Latest / The Scout and The Speculator / 2026 Bowman Chrome NL East Preview
Transcript
- Jaba: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Scout and the Speculator podcast. This is one of your co-hosts, Will Jarvis, also known as Jabba Cards on Instagram, whatnot, and so forth, joined by my co-host, Jeremy Brown of Perfect Game Baseball. More importantly, known on eBay, whatnot, where he is back and returning on Wednesday night, September 2nd. ⁓ JGB underscore. Cards underscore. Cannot forget that second underscore. And has always this ⁓ podcast is brought to you by Prospect Pulse. That is prospectpulse v one dot com, the absolute best place for all of your prospecting needs with Bowman. If you are a serious Bowman collector or investor and you are not on Prospect Pulse, you are missing out. It has the best market data collection tool. It's really everything. Jheremy: Gotta have ⁓ both. Jaba: You try to aggregate from the internet all in one place. ⁓ I'm an avid user. It has really revolutionized the way that I operate and I would recommend trying it out. So with that being said, we're here to discuss ⁓ the first of six divisional breakdowns ⁓ for Bowman Chrome. We're gonna bring you ⁓ fifteen or twenty minutes on each of the six divisions and then next week right before release we'll do an episode with personal top tens, maybe some sleepers and busts. I don't really want to say busts, more just guys that, you know, we think are gonna come out. What's up? Jheremy: Maybe you wanna stay away from for a little bit. Maybe guys you wanna stay away from a little bit, not not jump into Jaba: Yeah, gu guys we think we'll be overpriced. I think we're gonna try to have Dahl, the creator of Prospect Pulse on for that, so that's something to look forward to. ⁓ but without further ado, let's ⁓ let's get into the reason why you are all here, and that is to talk about twenty six Bowman Chrome. Jeremy, what are your thoughts? We're kicking off with the Baltimore Orioles here. Jheremy: All right, let's just jump right in. Not even gonna give an overarching theme. ⁓ Orioles, your main chase is gonna be Jaden Lowray. And I know that pains you for me to say that because that is who you and Big Dave want. But it goes without saying, like, there's a reason people are gonna want to chase him, right? He's already been promoted. He's in high A now, he's nineteen, he's always had really good bad to ball skills, so power's not there yet. But at five eleven, one eighty, you're hoping he gets to at least kinda double digits, flirting with the nine hundred OPS right now. Twenty five bags north of three hundred on the average. So a lot of things to look like like there already for him. Rookie ball, A ball, high A. So kind of ⁓ that's gonna be your guy out of the five, I think, that you're gonna wanna chase. ⁓ correct me if I'm wrong, but that's probably the guy. ⁓ Pedro Gomez. Jaba: Yep. No, fully agree. Yeah. It's ⁓ sh sh shades of juneker. Shades of Junicker with the contact rate, low K rate, high walk rate, where you're kinda just waiting for the power to click is the last tool. ⁓ but you know, you kinda have everything else there you want, and he's a smaller guy. You hope he fills out a little bit and just starts kinda elevating the ball, hitting it harder, which he seems to have been doing from what I read. So yeah, Jalen, ⁓ Jaden Low Ray, he is going to be one of my biggest chases, especially at a kind of Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Yep. Jaba: Value standpoint. I'm not saying he's necessarily a top five guy in the product, but I think he'll probably be in the top five for me in terms of ⁓ you know what I'll be paying for him versus kind of where I perceive his ceiling to be. So Jeremy, I'll let you run through the rest of the ⁓ Oreoles here for us. Jheremy: Yeah, let's rip through ⁓ real quick. Pedro Gomez probably checks in at number two because he signed for one point two milli last year. ⁓ or this past January. He's he's seventeen, six one, two ⁓ two, so he's a specimen. Has four home runs, but he's like running a sub two hundred average. At least when we pulled these stats he was. Yeah, he's at a one ninety, four home runs, a seven seventeen OPS. ⁓ on base percentage south of three, ⁓ south of four hundred, which isn't what you want. But They obviously paid him for a reason, right? 