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Hot Sheet: NL Central Top Prospects · Foul Territory

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  Speaker 1: But I think you look at a guy that has,
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  Speaker 1: you know, excellent bats of ball skills, really good on
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  Speaker 1: base ability, works at bats, is really cerebral about his
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  Speaker 1: at bats, and.
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  Speaker 2: He probably has more power than Breckman does.
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  Speaker 1: Time to at the Saint Louis Cardinals top prospect. This
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  Speaker 1: is your BA prospect profile. The name is JJ Weatherhilt.
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  Speaker 1: It's Scott bron with JJ Cooper and Jeff Pond's from
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  Speaker 1: Baseball America. But Jeff, you start by telling us about
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  Speaker 1: the JJ that the Saint Louis Cardinals have and felt
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  Speaker 1: very fortunate to pick.
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  Speaker 2: In last year's draft.
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  Speaker 1: Some thought he could go number one overall and the
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  Speaker 1: Cardinals were like, whoa, We're at seven and we land
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  Speaker 1: this guy. Yeah, this was one of those kind of
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  Speaker 1: all time draft slides. I think, I mean, we'll see
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  Speaker 1: if the proof is in the pudding here, but this
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  Speaker 1: is almost like a guy that could have gone number
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  Speaker 1: one in the NFL Draft. But think about like Aaron
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  Speaker 1: Rodgers sitting in that room forever in that draft and
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  Speaker 1: Smith going on and then him dropping drop and dropping
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  Speaker 1: down the board. It kind of almost felt like that
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  Speaker 1: with Weatherhole. We had heard us prior to the draft
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  Speaker 1: as early as that morning that the pick could be
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  Speaker 1: weather Halt instead of set of Bazaga at one. I
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  Speaker 1: think you kind of look at some of the Guardian's
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  Speaker 1: tastes and weather Hal fits that, and what do I
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  Speaker 1: mean by that? Weather Halt has a great combination of skills.
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  Speaker 1: He's an outlier sort of bat to ball guy, has
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  Speaker 1: excellent approach, and there's some impact there as well. But
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  Speaker 1: this is a guy that you know, was the the
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  Speaker 1: batting champ of Division I baseball as a sophomore, dealt
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  Speaker 1: with some injuries as a junior. But I think we're
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  Speaker 1: going to really see weather Halt and sort of all
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  Speaker 1: of his glory again in twenty twenty five. This is
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  Speaker 1: a guy that was getting consistent fifty five to sixty
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  Speaker 1: run times from scouts across the industry. And I kind
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  Speaker 1: of circled back and pulled some guys that had seen
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  Speaker 1: him in the summer and sort of late fall and said,
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  Speaker 1: is he running better now? What's going on? And the
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  Speaker 1: run times were back up, which was great to see.
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  Speaker 1: But I think you look at the all around player here.
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  Speaker 1: It's somebody who could maybe profile at shortstop or multiple
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  Speaker 1: spots in the infield. Maybe isn't a shortstop long term,
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  Speaker 1: has the tools to profile at third base or at
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  Speaker 1: second base, certainly has the bat to fill in at
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  Speaker 1: third base, and the comp that I typically put on
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  Speaker 1: him is very similar to Alex Bregman in terms of
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  Speaker 1: the player. They're a different mentality, but I think you
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  Speaker 1: look at a guy that has, you know, excellent bats
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  Speaker 1: of ball skills, really good on base ability, works at bats,
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  Speaker 1: is really cerebral about is at bats, and he probably
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  Speaker 1: has more power than Bregman does, but maybe not as
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  Speaker 1: clean of barrels as Bregnant catches, which is kind of
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  Speaker 1: his superpower. But it's a similar type of player, and
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  Speaker 1: I think could maybe in the end, we could be
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  Speaker 1: looking back in five or six years and say this
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  Speaker 1: is the best hitter that got drafted this year.
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  Speaker 3: I think the other similarity you can pull here is
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  Speaker 3: when Alex Bregman was drafted is like, well where is
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  Speaker 3: he going to play? And in his case, it was like, well,
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  Speaker 3: you're not going to move Carl's career off a shortstop.
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  Speaker 3: I think the kind of the same thing applies here.
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  Speaker 3: Weatherholt should move really quickly. He's not going to move
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  Speaker 3: Mason Win off short stop either, because Mason Win that's
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  Speaker 3: kind of his calling card and that absolute, real gun
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  Speaker 3: of an all. But that versatility, that that batting ability
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  Speaker 3: that Weatherhold has kind of makes it where this isn't
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  Speaker 3: a problem because you would love to have a plus
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  Speaker 3: defender at third to go if a plus defender at.
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  Speaker 4: Short, that's kind of the dream scenario.
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  Speaker 3: Let's be honest. The Cardinals kind of have had a
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  Speaker 3: lot of guys in recent years. Obviously Aeronado is non
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  Speaker 3: example of this, but no, they've had a lot of
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  Speaker 3: guys kind of playing up at positions where they're a
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  Speaker 3: little bit stretched. You look at Nolan Gorman, you look
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  Speaker 3: at Jordan Walker, you look at a couple of these
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  Speaker 3: positions where you look at really at catcher with contraras
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  Speaker 3: last year or at least that's what they kind of
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  Speaker 3: clearly felt like afterwards that they need a little bit
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  Speaker 3: of help on the defense, and I think that Weatherhol
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  Speaker 3: fits in that very well, that ability to play third.
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  Speaker 3: I think he could probably play second if that was
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  Speaker 3: the position they needed. Probably is going to be more
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  Speaker 3: of a need at third in the short, medium, long
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  Speaker 3: term when the Cardinals are kind of clearly saying that
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  Speaker 3: Nolan Aernaudo is not their third basement of the of
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  Speaker 3: the future. I do think that he could move quite quickly.
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  Speaker 3: And I think the other thing that really does stand
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  Speaker 3: out is the Cardinals needed something like.
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  Speaker 4: This to happen.
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  Speaker 3: They need kind of guys, a new kind of young
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  Speaker 3: foundation to build around. When can be part of that,
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  Speaker 3: Weather Holp very much can be part of that. They
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  Speaker 3: do also have kind of some arms like a tink
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  Speaker 3: hence that really you're just hoping for the durability and help.
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  Speaker 3: But Jeff, I think that it really kind of does
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  Speaker 3: stand out that the youth movement that started last year
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  Speaker 3: in Saint Louis, Victor Scott hopefully becomes a part of
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  Speaker 3: that as well. We may see a lot more of
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  Speaker 3: that in twenty five, in twenty six, should.
