I actually think he's
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: gonna come out of the gates blazing. I think he's
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: gonna come out of the gates blazing because you can
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: rely on that the the you know, a little bit
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: of the surprise methodology here. But I do think unless
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: he really kind of figures out his slider or or
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: his curve, it's gonna I'm a little concerned the long term. Hey,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: I get it, Spencer Strider and guys like this have
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: done it with two pitch guys, but I'm a little
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: concerned with this one just seeing that it seems like
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: he ever once will get squared up a little bit
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: more than some other guys out there. So that's a
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: little warning sign. He's still like a top the gene
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: prospect for me. So don't get me wrong, like there's
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: a lot to like here. I just I haven't elevated
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: him into that like elite category yet. I'd rather have
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: his Teammateel on the plane. He has definitely passed by
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: Brandon Sprout in this organization, but there's probably a few
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: other guys out there that I'm a little bit more
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: intrigued with at this point than Tong. But hey, we're
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: splitting hairs. We're splitting hairs.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they are important hairs, But yeah, I
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: mean I think it sounds so yeah, if he's top
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: ten for you, I think he's probably top five for me,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: you know, more so that, but like, yeah, I have
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: a little more faith in the strikeout stuff and just
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: like the team behind him. So yeah, I guess we'll
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: see how that debut goes on Friday. We can talk
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: about it next week because it's gonna be fun. As
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: he's entering that wild card mix. The next call up
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: we have is this is one I feel good about
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: because I was kind of calling for it for a
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: little bit and I think the lack of production for
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: Hasun Kim for the Tampa Bay Rays put together with
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: his back was starting to act up. It was time
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: for the race to call up Carson Williams, their short
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: their star shortstop there in tripa A this year as
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: a twenty two year old put up twenty three homers
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: twenty two stolen bases in one hundred and eleven games.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: But obviously you can tell him leaving something out there
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: because the batting average was two thirteen, the k rate
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: was thirty four percent. He does walk, so that does
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: certainly help your strikeouts or the stolen bases and the
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: speed profile because he does know the zone. It's just
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: the bat to ball isn't always there for Carson Williams,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and that's shown itself as he's played so far in
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: uh five games for the Rays, homer, stolen base, thirty
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: percent k rate, with a it's a three sixteen batting
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: average right now, but the babe up is underlying it.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: So I think what you're looking at probably in Carson
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Williams is something like a twenty five to twenty five
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: pace with like a two to twenty average and plenty
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and plenty of strikeouts, so certainly a usable player. Do
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: you think there's more here?
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: I I think you've scaled it up right, like I
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: wanted to. I wanted to compet to Marcus Simeon two degree.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Like Williams has a lot more strikeout like potential and
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: a little bit more volatility. But like he's not a
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: guy that's gonna hit for average, but he's gonna pad
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: your stats around it, and he's gonna be kind of
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: excited to watch, which is just the kind of the
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: same thing we get with Simeon, Like, yeah, they're doing it.
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: Maybe a little bit different approaches to a degree, but
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: it feels like a very very similar outcome that we
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: have with with Williams.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Here.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: It's it's you know, it is concerning the strikeouts, I
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: think are the big thing. Like, you know, he struck
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: out thirty four percent of the time in triple A
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: this year. That that does not play that Like, that's
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: you know, guys like led La Cruz can make that
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: happen with these unbelievable tools, and Carson Williams has good tools,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, but he's they he doesn't have
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: unbelievable tools like some of these guys out there. So
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: I think he's he's definitely worth picking up. He's definitely
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: worth throwing in the lineup and see what happens. And
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: this is the kind of guy that absolutely could like
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: hit the majors and just go bananas because he was
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: working on things constantly. The miners like I think we
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: forget about sometimes, like you're the miners to learn, and
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: so you know, they might've been having him work on
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: certain things like try to go all fields, try to
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: do all these other things, and then he gets up
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: here and he's just like, Nope, now lean into your
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: strength and do you It's all organizations that will play
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: that game. Tampa Bay is absolutely one of them, and
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: so I want to watch this one really closely because
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: he could be really, really sneaky good if he can
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: figure out a little bit more. If that batting average
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: just gets to like two fifty, man, Carson Williams could
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: be really really fun to watch.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that would be unstoppable, which I think
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: he can do. Like the thing about Williams that I
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: really love too is it's an elite, elite glove at shortstop.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: So this is the type of player where it might
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: take him a couple of years to really kind of
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: get used to the major league pitching and you know,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: we'll around that Mendoza line a lot but still produce
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the homers and the steals in a couple of years.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: I think you could be looking up at somebody who,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, even Bobby Witt junior kind of had this
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: track too where we weren't sure how much the strikeouts
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: would work, but he obviously posted better batting averages. You're
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, you could be looking at eighty ninety percent
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: of Bobby Wood junior peak when you talk Carson Williams
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: in a couple of years. So somebody did definitely keep
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: your your thumb or like a just a beat on
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: where he's going and how that strikeout rate is looking.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Because he's gonna play every day for the Rays starting
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six opening day, I.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: Think, yep, I fully agree.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's move on to that big Monsters contract extension
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I was talking about because he was just called up
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the other week. He'll give you a chance to talk
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: about Samuel Bassaio, who inked an eight year deal with
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: the Baltimore Orioles that will play him around sixty seven
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: million dollars through twenty thirty four. It has been, you know,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: not exactly the greatest debut, but I mean it's also
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: only been ten games, a two hundred average with five
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: RBIs for Besio so far still waiting on the first homer,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: but he's not striking out a lot. You know, it's
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: just kind of Once the babeup comes around and he
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: gets a couple homers, a couple doubles, that thing's going
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: to turn around. Because in TRIPLEA he was an elite
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: bat there two seventy three, seventy seven, five eighty nine
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: slash line. That's a one to fifty WRC plus with
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: twenty three homers in seventy six games as a twenty
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: year old, he should qualify pretty easily at catcher going
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: into next year. The question will be going forward if
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: they let him to continue to catch with Adlee ritchmand around.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: But what is your outlook here for Besio? Is he
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: in your top one hundred for the rest of the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: year and what are you doing with him going into
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six.