1.2 is not a small amount of money. So a guy that maybe you don't want to chase right away, but did get a high dollar bonus figure already. So keep that in the back of your mind. I saw him in a five caser still available pretty cheap. So maybe immediately people aren't going to chase him. ⁓ Andre Hildalgo, probably one of your better arm names. $700,000 bonus. And you can use the bonus as a guide. I wouldn't necessarily use Their bonus as an end all be all because bodies are constantly changing, but he is 17, 6'5, left-handed, and throws really hard. $700,000 bonus for a lefty is or for a pitcher internationally is really good. You don't often see north of a million unless they're coming from like the Asia part of the ⁓ of the world. So ⁓ who else we got? Ariel Roquet, left-handed hitting outfielder, 17 years old, was ranked number 18 in the pipeline, but he's running like a two to one strikeout to walk ratio. Does have eleven doubles on the year, could be up from there. Left-handed stick. We like left-handed bats around these parts. 17 years old. Then ⁓ Brandon Mr. Buttersworth is kind of rounding them out. 23. He's in double A. Solid numbers. Kind of do it that what you will. Older prospect. There are a few older prospects here. So ⁓ that I I think you got Jaden Lowray in tier one. You got Ro ⁓ you got Hidalgo and Gomez tier two and then the other two are probably below them is how I would kind of tear it out, just from reading, watching, reading, writing. So anything matter tracking? Jaba: Yep. Yeah, so I I I I agree with that. I think that's pretty firmly where I'd have everyone. And I do wanna say I think in most releases, Brandon Butterworth would be the top name. But we have the NL East episode coming out next. And I think we got our ⁓ twenty six Bowman chrome name of the year winner ⁓ in the N L East. So Butterw Buttersworth, or no, it's just Butterworth, is going to get the silver medal there and I'm gonna move on to the Red Sox. Far and away for best chase, no longer in the organization. Of course Jheremy: Yep. Yeah. Know it. Jaba: He was like the third piece in the Adley Rutschman trade. ⁓ could wind up being the best piece, which is saying something. ⁓ outfielder, he is in high A now. He started just scalding hot. He had a 205 WRC plus in like the three or four weeks after the trade. ⁓ just a really good, well-rounded hitter. ⁓ eight homers, 21 extra base hits, K-rate bullets. Jheremy: Yes. Jaba: 15% hits the ball hard, high contact rate. He's kind of got everything you would want. I think he's definitely a back end top 10 name in this release. ⁓ could see him going closer to five than ten within there. Got a lot of helium right now. I think if this had been released two months ago, I think he would have been a great steal. I think he'll probably be priced pretty appropriately now. He will be expensive, but he should be expensive. And ⁓ he's definitely like the tier. one guy for the Red Sox. Then we kind of go down into tier two with Davries Brito, 17-year-old. He was the number 28 ⁓ international name on pipeline last year. He was 19th in the Sox system on pipeline, but that was before they, you know, cleared out four guys ahead of him in the rudiment grade. So he's flying up the boards ⁓ without really doing anything. ⁓ 31 to 22K to walk rate, 11 doubles. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: Not playing particularly well, but he's a 6-1 shortstop, ⁓ potential to hit for average and some pop. You know, we like things like that. That's kind of another name. Like Jeremy said, ⁓ similar to Pedro Gomez with the Orioles, a guy who might not, you know, you're probably not chasing them off the jump, but if you're pulling them, I'm not racing to sell it, unless it's a base auto. Any base autos you pull or even refractors in the first week or two, get those on eBay immediately. ⁓ rounding out the socks, ⁓ Luis Andujar. Don't believe he's related to Miguel. ⁓ in single A, good offensive numbers. He's eighteen. I think there's just questions about kind of what the ceiling is. He's not particularly exciting. He's kind of a tier three guy. Then rounding out the socks. We do have Franklin RS non first autos. you know, those are a good way to get a cheaper version of a guy you really like. ⁓ those autographs do sell fairly well. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: It's not particularly close to a first in value, but it's not a throwaway either. I mean, I'd I'd rather have some of these non first autos than a good bit of the checklist. Jheremy: Yeah, and and just I'm jumping in real quick there like there is value, there is money to be had with those non firsts, especially if you find that true color. 