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  Speaker 1: We You listen to some of the things that were
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  Speaker 1: coming out of the winter like warm up or whatever
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  Speaker 1: the heck they call it there in Saint Louis. I
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  Speaker 1: was kind of tuned in. They had some jaz they
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  Speaker 1: had Jordan Walker and some of these other guys talking.
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  Speaker 1: You know, Mazellak had kind of really really leaned into
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  Speaker 1: the Aeronaudo trade that it'd sort of priority won two
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  Speaker 1: and three. That opens up a spot for Weatherhul. I
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  Speaker 1: know that they kept them at Part Beach to start
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  Speaker 1: the season. There was no reason to sort of force
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  Speaker 1: him up. Some of that was roster restrictions. It wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: shock me if he starts the season at Double A springfield.
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  Speaker 1: Once you're in Double A, you can move pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 1: A mid season eta on weather Halt that they're able
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  Speaker 1: to move aeronauto and they're kind of leaning into that
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  Speaker 1: youth movement and a little bit of a slide back
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  Speaker 1: bridge rebuild type of year. It wouldn't shock me if
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  Speaker 1: weather Halt moves that fast, especially when you consider, you know,
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  Speaker 1: how advanced he is as a hitter. Kind of going
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  Speaker 1: back to this Bregmann comp that's how Bregman moved. If
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  Speaker 1: you remember, you know that first half of that season,
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  Speaker 1: Bregman was crushing the minor leagues.
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  Speaker 2: They had to keep moving him up.
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  Speaker 1: He kept on producing until you know, he forced his
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  Speaker 1: way into the major leagues by the end of that season.
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  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be unremarkable to see whether Halt have a
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  Speaker 1: sort of similar trajectory and move next year.
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  Speaker 3: The other thing I think that we do want to
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  Speaker 3: note here is that if you look at the Cardinals.
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  Speaker 3: It's not the best farm system in baseball right now,
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  Speaker 3: but it definitely weather Hold helps this a lot. Yiro Padilla,
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  Speaker 3: who's kind of a name to kind of file away
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  Speaker 3: a little ways away, but a really interesting prospect who
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  Speaker 3: will probably be coming to the States this year. They
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  Speaker 3: do have kind of some of these guys to kind
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  Speaker 3: of filter in where they've got a little bit more
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  Speaker 3: of a higher impact back. But concern I may have
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  Speaker 3: is are there the higher impact arms to go with
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  Speaker 3: that as well or has that kind of been a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of an issue for the Cardinals.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think this is probably the first time that
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  Speaker 1: you can look at the top of that list and say, hey,
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  Speaker 1: there's some power pitching in the Cardinals organization. It's been
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  Speaker 1: a long time since you've been able to say that.
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  Speaker 1: Probably harken him back to the days of Jack Flaherty
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  Speaker 1: at this point. But you look at Quinn Matthews, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you know, our Minor League pitcher of the Year in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, the big jump that he took. There's
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  Speaker 1: not many left handers that have that fastball profile, that
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  Speaker 1: throw that hard, that also have two above average secondaries
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  Speaker 1: and have a track record of handling innings. I think
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  Speaker 1: that's a pretty good armed to have up top. You
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  Speaker 1: have tink Hens. He's got some durability concerns, but in
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  Speaker 1: terms of being electric, the man is an electric factory.
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  Speaker 1: When he's on the mound and things are right, he
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  Speaker 1: is exciting of an arm to watch as anybody in
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  Speaker 1: the minor leagues. And the sleeper here is to Coo Robi.
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  Speaker 1: He's dealt with some injuries, he's dealt with some ineffectiveness
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  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. I do think he's
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  Speaker 1: a guy that the organization believes in heavily. And if
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  Speaker 1: you look at some of the pitching development stuff that's
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  Speaker 1: going on in the background, some of the things that
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  Speaker 1: him Bloom has been tasked with, I think as a
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  Speaker 1: Cardinals fan, you probably have to enter this season with
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more hope regarding the pitching development and
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  Speaker 1: what could be coming up through this system, because the
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  Speaker 1: pitching is the issue. If you look at that lineup,
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  Speaker 1: it's all homegrown at this point and they're really just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for someone to take a step forward into superstart him.
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  Speaker 1: I want to end with this with a more global
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  Speaker 1: look at the team.
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  Speaker 2: JJ.
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  Speaker 1: I mean this might be a whole topic of its
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  Speaker 1: own that we hit at some point on Hot Jade,
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  Speaker 1: and I encourage everyone to watch the show. But I
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  Speaker 1: think the two things that bother Cardinals fans as far
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  Speaker 1: as development right now are one, Jordan Walker has not
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  Speaker 1: developed into anything close to a star yet. And to
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  Speaker 1: the report from Katie Woomen the Athletic about how they
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  Speaker 1: really dumbed down a lot of their instructional coaching, development,
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  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff there, they used to be
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  Speaker 1: kind of a leader on that front. So your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on that whole view of the Cardinal system and if
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  Speaker 1: you think that's going to change.
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  Speaker 3: I do think that's what heim Bloom's job is this year,
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  Speaker 3: kind of as his get ready to take over everything,
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  Speaker 3: but in first you need to help us fix this.
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  Speaker 3: And the thing that just jumps out with that is
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  Speaker 3: we talked about Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker. You know, these
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  Speaker 3: guys who are kind of playing at the upper ends
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  Speaker 3: of their position, you know, defensive spectrum where they could
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  Speaker 3: possibly play, and that used to be the Cardinal strength.
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  Speaker 3: But if you look at it in recent years, it
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  Speaker 3: is kind of hard to say that the Cardinals have
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  Speaker 3: stayed on the on the front end on the cutting
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  Speaker 3: edge of player development.
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  Speaker 4: They have had a number of.
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  Speaker 3: These guys who in some case, I would say also
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  Speaker 3: the MLB development of these guys kind of seems to
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  Speaker 3: go backwards. Dylan Carlson was better as a rookie than
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  Speaker 3: he was in year two or year three, and then
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  Speaker 3: he's kind of out the door.