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that I got on the top
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: one hundred just because he is very young. He's he's
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: gonna be kind of learning, but I think he's got
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: a huge, huge future. I was very surprised he was
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: not call out at the same time as Dylan Beaver's
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: until this extension got announced that it made a lot
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: more sense, you know, because they they this was very
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: strategic based on the draft pick compensation. UH to get
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: that that deal done before calling up because I think
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: there was a little bit of gamesmanships that he can
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: still be eligible uh to get draft pick compensation based
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: on rookie the year finishing next year. But I think,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: you know, this might spell the end of things for
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: a guy like a Ryan Mountain console Castle on on
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: the Orioles, because I don't see them moving on from Adley,
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: and I think this is gonna be one of those
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: that they use the catcher and the DH position to
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: cycle these guys through. Besidles played some first base as well,
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: so you know that, you know, right now they got
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: Kobe my Mayo there and you know he'll he'll figure
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: some things out. So I think Besidles got a bright future.
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: Not a top one hundred hitter for me right now.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: I think it's just he's going to have a learning
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: curve at the age that he is. But I think
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: that learning curve is going to disappear and you know
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: next year, like the catching the catching positions got really interesting,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: like it really has it. It is like all of
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: a sudden, just just very busy and so like I like,
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: I want to say he's the top ten catcher, but
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: like there's a lot of top ten catchers at this point,
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: so I haven't really sat down and gone through what
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: it looks like for next year. But I don't have
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: a qualm with him as a starting catcher because I
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: think he's gonna play a lot too. Uh, he's gonna
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: play almost every day because they're gonna cycle him in
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: get him that rest. And we've talked about how valuable
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: that is in the catcher position, getting just all those
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: extra bats by being able to rotate in the DH spot.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: So I like him long term. I'm not too bullish
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: for the rest of the season because I think he's just
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: gonna take a little adjustment. But but yeah, this is
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: a great bat going forward.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you'll be able to get him top
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: ten just because it's gonna help that Wilson Contraras doesn't
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: qualify catcher next year. But you look at somebody like
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Ben Rice is going to be right next to Samuel
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: by Stilo. I think in terms of value and hype
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: going into next year, it's certainly gonna help that. I mean,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Ben Rice is one of the most absurd baseball spinn
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: pages I've ever heard or I've ever seen, and it's
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: in Yankee stadium as a lefty with catcher eligibility, it's
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: going to be a hot commody next year. So maybe
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: it's also if anything, it might keep a little heat
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: off of Besio going into the draft season because there's
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: gonna be lots of different options, but could also take
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: a lot heat off of somebody really great like Hunter
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: Goodman or something too. So I'm excited because I think
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: you can wait on Ketcher going to twenty twenty six
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and still get a pretty nice bat there.
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about some of those Baseball card releases
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: that we've got coming up. So everything that we've been discussing,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: you can check out those links to the actual news
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: stories in our show notes of this podcast. You can
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: also find in there the calendar that I'm about to
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: rattle off for the baseball card releases coming up over
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: the next it's just over two weeks. We've got a
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: lot coming because things have been delayed throughout the summer,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: and then there's a break next week for Labor Day
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: where Tops isn't putting anything out, but then they've got
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: to try to push some stuff out the Dour before
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: Update Regular Flagship and Update Chrome come out because they're
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: going to be some pretty popular sets considering I think
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: your Ale MVP is going to be buried in that
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: Chrome update set.
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: Yep, that's the color out there. Have you looked at
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: some of the checklists so of these coming out and I,
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: you know, not to steal the thunder, but is he
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: in the logo fractor or Sapphire?
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: A good question?