'Cause they're like, ⁓ it's a third year, guess what? They only do the prospect autos of the top guys, which means they're on their way up. I bought a George Lombard true orange out of the new stuff out of twenty six Bowman for two fifty. Hits that pump, I sold it for six hundred bucks. Like there is money to be made in those colors. I'm just not going up and spending as though it were even Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: Close to a first year thing. A Bowman first with that. Jaba: Yeah. I I I mean gun to my head I'd say it's probably like half the value. But that's pretty ⁓ unscientific. Alright, that ⁓ that wraps up the Red Sox. You wanna take the Yankees? Jheremy: Yeah. I mean. Yeah. Yep. Yep. ⁓ again, another non first with Dax Kilby. It's first stuff's kind of creeping up, I think. So like this could be a good cheap entry point for Yankee fans. Obviously, Yankee Tax, all that. Yankee Tax will continue to apply throughout here as well because there are a couple good names here. Kind of like Andy Azakar, you had Juan Torres who yeah, good prospect. Only ⁓ only has color and Bowman. Let's go get him. Guess what? Now he has autos. Are you licking a donut? ⁓ okay. Love it. You gotta get that. ⁓ it just kinda sucks for those guys who chase like the colors and true colors, right? Like you go after it thinking and now Bowman, it's kind of seems to be a thing where I don't think people are gonna be short sighted and not buy the color at releases of things now with their color only. Jaba: No, I'm licking the top of my Starbucks. I got pumpkin cold foam. Gotta get Jheremy: you also have to be mindful, like, don't go nuts. ⁓ because it's likely coming. That said, Juan Torres, really good DSL. ⁓ second base profile, like 18 years old. He's not in their top thirty. Like, he will be ranked at some point. Like, pretty s pretty confident in saying that. He and he hit three eighty-five this year, eight pumps, sixty-five RBIs. Jaba: Yep, huge fan. He could be the DSL MVP. Jheremy: Right. Like twenty eight walks to eighteen strikeouts. Like we like to see more walks and strikeouts, especially in the D S L because the pitching's notoriously not there in the DSL. So if you're striking out a ton, it's like all right, you might have some real whiff concerns. ⁓ Torres probably the guy you're gonna want to go after, honestly. ⁓ Isaiah's Isaiah's Castillo though. ⁓ w Jaba: Yeah, I'm a huge fan. Jheremy: Hand up, we did this. This is our second time recording this episode. We did it the first time and we kind of just talked about in the same breath with Christian Arguelles, not in terms of talent, but in terms of repeating the DSL and kind of going off that second year. I mean eighteen years old, five eleven, one ninety. This year is his second year in the DSL, improved his batting average from two hundred forty four to two ninety-four. We don't care about batting average too much, but when you're raising it that much, almost a full tenth. We talk about it. Or f full hundredth? Hundredth. ⁓ OPS ⁓ over it has it has a decimal in it. We like that. When there's a one and a decimal. Love it if it's a two and a decimal. Eighteen doubles, fourteen home runs, forty nine RBIs. There is whiff concern, seventy two to thirty three. But I think you're kind of getting what you get there with you're gonna get power, you're gonna get whiff, you're gonna have the Yankee tax. So Jaba: Yeah, fun lottery ticket, but it might be like a hundred dollar scratcher when you'd prefer it to be a twenty dollar scratcher. Jheremy: Exactly. Like, the average was there. I don't know. He's gonna be one that'll be interesting to see when he comes state sign. State side kinda like Richard Maddock was last year, so Jaba: Yeah, and one one thing I mentioned the first time we recorded it, I got a little too verbose as I tend to do. But I think Castillo and Torres are two names where their placement next year is going to be a huge sign of kind of how the Yankees see him and how serious names they are, you know, as D SL repeaters. Are these guys going to spend their age nineteen seasons in the complex or are they going to go right to single A? I think if I had to guess, I think Torres is the guy that'll skip the complex. Castillo just with ⁓ the whiffs, I'd imagine he goes to the complex. Obviously