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  Speaker 4: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Again, maybe this is what Matthew Libertore is. But Matthew
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  Speaker 3: Libertor has not really taken a step forward since he
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  Speaker 3: reached the major leagues. Jordan Walker has not. Nolan Gorman
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  Speaker 3: had a pretty good twenty three and then kind of
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  Speaker 3: really took a step back in twenty four. They need
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  Speaker 3: to see some of these guys take those steps and
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  Speaker 3: get better in the big leagues. Victor Scott hopefully Victor
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  Speaker 3: Scott just really struggled in his debut. But they need
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  Speaker 3: some of these guys to kind of regroup and then
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  Speaker 3: get better, not just kind of keep getting worse year
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  Speaker 3: after year.
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  Speaker 1: All right, well said, And if you want more on
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals, of course we cover them on hot sheet
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: and encourage you to check that out. If you want
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: more on a different team, we release one of these
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: every day during spring training. So come back to the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Baseball America YouTube channel. Get yourself a BA subscription as
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: well at Baseballamerica dot com and we'll see it or
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  Speaker 1: another prospect profile.
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  Speaker 2: Which'all will hit for a high average.
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  Speaker 1: He's also going to walk more and as I said,
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  Speaker 1: this is a guy that does know how to elevate,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't know how to hit the ball hard in the
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  Speaker 1: air to his pull side. Matt Shaw is the top
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  Speaker 1: prospect for now in the CUB system, as he could
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  Speaker 1: be a big contributor to this team in twenty twenty five.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: That's hit a prospect profile.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Scottie Brown along with Baseball America's JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: What do you think, Jeff Matt Shaw a Rookie of
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  Speaker 1: the Year candidate in the National League. Yeah, I mean
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  Speaker 1: I would say, you know the odds on favorite prior
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: to probably rookie Sasaki signing, I would say that it's probably,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the two of those guys. Certainly from a
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  Speaker 1: positional player side, I think Shaw falls squarely into that category.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: There were some offseason moves made, of course. That Kyle
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Tucker trade not only added Kyle Tucker to this lineup,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: but also freed up a spot by trading Isaac Barredes,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and then also Cam Smith, who was behind Shawn the
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  Speaker 1: packing order and in terms of when he would get
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  Speaker 1: to the major leagues, but competition at third base, and
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  Speaker 1: I think you can look at sort of this lineup
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  Speaker 1: right now. Roster resources had it projected as Matt Shaw's
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  Speaker 1: the potential starter for quite some time, and I think
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  Speaker 1: when you look at the upper minor success and just
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the track record of this player, it's pretty easy to
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  Speaker 1: see why the Cubs would be so invested in this
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: player and believe that he'd be able to sort of
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  Speaker 1: handle it. We heard talk coming into twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 1: that Shaw was spending the offseason working out at third base,
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  Speaker 1: not at second or shortstop, or I think a lot
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: of us had projected he would end up long term.
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  Speaker 1: This is also a guy who has a long track
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  Speaker 1: record of hitting against high level competition dating back to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: when he was in high school, dating back to when
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  Speaker 1: he was the Cape Cod League MVP, and really sort
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  Speaker 1: of ran the table from beginning to end in terms
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: of the best player in the Cape Cod League in
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: that summer, won a championship with Bourne. He's a big
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: time player, ultra competitive type. I think in some ways
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  Speaker 1: probably compares to Alex Bregman in that sense, not the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: defender that Alex bregmant is, but I do think he
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: has some other tools, particularly physical, that Bregman doesn't have.
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  Speaker 1: He hits the ball harder than Bregman ever has. This
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: is a guy that does have sort of twenty twenty upside.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: He's quicker and a better base stealer and actually has
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: base stealing acumen that I think goes above and beyond
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: just his sort of home to first run times, really
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: knows how to read pitchers. He's a very cerebral player,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: kind of guy that you know, if you watch Cubs
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: games every single day, you're probably gonna fall in love
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  Speaker 1: with this guy.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: I can't help but just think about the fact that
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: when you look at the Cubs and you look at
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: kind of one of the ways that they have had
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: success over the last decade. They had the wave that
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: obviously led them to the World Series, but after that,
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: they've always kind of loved drafting their their productive college
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: infield bats. Now, Ian Happ kind of always faced some
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: questions about whether he's going to where he's going to
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: play defensively, but he always could hit Nico Horner kind
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: of followed after that. I kind of also view Matt
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Shaw's maybe a slightly better version kind of following in
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  Speaker 3: those footsteps where you're talking about these guys who have
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: a long track record of production the upper levels of
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: college baseball, you know, top level programs, who then go
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: to the miners and do the same thing and just
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: kind of earn that being plugged in, Like, Okay, you're
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: the guy. We're not counting on you to be the
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: star from day one, but at the same time, you're
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: a regular from day one that you arrive, and let's
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: see if you can blossom into kind of being a
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: cornerstone piece and at worst kind of a very good
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: complimentary piece. Jeff, when you kind of look at Shaw
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: speaking of for Cubs fans, like comparing him to guys
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: that they know that have been up on the big
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: league club already, if you compare him to say, like
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: a Nico Horner, how's he different, How's he better, How's
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: he worse?
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think we're ever going to see Matt
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Shaw put up the sort of valuable defensive seasons that
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Nico Horner had put up when he was playing shortstop
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: prior Dancey sponsor coming over. Now, he's one of the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: best defensive second basement in baseball. It's a really talented
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: defensive middle infield. So he's not going to have the
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: same impact on that side of the ball the other side.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: The big question, I think, dating back to when Horner
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: was at Stanford and sort of one of the last
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: sort of remaining guys with that Stanford sling, he likes
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: to go inside out. It's you know, keeping the ball
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: in the ballpark, hitting them where they ain't. That is
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: not Matt Shaw's game. Shaw can do that. Shaw will
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: hit for a high average. He's also gonna walk more.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: And as I said, this is a guy that does
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: know how to elevate, does know how to hit the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: ball hard in the air to his pull side.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, Wrigley is probably.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: The perfect sort of park for him where it's not
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: super high fences, they're not super deep out there.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: There's certain days where the ball travels a little bit more.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And I think that you know, you're looking at a
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: player that has more like twenty thirty upside when horners
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: certainly have the stolen base acumen.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: We've seen that time and time again. Throughout his professional career,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: but is a.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Little bit more of like a speed, contact and defense
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: guy where I've used Shaw as you know, more of
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: like a two three four hitter. Ultimately, all right, so
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I'll spin us to a global approach here on the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Chicago Cubs farm system, JJ seems like it's pretty good,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: especially on the position player side, and we might even
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: get ourselves a little bit of a log jam at
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: some point if some of these prospects do work out.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Is that fair to say? And do you feel like
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Matt Shaw.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Will be the first here in a litmus test to
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: see how that goes.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: I would say that's completely fair to say. And I
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: would say that if you look at the outfield, I
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: feel like that the logjams here we've seen Owen Casey
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: is that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that one Casey.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Couldn't use a few more at bats in the minor leagues,
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: But Owen Casey's knocking on the door. Kevin Alcontra uh
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: you know, is knocking on the door. So these are
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: guys who have already reached the upper levels of the miners.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: And if the Cubs were earlier in this rebuild, that
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: they'd never have called a rebuild. I would say that
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: you might just say, okay, that they're just going to
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: plug in it and get at bats. But you look
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: at this team right now. I mean, that's why the
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Kyle Trucker trade was made. You've got Kyle Tucker, You've
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: got Piker Armstrong, You've got you know we talked about
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: have you've got, say a Suzuki. You've got a number
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: of guys where I think Shaw is very well positioned
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: here because he's kind they've kind of cleared out a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: spot for him just to take it. But now going forward,
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: they have a lot of guys who already have double A,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: already have triple A time. But Jeff, I'll look at it.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Who's the next guy up, Who's the next guy who
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: can really like there's a clear path or who is it?