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: I will let you look that up.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm rattling off of these actual releases because as
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: we're talking here on August twenty seventh, it's actually a
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: triple release day. We had Tops Chrome Logo Fractor and
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome Sapphire both hitting shells, which are premium Tops
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Chrome products, where Logo Fractor I think it's the third
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: year running. Now where what it is it's just regular
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome and it's regular set, and then they're putting
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: a little sheen of like there's actually a base like
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: there's a parallel of this in Tops Chrome. So this
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: is actually gonna get really confusing going forward to where
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to look at the back on the
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: codes to determine if it's the parallel from the regular
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Tops Chrome release or if it's a Tops Chrome Logo
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: Fractor release plus I bet there's a little bit of
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: checklist variation, but it is just a MLB refractor like
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: logo over the top of it logo fractor duh. And
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: so we also have Crop Tops Chrome Sapphire been around
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: for a long time, very popular, very short printed, very
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: expensive Panini Boys of Summer came out today two and eight,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: twenty seven. So we've talked about this a little bit,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: a fun set in terms of great just relics and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: stuff and designs in it. A little overpriced for my taste,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: but something that if you get your hands on it
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: could be a fun rip. We've got actually later this
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: week Panini Impeccable coming out on the twenty ninth, that's
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the Friday release, and that is a really high end
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Panini product. Then when we get into September, we will
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: certainly have a overview of this when it comes to
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the release date, twenty twenty five Bowm and Chrome coming
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: out on nine ten. Nine seventeen, you're seeing the release
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five Tops Tier one, which is kind
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: of a mid tier product. Also in nine seventeen you
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: got Panini three and two, which is also in kind
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: of that range of a little bit of some fancy stuff,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: but not always like the most fanciest of fancy like
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: Impeccable or Dynasty or anything like that. So what have
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: you found for us? Are are we looking for some
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: cal Rally cards and logo, fractor and sapphire We are not.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: I think we're following the checklist from earlier in the year.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: Cal Rally in PCA if it matters, which it doesn't,
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: are not in logo, fractor or Sapphire sets. So that's
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: gonna bring them down a little bit. But that's gonna
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: that's gonna just hype up the update product.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean they've already flagship updated.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: Ky Rally, mister mvpak on it. Now we'll be searching for.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Him, yes, exactly, the and with five update they've already released,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: like the kind of pictures of it, and it's got
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: PCA emblazoned all over it, which is kind of funny,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: and considering the kind of month and a half he's had,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: we'll see who. I don't think we had the face
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: of Chrome update yet, but honestly it might end up
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: being cal Rawley. Why not, because that's what everybody's gonna
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: be looking for in that set. So all right, with that,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: we are going to wrap up our news and notes section,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: take a little break. We're gonna come back and talk
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: about prospect stashes. So stick around everybody, all right, Welcome
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: back everybody. So we are going to get into some
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: of those prospect stashes that we were talking about. So
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: guys are gonna be looking at It looks like most
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: of them are in single or high A, but we
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: got one complex guy and one double A guy. But
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: what we're looking at here is players that, especially you know,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: if you're in deeper keeper leagues or auto new formats,
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: which we really love, these are the guys that you're
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: going to want to either be you know, picking up
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: at the end of season to try to roll into
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six with, or honestly, we're we're also talking
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: during like the last final days of most Fantasy Baseball
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: trade deadlines out there. So these are guys I would
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: absolutely be targeting if they're already rostered in your leagues.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I think we're looking at guys who have performed really
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: well in twenty twenty five, have just enough prospect pedigree,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: but also because of just kind of the lag of
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: when top prospect lists come out and those especially being
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: focused in the offseason. Some of the lists haven't quite
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: been updated to incorporate some of the on field production
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: that these players have done. Slash, I would say a
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: couple of these guys too, where big fantasy bats, maybe
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: the glove isn't quite there, So you can kind of
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: find a little bit of daylight in terms of what
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: the actual like you know, Eric Longenhingen's fangrafts rankings are
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and what you should be looking for in fantasy, and
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: so lots of really fun guys to consider any like
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: overall considerations when you're trying to look at prospects kind
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: of in this realm to pick up late in the year, Brewer,
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: if there are hallmarks that you're looking for to be
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: able to capitalize on and carry forward for you.
• 57:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm looking for like the guys that
• 57:29
  Speaker 2: could just absolutely break out, and so you're talking looking
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: for guys that generally have the multiple tools they're gonna
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: play out. You're looking for the guys that are young
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: for their for their level playing, and also guys that
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: are are going into generally a good situation, good organization
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: that that's kind of what I'm looking for. So you know,
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: there's certain teams that are willing to promote fast and
• 57:54
  Speaker 2: bring guys up if they're doing what need to do.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: There's other organizations that just won't, And so I think
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: like that has to go into the conderation when you're
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: looking at these So, like I said, looking for toolsy guys,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: looking for guys that are playing above their age at
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: the level they're doing, and looking for good organizations that
• 58:11
  Speaker 2: esteem that they know what they're doing with prospects and
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: are willing to kind of accelerate those types of guys,
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: because I don't love grabbing prospects and hold them for
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: three or four years. Like it's it's kind of like
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: a cash flow thing, right. You got to be able
• 58:22
  Speaker 2: to move those guys through, decide who's not who is,
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: and make make a decision. If you wait on a
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: guy that you know he's eighteen and he's not gonna
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: be up until he's twenty four, you just lost a
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: lot of time that you could have been cycling through
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: other guys and finding those hidden gyms. So that's kind
• 58:37
  Speaker 2: of what I'm looking for about how about you.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm in relatively the same area. But
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: it's also like the real big key here is like
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: you're looking at guys usually in A and high A ball,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: but like guys that you can see where the performance
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: has been so good that it's it's not hard to see.