that's not helpful right now. We're not gonna know for seven months. but definitely two guys I like. I would be a little careful with the Yankee tags as Jeremy mentioned, but in a vacuum I do like both players a lot and you can wrap up the Yankees here. Jheremy: ⁓ Yeah. Then we got Kyle Car. He's 24 year old lefty, got hurt in high school. Had big stuff at Paloma C C junior college, kind of backed up, scraping ninety-five-ish now. He's not huge. He's in triple A. He's older. He's a Yankee, but triple A and older means he's probably got a shot to get the call up sooner rather than later. ⁓ on the year, hovering around a four and a half ERA. Got 101 punches and eighty three innings, so Stuff's not big. He's older. He's not huge. I don't know what the hobby upside is there, but he's a Yankee. So anything is possible. Jaba: Yep. Yeah, I I I think he's gonna be one of those guys that's like a twelve dollar auto, he'll debut at some point, probably next spring, or at least be prominent in spring training, probably jump to twenty five thirty, and then once he's kind of a back end guy, never go above, you know, twelve to fifteen again. So I think if you have some of him you might as well stash it, outside of like the first couple of weeks when you should just dump it. Jheremy: Right. Jaba: But yeah, yeah, so that's kind of the Yankees there. Going into Tampa, a team I do really like. My favorite is Slater De Brune. ⁓ huge fan of this kid. He was another ⁓ piece in the Shane Baas trade, which just looks terrible. I mean it looked terrible at the time. Bodien's been way better than I thought he would be. but yeah, De Brun, smaller guy, very muscular little little fella. ⁓ first round pedigree, as I mentioned, I I think he was like the 34th or 30. He was a comp pick. yeah, so he was hurt for basically the entire season. He came back maybe a month ago, played like a week in the complex. He's been in single A since 97 at bats, 840 OPS, ⁓ no homers, which we don't love, only four doubles. But like in 24 games at single A, he has 19 steals, only been caught twice, only 13k. 19 walks, ⁓ hits the ball on the ground way too much, but this guy's a complete freak on the base path, complete game record potential there. He's, you know, really good grades on his glove in center field, really good speed, and you know, he gets on base. The power's not there, kind of similar to Jaden Low Ray. ⁓ I would have De Brune a couple spots above Low Ray, just because that speed is so kind of next level. ⁓ he's definitely a guy I'm chasing. You know, you'd like the the slug is 25 basis points above his batting average, which is scary. But again, you know, he was hurt to start the year, only played 24 games in single A to this point. So I think you're just betting on the power coming along in some capacity. You know, this isn't a 30 home run guy, but it's a profile where if he can become a 15 to 20 homer guy, you know, you're looking at a game-breaking talent. ⁓ Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: ⁓ so I like him a lot. I'm hoping that he goes a little under the radar because of his lack of ⁓ body work, but I think he's gonna be pretty popular. ⁓ then we go to Austin Overn. Very interesting. going nuts at double A, plus plus runner, 64 steals. ⁓ last year, over 50 this year. The strikeouts aren't great. And then the kicker is that he's 23. Jheremy: Uh-huh. Jaba: You know, that's just tough. I think Bowman, you know, obviously punishes older guys, which unfortunately I do agree with. You know, there's just less developmental runway, less runway. You know, when people are looking at guys, obviously you want the guy debuting a 20 over the 24-year-old, ⁓ in terms of ability to kind of compile stats and you know, have a Hall of Fame trajectory. Not that you know, if one guy in this release is a Hall of Famer, it's great. But you know, that's kinda how I I think people look at it. So Overn, you he's their number seven guy. Good prospect, but you know, it it it's just a limited ceiling. I do think that the floor is really high, but that's not really what we're chasing here. ⁓ rounding up the rays, Fabricio Blanco, ⁓ 17-year-old. He was the number 44 international guy, team ranked 22. ⁓ people think he's going to stick at shortstop. Very, very small sample size. This is a guy where I would definitely say to you know, get on Twitter start poking around looking for looking for video. I mean he played eight DSL games. he