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Pretty much everyone else going to be waiting for an opportunity,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: whether it comes by injury, whether it comes by trade
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: in effectiveness, whatever it is.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: It's probably you know, of course Shaw is number one.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I think he's the one that has the clearest path
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the playing time, But when we talk about the more
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: global picture of the system, it's probably Kate Horton.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: If Kate Horton can.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Show that he's back, he's healthy, He gets, you know,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: some of that feel and shape back on his fastball
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and his slider, and can really be sort of that
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: nasty two pitch guy that we saw.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: He could fit into a bullpen roll.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: He could be a spot starter guy, somebody that fills
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: in for an injury on the rotation. I really think
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: when you look at this logjam in the outfield, it's
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: going to have to be an injury to one of
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: those four guys you just mentioned. They made a big
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: trade with Tucker, They're going to play that guy. And
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: then you have a bunch of productive major leaguers and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: then a young, outstanding defensive center fielder and Pete crow Armstrong.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: It's tough for me to imagine that any of those
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: outfielders are going to be up I think there's maybe
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: even a chance that between now and the beginning of
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the season that we could even see the Cubs swing
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a trade and maybe move one of those outfielders or
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: a couple for an upgrade somewhere else in the roster.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I think the dark horse here though, is probably Moises
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Ballistero's if he takes a step forward in terms of
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: his receiving and sort of catch and throw elements behind
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: the plate. The bat is there. It's a mature hitter,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: a guy that doesn't give away at bats, bats of
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: ball skills or elite. I mean, you could see it
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: in game. But we were at the Futures Game last
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: year when they were doing some of those skill competitions,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and there was really nobody who had the level of
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: barrel control amongst some of the best hitting prospects in
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: baseball that had that level of barrel control that Ballistero showed.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So I think just as a catcher and Billy to
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: play some first base, maybe there's some opportunity there, but
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it is a true logjam with these outfielders. And I think,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're Kevin al Kintara, who debuted last year,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: owned Casey, who spent the full season in Triple A,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: you're kind of like if I was in you know,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: twenty other organizations, I probably am in the major leagues
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: at this point and looking at entering the season with
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: a full time job.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: One last question on that though, when we talk about Casey,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: when we talk about al Kantara, are those guys ready
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: right now or is it like is there one of
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: these guys who you would say is basically there's nothing
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: left for him to prove in the miners because I
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: kind of feel like with other than maybe Matt Shaw,
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: all these hitters are guys who might benefit from another
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: half season or more in Triple A.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: I think you can make the case for Casey. He's
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: had a lot of upper Minors success. I think you
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: saw how he sort of evolved last year, and particularly
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: in a more challenging environment now, the strike zones and
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: all that sort of thing. We can quibble about that
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: in Triple A, but he's facing better competition. He showed
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: improvements as a contact hitter as well as his approach.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: We know he has the underlying power.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of sort of getting to that
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in the best possible way in terms of bad at
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: ball angles, consistently hitting the ball in the air to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: his pull side and getting the most out of those
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: big evs and that big power that he possesses in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: his body.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: He's a good corner outfielder.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know that there's a ton more experience that
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: he needs at the Triple A level. I think it's
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: really going to be the litmus test of how does
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: he adjust once he is challenged by the best pitchers
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: in the world. Al Kintara, on the other hand, has
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: less time elite defender in center field. If it wasn't
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: for pie Crow Armstrong, he would probably be the best
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: center field defender in the organization.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: He's a great athlete.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I still think that, you know, three hundred to four hundred,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: five hundred played appearances a triple A are probably going.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: To do him some good.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: So we know, at least for now, until that status
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: goes away and Cubs fans are hoping that starts right
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: on Opening Day where he becomes a big leaguer. Matt
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Shaw is the top prospect in the organization according to
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: the smart minds over at Baseball America. We're going to
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: keep doing this every single day. We'll release another top
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: prospect video here per organization. So come on back or
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: keep scrolling through if you missed any and we'll see
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you for the next one.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Name anybody.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: This guy is really special and like I said, if
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: he was an American, he'd probably be the number one
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: pick in the draft going away. The top prospect in
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Brewer system is Hayzus Motte.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Here you go.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: We're helping you out with the name, and now we've
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: got some information for you too, as we hit a
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: prospect profile Scott Braun along with Baseball America's JJ Cooper
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and Jeff Ponce. So let's dive in, gentlemen, Jeff hayesus
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Mota is the name that we might not here in
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the big leagues anytime soon, but I do want to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: remind everyone how much of an impact Jackson Cheerio made
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: at such a young age in twenty twenty four. So
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: do you have an ETA in mind and what do
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you think about this prospect? Yeah, I'm probably about us.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: It's excited about hey, Zusmadi, as I've been on any
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: player coming state side in the last five to six years.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's really was elite stuff. In terms
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of what we saw last year in the DSL. I
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: think it was a one sixty nine WRC plus sixty
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: nine percent better than his competition. The underlying data is
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: really good and we'll probably chat about that in a little.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Bit, but I'm thinking, you know, we're probably.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Looking minimum twenty twenty seven comes over this year, even
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: if he sort of follows that Churio path of jumping
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: both A ball levels and you know, skipping over the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Arizona complexly, which I think is totally reasonable and probably possible.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Then it's double A, triple A.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: The next year, maybe he signs an extension, and you know,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: we sort of see him in twenty twenty seven. I