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty six spring training, they break camp in
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: double A, they get up to Triple A, they get
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: their cup of coffee in September, and then they hit
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the ground running from there. So I'm looking for guys
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: who can escalate through systems pretty quick, just like you said,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and just trying to find, you know, maybe that second
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: layer of dudes who you know, we're not talking about
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: guys who just got drafted in terms of you know,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: like you're Liam Doyle's or your Katie Anderson's where I
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: think the kind of general I don't even know if
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: they're necessarily the general fantasy baseball kind of group because
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: they're all like super fantasy like into baseball depth charts
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: and everything sort of nerds. But this is kind of
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: like that next crust below. So like what reminds me
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: of is like last year, you know this, especially in
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: our Auto New League, Like this is where I picked
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: up Leo Devriese and Sebastian Walcott really early last year
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: had hostit Topaula and traded them out, but those guys
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: all then escalate their way up to like top ten
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Fantasy prospects status this year. I think what we've got
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: here in these seven players, you're looking at guys who
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: can really rise to those ranks. Great tools, great systems, and
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: just the opportunities right in front of them. So with that,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: let's dive into it. I will actually kind of go
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: first here because I'm excited about this dude. We haven't
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: gotten to talk about him yet this season, and I
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: am super jazzed about him. We talk sometimes about like
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: guys in our autter new league where my finger is
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: constantly hovering above them. This is one of them where
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: it's tough to not press the buttoned auction in every day.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: And also, hello, everybody in our a new league that's
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: listening to this, and I'm about to auction all these
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: dudes on me. I'm talking Edward Florentino, first basement outfielder
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: from the Pittsburgh Pirates, eighteen year old, gone across two
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: levels this year and complex ball and a ball has
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: slashed two ninety eight four ten five sixty seven. That's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: a one sixty six WRC plus sixteen homers, thirty four
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: stolen bases. This is a guy who is six foot
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: four to two hundred pounds, essentially like a couple inches
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: shorter version of onneal Cruise. I think so the eggs
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: of velocities are off the charts. Also another guy who
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: we've hinted at this a little bit in terms of
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: the actual prospect value, if you're going off of like
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: fangrass On Eric Longenhegen's it's only a forty five because
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: the fielding's a little suspect here and the speed is low.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: But I think he's stealing these bases because he's smart
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: and also six foot four. I don't think it takes
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: some more than like three strides to get from first
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: a second if he's trying to swipe a base in
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: the minor so maybe the actual speed will kind of
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: slow down as Florentino moves his way up the latter
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: into Pittsburgh, but the bat is legit. I think you're
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: looking at somebody who's gonna be, you know, almost like
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Jordon Alvarez ish too, Like it's gonna be a corner
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: for Space DH profile, but it's gonna be a really,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: really loud bat, so I think this is the time
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: now to strike on. Florentino reminds me a lot of
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: like that sort of Sebastian Walcott too, where there are
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: certainly some flaws in terms of, you know, the strikeout
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: rate could be shaved a little bit, but at the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: end of the day, he's putting up an eighty six
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: percent contact rate and single a as an eighteen year
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: old maybe not Like this is a guy where the
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: tools and the bat are going to be ready very
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: very soon for Florentino. So what do you think about him?
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think you're you're right there is
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: like he's a very toolsy guy. You know, you have
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: to really like these these young guys that are showing
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: like solid plate approaches, Like that's what that's what really
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: excites me. Guys at this this level when they're not
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: like out there trying to like prove that they belong.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: Like you're you're sitting there at you know, eighteen years old,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: just taking good at bats, putting the bat on the ball,
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: and then when you get an opportunity, you're just making
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: the most of it because uh, there there's really little
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: in this profile as you look at the results that
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: show him like pressing, he's he's you know, putting the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: ball relseley all around the field like he's doing all
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: the good, good things that you want to see. There's
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: not like this isn't like an overly ground ball profile,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: which is something that I think you do have to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: watch out for on these kind of tools, you guys
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: early in their in their career, you don't want to
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: see them putting the ball on the ground too much.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: You want to see them getting that lift which can
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: develop as they mature into true power because you know,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: we're talking eighteen year olds like that raw power versus
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: game power, Like that's a whole, the whole different thing
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: of what they can do. So I think, you know,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: Florentino here has definitely got a lot to like. You know,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: I think he's more of a twenty seven guy for me,
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: I don't know that he's gonna jump up. I think
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 2: your Walcott example is perfect. This is a guy all
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: of a sudden, he's gonna be rising up. He's gonna
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: be in articles, peoplere gonna be talking about him, and
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 2: everyone's gonna be like, well, why didn't I see this coming? Right?