went he went five for eighteen. He walked sixteen times, which is ludicrous. Jheremy: I can't find any video on him. Like not even a f one swing. Promising. Jaba: Only four Ks, seven steals, but I mean that's eighteen at bats, thirty four plate appearances. ⁓ we do like a six eighteen O B P. ⁓ just a little tough to put much into, you know, in an eight game sample. I think that's certainly the profile of a guy who's gonna repeat the D S L next year. that's tough. It's not a death blow, but I I would Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: you know, feel okay kinda waiting on Blanco. ⁓ if you can get him for super cheap, I don't hate it, but that's not gonna be an immediate ⁓ cash out. That's gonna be a pretty long, long timeline there. So yeah, Ray's I would say De Brun clear tier one guy. Overn kind of fringe tier two, tier three, just because he's older, I think, you know, if he was twenty-one, he'd be bordering a chase in the product, but he's not. and then Blanco just in the mystery. Jheremy: Just a wild card 'cause we simply don't know. Yeah. Jaba: I'll let you ⁓ take the Blue Jays kicking off with your boy Jojo Parker. Jheremy: Alright, and that wraps up the twenty five twenty six Bowman Chrome, because I don't know that the Blue Jays have a whole lot here for ya. ⁓ yeah, Jojo, again, non first auto, actually doing well for himself again. Like kind of rinse and repeat with Arias and Dax Kilby. ⁓ Elaniker Coronado, eighteen years old, three fifteen average, couple home runs, five sixteen OBP, like a ridiculous walk to sk ratio. Jaba: It it it's Blake. Yeah. Jheremy: Which is great, he's an on-base machine, but like I think he's just a guy that we're gonna have to get more out of, see more of. Like five ten, one sixty, he's not there physically, left-handed stick. Almost has a thousand OPS, but small sample size. We're talking not even a hundred at bats. And he's a DSL repeat guy. So you can kinda go look, glean at what you think he might be. And then we have Edward Duran, who is in the product again. He was a color only. Now he is outside of their top thirty. ⁓ you know, bigger body, stronger guy. Just kinda he's there, I feel. Like a guy you could get. Jaba: Hasn't he he he's gone up a few levels this year, but he hasn't done particularly well. Jheremy: Yeah. I mean he's played he's he went from rookie to A to high A, now he's in double A. So like he's done enough that they keep moving him along. Blue Jays fans do like their prospects. He doesn't hit for power, which as a catcher, like five eleven, two tw two two ten, you could be as good as you are when defensively and make your way to the big leagues. But honestly, if you don't have juice or thump, especially at the catcher position, you just don't have a lot of upside here in the Bowman market. Jaba: No, they have to. Yeah. I I I agree. The Jays are definitely a weaker weaker team in this relationship. Jheremy: Lacking. But might mean we could maybe get some PYTs pretty cheap and chase JoJo color. So and this is only we're only looking at first we're only looking at autos. First and prospect autos. We're not looking at short prints, anything else of that nature. So there could be some more stuff in there to make teams more valuable. We're simply looking at the autos. Jaba: Yeah. Yep, we're prospect guys, not garbage pale kid guys. But yeah, so that that wraps up the AL East. ⁓ you know, it's a decent division on the whole, I would say, to give an unsolicited kinda tier ranking, I would say your tier one guys are Low Ray, ⁓ De Brun and Azakar, and then second tier, definitely Torres and Castillo from the Yankees. And then I I don't know. Jheremy: Right. Mm-hmm. Jaba: You know, maybe Pedro Gomez, Davris Brito, but you know, those are kind of the names I'm looking at to any degree. ⁓ but yeah, that kind of wraps up ⁓ the AL East and we'll be back with you guys tomorrow for our NL East preview. So we're gonna pump these all out and ⁓ looking forward to ⁓ release day coming up here in nine short days. Jheremy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jaba: Thank you all for listening and let's go Mets. Jheremy: Bye bye. Jaba: Right, got the marker. I thought that was good. I like that. Jheremy: Don't disagree. Jaba: And at least you have any thoughts? Jheremy: ⁓ no. Not particularly. Jaba: Why does Miami have Jheremy: I don't know, they Cova and Arroyo who are color only guys. Jaba: Arroyos ate at bats and died