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: would say that would be the earliest. That's probably still
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: somewhat optimistic. As his player, you know, a year ago
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: was just sixteen years old and wouldn't be eligible for
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the draft as an American player until this year, so
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: kind of puts into perspective just how young he is.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: But you know, I know, Jay and I have discussed
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: this player quite a bit. He was a hot name
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: during our top one hundred process, and you know, of
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: course our number one Brewers prospect and a pretty dang
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: good system.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: This is this is why we send someone to the
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: Dominican Summer League and go to the All Star Game
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: and all is to see guys like Hayesus Moday and
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: to come back and say, man, everyone down there is
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: raving about Hayesus Moday. This is really kind of how
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: you draw it up. Like when we talk about it's
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: hard not to compare him to Jackson Turio, even though
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Turia is an outfielder, although he was a shortstop as
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: an amateur, but an outfielder, you know, for the Brewers,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: where as opposed to Made should stay.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: In the dirt.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: But the reason it's kind of not it's hard not
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: to compare them is is that this is that kind
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: of that ceiling, that kind of potential impact where you
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: look at Maday and say, Okay, this is a player
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: who really could have some pretty special back to ball skills,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: power for his age, strike zone, discipline, all these things
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: that are usually kind of the the things that you
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: add as you mature, as you kind of get more
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: at bats, Made already has a lot of those. Now,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: I don't want to go over on this. He's a
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: teenager who's yet to play in the US, So this
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: is not something where he's knocking on the door and
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: goes to spring training going I'm going to show those
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Brewers and find a spot in the big league lineup
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: or anything like that. But it does kind of explain
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: why he could be on a faster track than most,
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: much like what we saw with with Jackson Turio, who
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: skipped over went straight to a loway to Carolina and
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: then kind of showed he was too good for that league,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: so he kind of earned a Midwest League assignment, gets
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: to double a the next year turn around, he's in
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: the big leagues before you know it, barring injury, if
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: he keeps it up like we's done so far. That's
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: something that you could also see kind of that kind
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: of track with made. But the other thing I would
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: say with this is this is how the Brewers. This
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: is one of the explanations for why and how the
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: Brewers have kind of managed to stay at the top
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: of the NL Central year after year, even though they
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: don't really have a whole lot of financial advantages or
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: market advantages.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Over the Cardinals or the Cubs or.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Some other teams in that division.
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: But they've been really good on the international market, they've
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: been really good at hitter development, they've been really good
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: at picture development, and Jeff, I mean, you just put
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: it all together, they're kind of rocking and rolling here
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: as far as just year after year after year, this
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: is putting him number one wasn't easy because this is
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: a system that has a number of guys who are
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: very plausible number one candidates.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, we have a task that we
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: do during our Top one hundred coverage. Go and check
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that stuff out on the site. But one of my
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: favorite articles that we work on every year is who
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: could be the Number One prospect in twenty twenty six?
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: And when I came to this, and you know, I
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: was thinking about writing to this article, there was no
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: other option for me. It was pretty much either Sebastian
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Walcott that I knew other guy who was going to
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: write about.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: But for me, it was Jesus made.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: And the reason that I say this, I think, if
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: you're going to put a player comp on this guy,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: it's probably like Ronald kun if you could stick in
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the in the infield. It's that sort of level of
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: other worldly skills. And there's probably even a case to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: be made that he's more advanced than Akunya was. At
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: this point there was one player throughout the entire minor leagues,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and I think this really showcases his dominance that had
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: this trio of numbers, a mis rate below twelve percent,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a chase rate below fifteen percent, and a nine eighth
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: percentile exit velocity of one hundred and four miles problem,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: which by the way, is major league gaverage. He did
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: this when he turned seventeen a month prior to the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: start of the Dominican Summer League season. It's just so outlier,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: and I think it sort of showcases just how dominant
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: he was. There was no player in the minor leagues that,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: from an underlying data perspective, was more dominant in twenty
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: twenty four against his average age of competition than Maddi was.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: That includes Christian Campbell, that includes Roman Anthony, name anybody.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: This guy is really special and like I said, if
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: he was an American, he'd probably be the number one
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: pick in the raft going away and setting like Bonus
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Pool records. He would probably beat Charlie Condon and Chase
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Burns numbers. It's just that outlier. We'll see how it
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: translates when he comes over at first. But haven't looked
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: at DSL data going back years. I've never seen anybody
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: that approaches this, including guys like Junior Cameron Arrow.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, now I want to provide like that. I want
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: to because we've got everyone very understandably heated up about
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Jesus made so now before we wrap this up, I
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: want to kind of pour a little bit of cold water,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: just tamp it down a little bit. There's a reason
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: he's not our number one prospect yet. Jeff, what would
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: be a scenario where it's like, okay, because we know
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: the DSL, the tricky part of the DSL, hitting the
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: ball hard, not chasing, all these things are really good,
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: but we also know that that league is much more uneven,
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: I would say, than like a US, like a full
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: season league especially, there's it's really hard to nitpickus made
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Maybe he's not a short stop long term.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: But is there something, Jeff, that you look at and say, Okay,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: this is what could slow him down.
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: Other than injury?