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 2: And that's there's this time between those mid year prospect
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: rankings and then the early next year that these guys,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: you know, we're just getting a taste and just getting started,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: they go on the radar. So I really like this pick.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: All right, well, who is your pick to kick off
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: our discussion here? Yeah, so I'm gonna go with a
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 2: guy that, like, at the end of the day, is
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: pretty gosh darn similar to the guys this is coin
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 2: but for me between two, yeah, it's Florentino here. And
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: I was actually looking at some numbers and if you
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 2: actually look at twenty one younger prospects with more than
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: fifteen homers and thirty steals this uh, this year, there's
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: four guys in the miners that have done that. I
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: think you've heard of Connor Griffin, he's pretty good. Uh.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: And R Swearow is a guy that we haven't really
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: talked about, but he's there. Otherwise is Edward Guarantiro and
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: Edward H. Florentino. Uh. And so like this, those two guys,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: like they're they're shown up on lists. Toggether. But you know,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: so Quintio here Dodgers nineteen year old. He's not the
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: quite physical specimen that Florentino is UH six one five,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: so he's definitely got a little or filling out that
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: he can do. But through twenty twenty five and he's
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: played at a ball in high A hit two ninety
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: five for sixteen five oh four WRC plus one fifty two,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: sixteen homers, forty five steals. Guy's just flying. Now. He's
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: not the most efficient, basically, he's been caught twelve times there,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: but he's he's walking to sixteen percent rates and only
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: striking out at a twenty three percent rate. I don't
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: get me wrong, as he's gone up to hi A,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: I think it's taking a little bit step back in
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: a few of those. But you can just see the
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: tools here are just absolutely phenomenal. I love the fact
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: that when you look, he's hitting line drives almost twenty
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: five percent of the time. He he's going apo a
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: third of the time, like he's pulling about forty percent,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: Like he is absolutely using all fields and is swinging.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: He's a pretty decent defender as well. He's he's played
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: center field for the most most of the time, but
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: he's played all outfield positions in his short minor league career.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 2: So this is a good organization to be in. We
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: talk about that it's good to be in a Dodgers organization.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 2: The only downfall is playing time. Sometimes when you get
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 2: to the top is a little bit harder to find. So,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: but I think this is another bat that is going
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: to really rise up the prospect risk list this offseason.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is a great pick. It's somebody
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: that I was considering making my number one two, but
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: I like Florentino just to tick more. He's my one A, Cantaros,
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: my one B. Another guy who's running like a seventy eight,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: seventy nine, eighty one percent in High A in terms
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: of contact rates, so you know that the contact is there.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: That you can sometimes be fooled when you see these
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: players in the lower minor leagues that are running double
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: digit walk rates like Florentino and Kintaro, because the pitching
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: is just not good. But if you're running an eighty
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: percent contact rate, that means you actually know the zone
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: and you're knowing which to swing at. And then, Yeah,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: the one thing that I think I like Florentino better
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: for is just the opportunity in Pittsburgh to be able
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: to fight through that system. Like I said, reminds me
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: of a lot of O'Neal Cruz, and they moved O'Neil
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: Cruz pretty aggressively. If it wasn't for him being a
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: shortstop and trying to develop that, I think he would
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: have moved faster. But you don't have to worry about
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: with that, Florentino. With Kintaro, it is a question of
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: where do the Dodgers make room for him, especially now
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: that and Pajes is established. But leftfield will be open
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: for the Dodgers next year. It's just kind of like,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: is that spot determined for Jose Dopaula or Mike Serota
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: or Eduardo Kintaro. So I'm sure they'll figure it out
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: with some trades and stuff. But great pick here in Kintaro.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: All right, where we go next?