in single A. Jheremy: Jose Castro has sixteen pumps. He didn't hasn't played in twenty five in twenty twenty six. Jaba: Cova. He ⁓ he had he had color, right? Wasn't he Seattle? Jheremy: Yeah. No. ⁓ yeah. Yes. Jaba: the fuck? Well, he hasn't played for Seattle. Jheremy: Right. Jaba: ⁓ I think that was Ricardo Cova. Jheremy: yep. Yep, yep, yep. Jaba: Obviously. Six eighty three. Yeah, this guy. This guy sucks. One point five bonus and twenty-four. Jheremy: Who's a Does he? ⁓ he's old too. Jaba: Well, he's an i he's IFA. he's not that good. Jheremy: No, I know. The jewel of their twenty four class. One point five million bonus. Repeat of the DSL. He's in A ball now. Not doing all that much. Struggling in A ball. Forgetting on base. He has good plate discipline at least. Logan Dawson, what are you all about? Twenty year old sixteenth rounder out of New Jersey. Jaba: I guess I'll do ⁓ Atlanta Mets and Washington on this one. Just looking at it where I can weasel my way into the Mets. Jheremy: Sure. We can I mean we can also split it up a little more if you want, so it's not us just going on and if we have thoughts they don't go unheard of. Like if I just ramble on too long and you're like, Wait, I wanna talk about it or something like that. Jaba: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what whatever you think is Jheremy: I mean Logan Dawson's hitting sub two hundred. Jaba: Pretty good. Jheremy: What do we have on? ⁓ I think that's good enough here, I guess. Samuel Serrano's probably gonna be a good one, huh? Samuel Serrano. Jaba: Yeah. I feel fun with this. What's up? Yeah, I like him. I think the NL East might be a ⁓ it's kinda similar. Well I mean Rentory is better than anyone we talked about. A CN probably too. S I like I like Solarte too. Jheremy: I mean yeah. Yeah, same. Jaba: Alright. Good to ⁓ good to cook. Jheremy: But a rope. Jaba: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Scout and the Speculator podcast. This is Will Jarvis, one of your two co-hosts, also known as Jabba Cards, ⁓ joined by Jeremy Brown of Perfect Game Baseball, more importantly known as JGB underscore cards underscore on whatnot and ⁓ Instagram. If you're listening to this now, it's probably Wednesday. ⁓ September second, ⁓ and Jeremy is running a whatnot show tonight, so make sure you're getting in there. Jheremy: Damn sure. Jaba: That's probably the most important news of this episode. ⁓ this podcast as always is brought to you by ProspectPulse V1.com. Prospect Pulse is the best place for all of your Bowman prospecting, collecting, investing needs. It is just a critical tool in my day-to-day. I use it frequently. Would highly recommend giving ⁓ giving that a shot. It's a great, great deal, and everything you need in one place. So today we are getting into To the NL East preview for 26 Bowman Chrome. Again, as we mentioned last time, this is not talking about like inserts and kind of teams on the whole. We're just going through the guys with autos and giving you the breakdown on those. We might do a brief episode running through those, but I'm not really sure I care enough to. ⁓ So I'll I'll put that in Jeremy's Hopper. ⁓ So jumping Right into things. We'll start with the Atlanta Braves. Nice short and easy. They got one guy, Alex Lodis, their fifth-ranked guy on pipeline. He was a second rounder in 2025, 22 years old, 26 homers this year and counting across three levels. He's up to double A now. Spent the majority of the year in single A, went nuts for 17 games in high A, struggling in a small sample at AA. He'll be 23 in the spring. Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: which is the, you know, kind of downside here. He also strikes out a ton. As you would kind of expect for, you know, you're saying, ⁓ well, this guy has 26 homers. He was a second rounder last year. Why wasn't he higher? It's the strikeouts. ⁓ solid speed glove, big raw power, but obviously strikeout questions. You know, I wouldn't say he's concerningly old, but. you know, it's an age where you don't necessarily have the runway of these, you know, DSL or complex guys. ⁓ you know, you kinda need to figure those strikeouts out. I would imagine he starts next year in double A, he'll be twenty three, so that will you know, next the first half of next year will really be put up or shut up time for him. I'd make him a tier two name. It's not a guy I'm chasing, but I do think he's a solid name. I don't know if you think