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: What could slow him down in twenty twenty five as
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: he continues as a scent up our rankings.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, just probably optimize batted ball contact,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and we're looking at how often is this guy going
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: to put the ball in the air. How often is
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: he going to hit the ball in the air to
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: his pull side. Could get some bad batted ball luck.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: He does still hit the ball on the ground a
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: fair amount. A lot of his hardest hit drives are
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: still on the ground. You know, technically that leads to
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: higher batting averages, but it could maybe call into question
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: what the overall power upside is and put him more
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: in like that eighteen to twenty two sort of upside
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: range for home runs versus the thirty plus that we
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: look at when we see a kid who's sixteen, seventeen
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: years old hitting balls as hard as the average Major
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: leaguer on a particular metric. So I would say that's
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: probably the big one. The other one is, you know,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: if the defense does continue to slide down and it's
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: more of a question of can he stick in the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: infield at second or third base, I don't think that's
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: going to happen. I think it's really more of a
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: question of is he an everyday shortstop, which you know,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: when you think about there's only thirty of those jobs
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in the entire world, there is obviously a very high
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: threshold you have to meet in terms of defensive ability
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to stick there. So I think those are the question marks.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: There aren't many guys that I go into every year
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: where I'm like, three years from now, this guy is
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: going to be a superstar. And I really do feel
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: that in terms of my gut but also my head
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: when I look at sort of all the pieces of
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the puzzle on how it comes together.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: You know my job.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: My job is to take the class haf full listen
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: to that and be like, did we just find the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: next superstar coming up to Major League Baseball who could
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: be a Rookie of the Year a couple of years
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: from now and show us, you know what Jackson Cheerio did,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: who will be a seasoned VET by that point, so
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: it could be heyzous, my day, Jackson Cheerio. And if
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you actually spell that out without knowing how to pronounce
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the name, it would be kind of interesting. So anyway,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: this is going to be very very fun for Brewers
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: fans if it pans out the way that they think
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: it could. Okay, so obviously you need to stay locked
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: on Baseball America coverage. Get yourself a Baseball America's subscription
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: so you can follow this storyline and either say I
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: knew about this a while back and expected this, or
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: you know, you can get after us a couple of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: years from now too. So thanks for watching this one.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: That's the top prospect right now in the Brewers organization,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: and we'll see it for more of these as we go.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Team by team.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Chandler could really ascend to sort of that number two
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: role behind schemes in the next couple of years. He's
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: a bigger guy, he's super athletic. We're hitting the top
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: prospect in the Pirates organization. According to Baseball America. It's
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: called a prospect profile. It's a fun name too, so
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: you want to see him thrive. Bubba Chandler in the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Pirates organization, just pitching JJ, What do we have here
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: a potential number? What in a rotation if it all
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: pans out?
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: Okay, you could say a two. This is the Pirates,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: So like, I think the Pirates will be thrilled. I
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: feels their number three this year or their number four,
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: even because let's give credit to the Pirates on this one.
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Paul Skiing is Jared Jones, Mitch Keller. If Bubba could
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: be their number four, that's a really good rotation. Okay,
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: It's maybe not Dodger's rotation where it's like, if you
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: might you must have cy Young votes to enter this rotation.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: But it is really good and Bubba fits very well
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: in that. Like, it is not something where when we
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: talk about those guys that you would say, oh, Bubba
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: Chandler is the kind of the outlier of that group. No,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: I think if it all comes together, it wouldn't surprise
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: me at all. He's not gonna be Paul Skans. If
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Paul Skins is healthy, that's your ace. But if you
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: told me that Bubba Chandler ended up being the number
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: two on this staff and Jared Jones.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Kind of slots behind him, wouldn't shock me.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: You got to give Jones the credit for he's already
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: done it at the big league level.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: Bubba hasn't.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: But Jeff, when I look at Bubba Chandler, I see
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: a whole lot here to think this guy could be
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: a rotation fixture and a really kind of impactful rotation
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: fixture for years to come.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: When I was sort of going through the process of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: doing my annual best pitches in the top one hundred,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of candidates for best fastball. Guys like Chose,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Chase Dolander and others that throw really, really hard with
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: great movement, had great results throughout the season. When you
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: look at the combination of factors on Bubba Chandler's fastball,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: ninety five to ninety six can ramp it up to
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: one hundred miles per hour when he needs it. He's got,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: you know, above average induced vertical break. He's getting above
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: average horizontal break, and he's doing all that from a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: really low release height.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: It's almost similar.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: To like a Garrett Cole sort of fastball in terms
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of the movement profile. But also those release traits, and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: those release traits are important because they pore ten deception
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and the ability for hitters to not be able to
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: get on plane with that pitch. And oh, when it's
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: sitting ninety six to ninety seven and can touch ninety
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: nine one hundred miles per hour, it takes them even
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: longer to adjust to that. There's probably some stuff that
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: can come along In terms of what the slider is.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: It's kind of a hard cutterish slider. There's been some
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: questions from scouts as to how well he manipulates that
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: pitch and how frequently he land. That will be a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: question that will be answered at the major league level.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: And then he has a pretty good change up as
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: well that plays well off of the fastball, so it
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: might be more of a fastball change up sort of
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: first profile, which obviously is going to put him in
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: a good position to handle heavy left handed lineups. But
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: he does have the smoke and you know, a good
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: enough sider to still get right handers out consistently. We
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: saw great results when he was up in Triple A
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: last year, and I think when you just you look
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: at a player like this, he kind of fits directly
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: into that Pirate's window of this like elite rotation that
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: they could potentially build. And I even think pound for
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: pound when you think about the body, some of the
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: durability concerns that you might have with a guy like
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Jared Jones, which I think are totally reasonable, and just
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: even looking at some of the comparable arms to Jones,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: like a strider, you know there's going to be some
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: injuries and some wear and tear and some shutdowns over
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: that period of time. I think that Chandler could really
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: ascend to sort of that number two role behind Skens
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: in next couple of years. He's a bigger guy, he's
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: super athletic, he can handle some innings. He's proven that
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: he's been able to do that. I think it's really exciting.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I would argue that you know this, this guy is
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: every bit up there with Jackson Job and Roki Sasaki
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: and some of the other Andrew Payn or some of
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the other top top pitching prospects and that's why he's
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: inside our top ten. That sounds promising and also kind
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: of leads me to think about why the pirates want
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: him to just pitch. But JJ, you can tell us
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: more as I'm coming in here as the No Fund
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Police to try and bring more fun to our sport,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: which means more two way sensations. Bubba Chandler can swing
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: the bat. Why can't we see him continue that.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Because unfortunately we haven't proven that anyone in the US
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: knows how to develop guys like that as pros. I mean,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: I wish that was the case. It'd be a lot
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: of fun. But Mason Wynn was a two way guy,
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: and they're like, wait a second, we got to figure
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: out how do we get him to pitch and not
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: shn eng Linn got to remember who is kind of
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: still a two way guy for the reds Now but
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: he's also again kind of coming from Asia. Shoeyotani has
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: proven you can do it. But go back to Brendan
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: McKay with the Rays a few years ago, who was
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: a top five pick, and they're like, oh no, no,
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: he can hit enough that we're going to use him
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: as a picture slash first base with slash DH and
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: he broke he couldn't do it. He could not do both,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: and it ended up they could do neither because of
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: it because he kind of broke down his shoulder injuries
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: and all, and and Brendan McKay's kind of been bouncing around,
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: but nothing like the prospect he was a few years ago.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: I think we're going to see it with the Royals
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: with Jack hagleone where we had Jack on the Hot
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Sheets show a couple weeks ago, and I think we
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: tried to ask every way we possibly could about the
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: two way, and he really didn't want to answer it,
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: which I think can translate to the Royals aren't closing
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: the door, but they're really saying, we want you to
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: hit home runs, we don't really necessarily need you to
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: be striking guys out in the later innings.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: I just Michael.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Lorenzen's another guy. There have been guys like this, but
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: it's just really hard to figure out in the US
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: system how to get a guy to develop as a
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: hitter and a pitcher at the same time. And I
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: really struggle to come up with an example of anyone
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: other than Shoeyotani, who's pulled it.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: Off, Jeff.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's just not anyone else on earth, or
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: probably since Babe Ruth who is as dominant on both
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: sides of the ball with those with those jobs. And
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, that is probably part of the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: reason that sho Heyo Tani is able to do this
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: for as long as he is, because he is such
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a good pitcher, maybe one of the top fifteen most
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: talented pitchers in the world, while being one of the
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: top five best hitters in the world. We haven't seen
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: anybody else that's been comparable to that, even coming from
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: these American institutions that had track records like Brendan McKay
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: or a guy like Jack Caglian cagnia One. It's it's
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: a bat over pitch profile. He wouldn't have gone in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the first round if he was a pitcher. Where we
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: can sort of look at Shoeyo Tani pretty easily, he
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: would have been the one to one pick as a
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: hitter or as a pitcher or as both.