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to the infield. I'm giving you a
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: trio shortstops, because everyone's a shortstop when you're coming up
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: through the minor leagues here and especially when you're some
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: of the best bats that are out there. So I'm
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: gonna throw three of the match you. I'm gonna have them.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: Have you then ranked them in terms of what your
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: preference is. So first, We're gonna start with Johnny Level
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: from the San Francisco Giant system. He is currently in
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: A ball and was acquired at last year's Jan signing
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: period in twenty twenty four. Across two levels this year,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: two seventy four, three sixty six, four forty six slash line.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: That's a one to twelve WRC plus. Not quite as great,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: but all of the just scouting around Johnny Level has
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: been fantastic this year. Is as short or. He's a
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: switch hitting shortstop, which is gonna be bonus points as well.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Eleven homers, twenty stolen bases, running a seventy seven percent
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: in zone contact rate, which we love to see. The
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: next short stop I want you to consider Caleb Bonnomer
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: from Chicago White Sox, drafted last year in the second
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: round out of high school in Oklahoma, has played in
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: two levels this year. Is at High A. He has
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: been slashing two eighty four, four oh five, four sixty
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: nine that's a one to fifty WRC plus. Is a
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: nineteen year old across those two levels. Ten homers, twenty
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: seven stolee bases, seventy two runs, twenty one percent k rate,
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: sixteen percent walk rate seventy eight percent in zone contact
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: rate over the two levels. It has been lower at
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: High A at fifty six percent, but it's also been
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: oh one game, my bad. I he only got called
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: up this past week. It was seventy eight percent before
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: that in Low A. Last one I want you to consider.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: We have Jojo Parker, another shortstop from the Toronto Blue
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Jays we're looking at now, and he actually has not
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: yet debuted, has he now that I'm looking it up
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: in fangrafts. He was this year's pick in twenty twenty five,
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: but everything has been pointing to him being a fantastic
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: guy who can move really quickly through the system. So
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: we will see whether or not they actually get him
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: any playing time here down the draft or post draft,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: because they haven't assigned him, although it's been a little
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: bit slow in terms of getting the assignments for some
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: of those players after the twenty twenty five draft. Taken
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: eighth overall as a high schooler out of Mississippi, maybe
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: I'll be seeing him at the yearson a fall league.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: That'd be pretty sweet. So who's your choice you have
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: between Johnny Lovell, Caleb Bonnomer, Jojo Parker. I forced you
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: to stash one of them away for your auto new team.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Let me know who it is who would be second,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: because I'm gonna make your rank all three and give
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: me what's kind of the distinguishing factors.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: I knew you would. So here we are. So yeah,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: first all this is reverse order. Let's do this reverse
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: under five.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: So my my third guy is gonna be Caleb Bonnemer.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: You know, there's a few things about him. Really seems
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: to be a good bat. I think when you look
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: at what he's done so far in the in the
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: minor leagues, is you know, he's he's stole a lot
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: of bases. The power is still kind of trying to
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: be figured out. Again. He's a young guy, he's nineteen
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: almost twenty. I don't think he's going to be a
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: guy that runs much long term. He is a bigger guy.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: He's sixty to one, almost two hundred pounds. His steals
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: right now, he's not stealing the most efficiently. He twenty
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 2: some steeals caught eight times. I think as he goes
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: up the minors, I don't think he's going to run
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: as much. He is going to be a little bit
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: more of a corner infield type of guy. I also
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: I have to ding him. It's not fair, it's not
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: fair to you. But he's a white Sox system, not
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: the best developing guys. I think that's going to hold
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: him back to a degree as well. And so as
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: I look at a few of the things, you know,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: I think he's still a really good prospect, but I'm
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: going to just put him a tick down there as
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: I kind of look at the underlying things that he's
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: trying to do. Going from there, weird to go to
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 2: number two, which for me is Johnny Level, Johnny Levell.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: I do really, really like this really great play to
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: pro I think that the speed that we're seeing is
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 2: a little bit more true like he is, uh, I
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: think there's still more to put on, Like he's listed
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: on fangrass is five ten to fifty four, Like that's
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 2: a small Guyah, there's no way. But like I think
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: he's still like he this is the guy is truly
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: still growing into things. But what I do like is
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: that he's got a little bit more of a you know,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: balanced approach at the plate. Like if you look at Bottomer,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: he pulls fifty three percent of the things that he
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: hits that's that's really really high for a minor leaguer,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: whereas level he's kind of spraining all fields. He's forty
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: percent pull THIRTYO and so you can see that he's
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: a little bit he seems a little bit more refined
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: the plate, and you know, ultimately, I think that this
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: profile plays a little bit better a little bit longer.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: I do have a little bit of question of does
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: he stick at short long term. I don't know that
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: he's been the best fielder. I think that's going to
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: be a challenge for him. Which brings me to my
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: number one guy here, which is Jojo Parker. It's hard
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: because you don't see any actual results at the minor
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: league level, but coming into this year's draft, like, he
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: was arguably one of the best bats, definitely the best
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: prep bat. Like there was talk that he could be
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 2: a number one guy, but there's just too much hype
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: around other guys, and so I think the Blues's actually
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: gotta steal later. You know, he's been compared to a
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: guy like JJ Weatherholt, who is like flying up rankings
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: that you can do. He is a true bat, like
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: you actually listen to the guy talk. He's never really
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: had a hitting coach, he's never really had a fielding coach.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 2: I think like he's raw as rock and get but
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 2: like he has a very very pure swing, very very athletic,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 2: and I think he's gonna be a very quick riser.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: I've actually seen him on some of those like sneaky
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: late season prospects list already up in the top thirty,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: top forty prospects, and I think he just because he
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: hasn't gotten the field and they're gonna kind of slow
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: play that. I think he's gonna be a little bit
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: sneakier because people just aren't talk talking about him because
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 2: that is that prep BAP. I think he's going to
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: move fast, So they're all pretty gushtrounk close there. But
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: I'm taking Parker a little bit over level, and I
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: think it got those a little bit bigger gap to
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: Bottomer there. Do you degree or am I crazy? No?