differently. ⁓ Jheremy: Yeah. No, I mean college performer type Braves fans pay well. If he has any type of ⁓ any type of ⁓ exactly a Bowman, like we saw with John Heel even in the preseason, like everybody scrambled to get him. If he comes and and if he has a shot to just crack camp even next year, like you could see his stuff rise. So buy some, hold some, feel free to ⁓ wait for his Bowman. So Jaba: Bom, and Yeah. Everyone was comparing him to Raphael for call. Yeah. Yep. Yep. I agree with that. ⁓ Jeremy, I'll let you ⁓ kinda get rolling on the Marlins here. Definitely Jheremy: So to speak. This is a lot. I mean, you're gonna get your money's worth, 'cause I don't think there's any huge hitter, like not no pun intended, they're all bats. I don't think there's any like big time knock your socks off type. I do think I was gonna say I s if there Santiago Solarte is gonna be the guy, six foot five, two hundred pound, lefty sticks. Lefty stick. It doesn't swing multiple bats, just one bat. There's a lot of juice and like surprising power for that profile of that age. Like there is with concern, of course, six foot five at what Jaba: I think Solarte is pushing it. Jheremy: Seventeen, eighteen, seventeen. Like I mean, it's a guy that I'm gonna buy some of and stock and hold and you have the whole episode we did, ⁓ he's a Marlin. But like I think the tools and upside could be loud enough that it doesn't matter that he could kind of buck that trend. We saw it last year. Kevin DeFranc, he's a Marlin and an arm, but his stuff was loud enough that he made an impact. ⁓ Jaba: Seventeen. Yep. I do like Solartek just to get that on the record. I'm not I'd say it's like a low tier one name. Jheremy: Yeah. That's fair. I was just like we have some bigger names in this group. Like he's actually not up there even in this division, but he's a name up there. ⁓ Brendan Jones, he's twenty-four. ⁓ team rank. ⁓ everything's messed up. I see what happened here. ⁓ just looking at our things. I see what yeah, I see what happened here. Give me two seconds. There we go. ⁓ Jaba: Yeah. Team rank probably eighteen. I see. Former Yankee tax. Jheremy: Yeah. Kim Louin Weatherfield Speed First kind of guy. Like we kinda talked about this in the last episode with Austin Overn in terms of speed kind of being the main draw, main tool. He is twenty four years old in triple A, so like we're probably gonna see him in the big leagues. Like Marlins will promote him at some point. ⁓ Jose Castro, not the Yankee Jose Castro from twenty twenty four Bowman Chrome. This one hasn't played though at all in twenty twenty six. Jaba: Ryan Weather's deal. Jheremy: And I know it's not the same one because I went looking after he had sixteen home runs in twenty twenty five, just under a three hundred average. I'm like, ⁓ this could be really cheap, because like his stuff was cheap and he's a Marlin now. He was a Yankee. But then I looked him up and went further into it. It's not the same Jose Castro. So this one hasn't played much. I I don't know. But like he's a repeat in the DSL and he's nineteen who hasn't played yet this year. So he's a two time DSL guy. Jaba: Did he get did he get hit by a boss? Jheremy: nineteen hasn't played this year on the sixty day. ⁓ he might not be on the sixty day, but Chris Arroyo's on the sixty day. Came came via UVA, stateside kid, grew up from Puerto Rico, fifth round pick. Somebody we saw a lot of actually as a high schooler. Came up and played in Florida a bunch. ⁓ just eight at bats in A ball. You wrote down a note here like he's a first baseman and we have really nothing on him in terms of productivity as a pro. You can go look at his college stats. Jaba: Yep. Cowholes. Yeah. Jheremy: At least he went to the ACC. It's not like he was a smaller school guy beating up on junk arms, junk competition. ⁓ I don't know. Do with that what you will. He was a color guy if you want to see what his market was like before he started scribbling on cards to get an idea of where people fall with him in terms of where they value him. And then Luis Cova. He got a one point five milli bonus in twenty twenty four. Complex guy hasn't I mean Just hasn't really lived up to the hype of that bonus. When you push a mil and a half, that's kind of a lot of money. ⁓ a good bit of your pool. And I don't know. You and I talked about him. Like there's just not a whole lot there. He is in their top ⁓ in their top 30. He's hitting 217 on the year. He's