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: And I think it's similar with Boba, where the bat
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: just wasn't as far along as how special he was
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: as a pitcher.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: When you're the pirates.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: There's probably nothing more valuable than getting really good starting
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: pitching on the cheap and controllable for a couple of years.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: That it was a prudent decision for the organization, even
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: though it does sort of sap the fun out of
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: a player like Bubba a little bit.
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: I will point out that Paul Skins, Aron Jared Jones
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: also were two way guys. Paul Skeens was was a
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: college freshman All American for US for his catching in
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: d H before he basically went to LSU and moved
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: to the mound full time. So it's not just him, like, man,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: can you imagine Paul Sking. Paul Skins really had legit power.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: It's just hard to pull it off. But the other
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: thing I do think that happens when you have these
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: guys make this transition. Bubba Chandler's talked about it that
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: he was a two way guy, which meant he really
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: never kind of had that starting pitcher's mentality, that way
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: of prepping for starts, and so a guy like Bubba
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: kind of needed that transition to Okay, here's how you
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: treat your week, Here's how you treat your days before
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: the start, here's how you treat your day of the start,
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: because he was a two way guy before, and so
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: I do think it was useful that he's gotten a
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: chance to kind of get into a regimen, get into
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: a mentality of here's how I prep to start today,
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: Here's how I go through my entire day to be
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: ready to do this without kind of some of the
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: other stuff like oh, I need to get some swings
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: in the cage and things like that.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And here I'll just summarize the conversation about the Pirates,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: which we can obviously cover on our weekly show more
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: as this season goes on. It's called Hot Sheet. Check
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: it out every Monday Live at three thirty Eastern time.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Can the Pirates develop enough to make themselves contenders? Because
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: we know they're not going to get the free agency support.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: It's just not in their playbook. They do not have
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: permission from ownership to go after players. We talk about
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: this year after year. It doesn't matter if they're in
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: tank mode or right now where they should be in
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: competitive mode. It didn't really change much as far as
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: the final product last year. We'll see what a fresh
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: slate looks like with Skeins at the start of the season. Obviously,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: this is very exciting to talk about what Bubba can
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: bring to the mix eventually, but it is the lurking
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: question with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Can they do this without
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: adding much around them in Major League Baseball as far
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: as free agent signings. So anyway, if you want to
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: hear more on that, you can definitely check us out
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: on a weekly basis so you can read more in
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Baseball America, get yourself a subscription. And if you're a
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: fan of another team, we just want to hear about
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: other prospects, then just keep rolling here. We'll go team
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: by team on this series. There are some things that
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: just don't come across on the radar gun or the
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: stat sheet or you know, the track man device that
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I think make this guy, you know a dog. Let's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: hit the top prospect for the Cincinnati Reds. The name
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: is Rhet Louder. It's a prospect profile Scott Braun, Baseball Americans,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce JJ. The Reds have been
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: trying to stack high end pitching talent. Rhet Louder up
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: next here?
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: What do you think I think that they've got another
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: guy knocking on the door here I'd be shocked we
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: saw Red Louder at the end of twenty twenty four,
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: and I would be shocked if we don't see him
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: produce quality innings for the Reds in twenty twenty five.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Although to the Red's credit, they've kind of loaded their
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: rotation enough where well, we'll see, you know, through we'll
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: see on opening day or in the lead up to
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: opening day, whether he's going to crack that roster, that
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: rotation from day one, or get a little bit more seasoning.
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: But this is as we thought when he was.
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: Coming out of a forest. This is an extremely polished pitcher.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I almost want to say, like almost apologize
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: as I lay this out, because it's gonna sound like
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: I'm kind of damning him with faint praise, and I.
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: Don't mean it that way.
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: There is no pitch for Rhet Louder that jumps out
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: as like, oh, that's like a Paul Skiing's eighty, that's
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: like a Rokie Sazaki splitter or anything like that. What
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: really does stand out is just how all this fits together.
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: He's got a good enough he's got this arsenal pitches
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: that all are kind of like fifty five maybe it's
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: a sixty. Maybe it's a plus pitch, an above average
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: pitch if you'll really like it. But the key to
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: all of this is you watch how he pitches when
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: he's on, and he was on pretty much throughout his
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: little MLB sin at the end of twenty twenty four.
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: His command, his control is really advanced. He doesn't miss
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: with bad misses. If he misses, he generally is going
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: to miss in a spot where okay, ball two, let's
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: do this again. He doesn't miss where it leaks over
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: the middle of the play and gets crushed. He did
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: that over and over. He's done that kind of going
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: back to his college career at wake Forest, where if
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: you do remember, he matched Paul Schemes pitch for pitch
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: in Wake Forest versus LSU in one of the greatest
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: College Rule Series games we'll probably ever see. You put
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: it all together, and I would say that this is
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: more like this is a kind of a some of
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: the of the parts guy where maybe the stuff just
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: keeps getting a little bit better.
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: I look at a guy.