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: I think that's probably the right ranking. There's a little
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: you know, nuanced in terms of what you're looking for
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: to add to your team too, because if you're looking
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: for the guy that makes it first to the majors,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: it's probably Bonhomer where Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, yeah,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: where like there, it's pretty easy I think to find
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: a pathway to second or third base for the White
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: Sox next year.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: It's pretty easy pathway I find most things with the
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: Life Sox.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: It's got shrouded a little bit on that infield between
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: Lenin Sosa, Chase my drop and Colson Montgomery. Now, so
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: there's that factor. But Bottomer can easily, if he hits
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: his way up, can find a spot there. So that's
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: a consideration if you're looking for It is close between
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: I think Level and Parker. I kind of flip flop
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: between them because because Parker's ceiling is higher but the
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: floor is lower. I think Level right now is a
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: slightly lower ceiling, much higher floor because of the switch hitting.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: And you just look at his grades on prospects wise
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: from Erica long and hanging on fingers, it's fifties across
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: the board. The one thing is, like, I do think
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: that they could put him at second base in San
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: Francisco because short stops locked up by Willia Damis, their
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: base is locked up by Matt Chapman. You can easily
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: put Level at second base, which has just been a
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: total disaster. For the Giants over the past couple of years,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: so you could see that happening, Parker. I mean, Boba
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: Schet's gonna be a free agent this offseason, and you
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: can certainly shuffle that infield around a little bit. I
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: think he could be a fast riser, but like you said,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: he's also so raw it makes it a little tough
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: to know kind of what that floor will ultimately be.
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: But I think if you have to go just straight
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: value right now, you've probably got the right ranking and
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: then it could shift very easily as we get into
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: next year and see those assignments for each player. All right, Well,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: that wraps up the shortstop section. Let's get into a
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: couple of pictures because we especially I'm thinking about like
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: the intro talk, most of it was hit or focused,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: and there's a reason because like this is not exactly
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: the time to be stashing away pictures, because one most
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: of the best ones have been called up. I mean,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: we just talked about Jonah Toong getting called up. We've
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: talked about plenty of others between, like Bubba Chandler, and
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: lots of the pictures move very quickly nowadays, and so
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: I think that's also why it's like indicative of like
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: seeing what the Phillies are doing with Andrew Painter, you
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like you can really trust I
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: think organizations to move pictures quickly because there's no point
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: in stashing them in today's modern baseball game, the way
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: the pictures flam out and the way it's so reliever heavy.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: So there's not as much emphasis I think from us
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: on pictures, but there's still a few lingering out there.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: I think that are guys who have kind of started
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: to really prove themselves, especially in High A and Double A,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: that will make sense to stash. So I'm gonna pass
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: it over to you for our first pitcher to discuss
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: here in the Prospect Stashes.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm gonna go with a guy that you
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: know part of its organization again, we talk about guys
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: that can move fast, and part of it is just
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: the I think the mystery around what we're gonna get
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 2: with Owen Murphy the Atlanta Braves. Owen Murphy is at
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 2: High A for the Braves here and he came he
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 2: had Tommy John surgery in twenty four and then he
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: kind of worked his way back and is just now
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: getting kind of a taste of things, and this is
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 2: a guy that has a pretty solid multi pitch mix,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: which is it, which is great to see. He throws
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: up I believe, five different pitches. It's just a matter
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: of what we're what you're you're truly gonna see from him,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 2: but they all great, relatively similar. Fastball's pretty strong, he's
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: got a good slider, more of a lower nineties guys,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 2: He's not gonna be a upper nineties. But since he's
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: kind of come come back in twenty five, he's just
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: been absolutely dominant. You know. It's it's great. It's twenty
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: two innings. I get it, it's not much, but we're
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: talking about a twenty eight strikeouts to how many walks
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: do we have here? I'm having done the math to
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: a whole two walks. You know, he's making hitters look silly.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: It's a thirty eight percent kra versus a three percent
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: walk rate. He's he's pound on the zone. He's always
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 2: been athletic, his his he's always had a really good control,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: which I think plays up and then playing in this
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: brave system, it looks like he's a guy that they're
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: gonna move very very quickly. Now that he's through that,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: Tommy John sturg is exciting to see that kind of
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 2: just in the rear rear view mirror for a guy
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: that's he probably got a lot of benefit of just
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: sitting in that Atlanta system watching things develop. So really
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: good pitch ability here, really does a good job of
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: controlling the zone. And you know, when you look at
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: him as a twenty one year old, you know, six
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 2: to one guy, he's playing like he should be in
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: double or triple A already coming off of that injury.
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: So I wouldn't be shocked to see him get like
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: a few games that maybe double A to finish the
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: season here and really start to angle in on why
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 2: he was a you know, first round or overall. And
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: I think I have him right inside my top ten
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 2: starting pitcher rankings from a minor league perspective at this
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 2: point in time. So I like Owen Murphy. There's a
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: lot to look at there with that, with that big
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: multi pitch mix, and we'll see if he can keep
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: up the early results after coming back from Tommy John.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love this call. This dude absolutely would have
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: been pitching for the Braves in twenty twenty four if
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: he didn't go down with the Eubow injury in May.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: You know he was shredding high A in twenty twenty
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: four before he went down. Reer now in the minor
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: leagues across all levels one hundred and sixty four and
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: two thirds innings twenty five point two K minus bb uh.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: This dude's absolutely going to be in the Braves rotation
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. So great stash, great call, and
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: great organization to call out.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: All right, where are you going? We'll finishals out with
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 2: your pitcher that you wanna, that you think is gonna
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: make an impact next year?
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, I am a little disappointed that Owen
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Murphy is only sixty one one ninety because you know,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: we love the big boys around here on the pitching round,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: so I had to hook us up. I'm talking Jackson
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: Wiggins from the Chicago Cubs in Double A for them
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: right now, six six two twenty five out of Arkansas
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: comp pick in twenty twenty three. It's kind of amazing
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: that he hasn't made it up to the big leagues
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: for the Cubs this year because he's been electric over
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: high A and double A hunt or just sixty five
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: and a third innings with a one ninety three e
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: area two sixty fifth an eleven point to K nine
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: ground ball rate maybe not quite what we would want.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: It's at thirty nine percent. It has been higher in
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: the past, but I think the Cubs have also been
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: tweaking his pitch mix a little bit to have him
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: move that fastball to the top of the strike zone.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: It is a seventy great fastball per Eric Longenhagen at Fangrafts,
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: and it's just big electric stuff the size, and I
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: do wonder if like he can learn to manipulate the fastballs,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: because then it's kind of like, honestly, this is lance
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: Lynnish to me, like in terms of size, guy from
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: Arkansas too in terms of the South, and just like
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: a force on the mound. But I think, just like Murphy,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: you're looking at a guy here in Wiggins where there's
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: a really good chance he breaks camp with the Cubs
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: going into next year. He's been really good at double A. Honestly,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: he might still make a debut this year down the stretch.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: It's kind of telling that the Cubs were not willing
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: to move him at the deadline, considering how much they
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: have on the line for this season with Kyle Tucker
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: being a free agent, that this would have been the
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: year to push in somebody like Jackson Wiggins and trade
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: him for Aohennio Squires or something like that. But the
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: Cubs held onto him, and I think there's a reason
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: for it that they love the electric arm, and I
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: think he's gonna be all systems go in twenty twenty six.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: That either, like I said, late twenty twenty five debut
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: still on the cards. Maybe he breaks camp at twenty
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: twenty six, but I mean, you're not looking much past
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: like a late May debut I think for Jackson Wiggins.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, there's a lot to like here, big
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 2: big arm. It's it's kind of a question of can
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: he can he keep it rained in enough to really
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 2: make make that impact. That's the only question I have
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 2: with Wiggins here. Everything else looks really, really good, and
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 2: so I do question whether he's he's the kind of
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 2: guy like in a Chandler situation, bubble Chandler situation, like
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 2: he'd be really interesting to see bring the bull bang.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: The one drawback is he just doesn't have a lot
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 2: of innings under his belt, and I think that that's
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: gonna be something to challenge, so I do think that
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: there's a change. They call them up and put them
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 2: in a bullpen roll just to kind of see some
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 2: of that high octane stuff, see how it plays, get
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: them a little taste, because you're right, there's little left
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 2: to prove in the minor leagues here for Wiggins, beyond
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 2: maybe honing that control what we talked about earlier. When
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: things are going well for these guys, get them up,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 2: get the benefit, and see if they they can get
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 2: comfortable to majors. So I love this pick with Wiggins.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, that's going to wrap us up for
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: this week. So Brew, let everybody know where they can
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: find you, read your work and reach out to you
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: in socials.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me on socials, Twitter, ex Blue Sky, Jambrewer
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: one seven five me on weekends doing top one hundred
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: hitter rankings and hitter profiles. Will probably be doing mostly
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: hitter profiles the rest of this year. Top one hundred
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: rankings are not too valuable when there's only a few
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: weeks left in the season, so we'll maybe take little
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: hiatus there, but come out interact on Sundays on rasball. Cool.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 2: Where can people find you?
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am on ras ball on Saturdays doing those
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: Waiver Wire columns. We've only got a couple of weeks left,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: as you alluded to, but it's going to get real weird.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: I love this part of the season because you get
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: into one week streams, you get into a lot of
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: Rockies home matchups, and hopefully we see some of maybe
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: you know, like a Jackson Wigans debut that we can
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: talk about. So certainly going to be Jonah Toong based
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: piece this week because I'm looking forward to that start
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: on Friday night. You can find me on Socials on
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: blue Sky at m cool seven. You can also find
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: the podcast on blue Sky at Cards Categories. You can
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: email the podcast at cards Categories at gmail dot com
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: looking for any cards and Categories gear. I know you
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: are get some of those hats winters right around the corner. Man.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: It got cooler in the Midwest where we're at, so
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: maybe you even want to cards and Categories Beanie, We've
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: got the hookup. Go into those show notes. That is
• 1:24:43
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• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: with cards and categories logos. Thanks to everybody for checking
• 1:24:49
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• 1:25:01
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• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: and we will see you, same time, same place next week.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: Take care of everybody,