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: Like the path that, like Aaron Nola had with the Phillies,
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: where Nola doesn't have blow you away velocity, doesn't really
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: have blow you away pitches, but it works year after
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: year after year because he really knows how to pitch.
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: He's really durable, he's really smart. That kind of describes
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: Rhet Louder. I would say as well. But I will
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: also say it agonized as we did this Red's list,
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: because you could go Reht Louder, you could go Chase Burns,
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: by the way, another wake Forest first round pick for
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: the top of the draft. They've done it two years
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: in a row here, and Jeff, I think, like again,
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: I'm going with the guy who's basically big league ready,
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: but I think you could also make the case for
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: Chase Burns, who's yet to really pitch in pro ball.
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: But on the ceiling side, I would have one hundred
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: percent agree that if Chase Burns hits his ceiling and
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Rehet Louder hits his sealing, Chase Burns's gonna end up
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: being the better pitcher.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: What do you think, Yeah, I think you know, just
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: as the resident stuffest in house here, meaning I care
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: more about stuff than I do necessarily about it.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: I used to be that guy.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: You stole that from me, and pitch ability, I would
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: lean on Burns. I think there's maybe some other elements
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: of Burns with profile that we haven't totally seen against
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: high level competition. Some of the talk around him, you know,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: in the fall and some of the workouts that were
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: happening in Arizona where that he was only throwing with
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: a major league ball. So this could be another player
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: just like Louder last year that we see sort of
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: streamlined right into that big league rotation as early as
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: the end of this season. That being said, I do
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: want to sort of give Brett laud to his flowers.
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: When you look at execution, when you look at pitchability,
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: and I think you sort of nailed it with the
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: Nola comp of somebody who's going to go in there,
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: they're going to understand their opponents. They're going to understand
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the spots and the zones that they need to land
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: particular pitches, how they have to sequence certain guys. He's
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: going to do all that work and sort of dating
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: back to, you know, talking to his former pitching coach,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Corey Muscara at Wake Forest when I was, you know,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: doing some sort of draft work for us in my
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: early days here at BA. That was something even as
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: an underclassman when he pitched here at Boston College that
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Corey really called out. This guy just has a very
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: cerebral understanding of pitching that he doesn't have to have
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: the biggest stuff because he knows how to hit his spots.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: He knows how to make everything sort of dovetail nicely
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: within his arsenal. So he does execute, He does get
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: those outs, and it can get through lineup sufficiently without
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: having to just forcibly try to strike everybody out, which
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: I think at times that can be sort of the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: knock on Burns. So when we compare the two, I
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: think when you're looking at Louder, he's just a more polished,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: more major league ready. But that's not to say that
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: he doesn't have upside when he finally does face you know,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: major league competition over his thirty plus starts and sort
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: of gets his feet. Weapon, has major league coaching and
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: access to all of the know additional things, nutrition, whatever
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: it might be that could take his game up another level.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I think that you could see that because of the
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: type of sort of individual and makeup that you have
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: with a guy like Louder. So there are some things
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: that just don't come across on the radar gun or
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the stat sheet or you know, the track man device
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: that I think make this guy, you know, a dog.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: The things that stand out for me, we saw it
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: last year, like at the start of the season, Louder
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: kind of got beat around for the first time. I
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: would say, really, I don't know, maybe this life, but
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: especially like his first time really as an you know,
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: high level amateur.
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: As a pro. And he made adjustments.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: He kind of realized, Okay, that four seamer that I've
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: really relied on isn't kind of going to be my
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: calling card, got the seat, start using the sinker more.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: I think that that's one of the things that we're
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: going to be looking at with a guy Likerhet Louder.
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: And that's what makes kind of projecting pitching so fun
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: but also so challenging. Is what he is right now?
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: Is what he is right now. We know that he
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: had one of the best strike percentages in the miners
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: last year. He throws a ton of strikes he can locate.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: But if you told me that three four years from
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: now one of his best pitches is a pitch he
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: doesn't throw right now, wouldn't shock me. Because I think
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: as he goes through the hitters are going to show
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: him what he needs to improve, saying Wather, He's going
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: to show hitters what they need to improve at. And
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: it's going to be kind of this point counterpoint. This
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: isn't a guy who's just going to rear back and
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: blow guys away. So if you told me that he's
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: going to tinker, that he's going to add this pitch,
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: maybe it's a cutter this year, or it's a slider,
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: it's a little different, or you know, split whatever it is. Like,
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: I think that he has the way to kind of add, subtract,
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: do different things, and he has the aptitude to do that.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: We saw that again to take it to an extreme
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: example because the guy he faced in Omaha, But we
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: saw that with Paul Skeens last year, who kind of
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: perfected and refined a pitch that he barely threw in
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: college to kind of help, you know, take him to
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: a Rookie of the Year status. If you told me
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: the Red Louder is going to kind of keep tinkering
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: over the next few years, he's smart enough that would
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: not be all feeded that.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're excited as a Reds fan about
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the rotation that you have, but you feel like you
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: want a little bit more, especially of top end talent.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: And here we're talking about Ladder getting you excited, and
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: we're talking about Burns getting you excited. And this helps
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: to tell the story of why the Reds have been
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: going in this direction early in drafts JJ. They also
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: have trouble, understandably recruiting pitchers to Cincinnati as free agents.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: I will say also, though, if you're a Reds fan
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: and you're saying that, and I'd say, like, well, Hunter
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: Green is kind of like that's about as high octane
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: as it gets, so like you got one, like you know,
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: so now we're hoping to add two and three to that.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: But no, this is what the Reds are doing really
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: well right now. They need helping the lineup. Ellie de
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: la Cruz can't do it all by himself. But if
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: you look at this rotation, it's going to be deeper
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: than five man deep. A five man rotation with guys
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: who should be very plausible starters. Nick Martinez can kind
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: of do whatever they want with him because he can
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: swing back and forth. And then you add go a
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: year from now, and you add back in a Brandon
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Williamson and a Julian Agiar who kind of fit into
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: that as well. As they come back from injury that
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: the pitching staff wise, Red's looking up look looking pretty
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: promising right now.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good news for the long term for this team.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: So if you want more on the Cincinnati Reds, you
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: can obviously check out Baseball America. Get yourself a subscription
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: if you don't have one already subscribed to this YouTube
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: channel check us out weekly on our show called Hot Sheet,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: and we'll keep rolling out top prospects team by a
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: team as we go through the offseason.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: Here