made it up to A ball. He's hitting sub 200. Couple home runs. But what he does do well though is he gets on base. It's a really good, like plate discipline kind of guy. He's always been very close and walks to strikeouts. Which we do like because at least if you're putting up pedestrian stats and chasing and swinging and missing a lot, we kind of don't want to be there. At least here he at least he recognizes his zone here. ⁓ what do you got there? I know you like Solarte, at least. And this one would be a longer episode simply because there's more players here and some really there's some really like big chases here. So we might just dive into those guys a little bit more. Jaba: Yeah, you're thrown out of bar early then. Yeah. There's a lot. Yep. ⁓ Yeah, agree on the Marlins, I think Solarte's the Chase. I think, like I said, depending how big you want to make your tier one, I think he's in there. You know, ⁓ I'm a big fan of putting guys in the tiers they deserve over saying, you know, we're having X amount of tier one, X amount of tier two. You know, I I I think it needs a little more nuance than that. you know, if you want to call it fifteen guys, I'd have them, you know, in the ten to fifteen range. ⁓ I like ⁓ I think the huge power at that Jheremy: Yep. Jaba: Size is enticing. Obviously, the strikeouts aren't good, but you know, it rhyme it reminds me a lot of Chris Rodriguez ⁓ with the Tigers last year. Just not a lot of guys that size. ⁓ he did put up good numbers. It's not like he was struggling to kind of make contact a ton. ⁓ definitely more risk than some of the guys ⁓ rated above him, and that's kind of what pushes him down just by virtue of being that big. I like him though. I think he's fun. I agree with you on the rest. So the Marlins. ⁓ you know, I wrote down Chris Arroyo. The best case there is that next year he turns into like Victor Figueroa, who's having a great year, but it's like, you know, an older first baseman to a point where you know the guy goes nuts and people care a little, but like we're talking going from a five dollar auto to like a fifteen dollar auto. I I just you know he he's behind the eight ball with the injury being a first baseman. I'm just not really sure ⁓ what the ceiling is there. But yeah, Marlins are fine. ⁓ last thing with the Marlins, lose. Luis Cova is not Ricardo Kova, who is on the Mariners 26 Bowman. We just had a before filming this, ⁓ we both had minor strokes trying to piece that together, but two different people. ⁓ getting into my New York Mets, baby. ⁓ Kleiner Ramirez. ⁓ he got a pretty big bonus, actually. ⁓ he's not his hyped up because Wandy Yesin ⁓ kind of got the huge bonus and all the attention. Kleiner Ramirez. Jheremy: Yeah, we we did make that mistake. Jaba: Did get a serious bonus though. 17 years old. He was the number 23 international guy last year. He's 5'9, 175, which I don't love. They have him as an outfielder slash shortstop. I'd assume that he's an outfielder. 819 OPS in the DSL. Only 27 Ks, ⁓ which is really good, but only 18 walks. So, you know, the strikeouts weren't there. Usually you see a bit more walks when the strikeout rate is that good. ⁓ but Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: you know, nothing super notable there. Eighteen swipes, seven home runs, eleven doubles. I think he's a good secondary name. ⁓ it's just it it's tough when you're five foot nine, one seventy five. You know, if he was five nine, one fifty, I'd maybe think, you know, he has room to fill out. But You know, I I I just don't really see the upside. You know, I like him. I'll probably get a blue of his because I'm a Mets fan. But if I wasn't a Mets fan, I'd probably you know, be a bit less rosy. You know, he's like a bottom of the barrel tier two guy for me. But I think if you have him in tier three, I don't begrudge you. ⁓ next, Randy Guzman. He was a guy that a lot of people on Mets Twitter were saying could be a big sleeper heading into this year. Twenty one year old first baseman. ⁓ started the year in Single A St. Lucie, where he was really good. ⁓ twelve homers, eight ninety one OPS, obviously, no real speed to speak of. Sixty six Ks to twenty-eight walks. Another guy where the K rate's not horrific, but you'd like a lot more walks, and the K rate's not awesome either. He went up to high A, played for a week, put up a nine seventy four OPS in Brooklyn, which is a very difficult hitting environment. But then he got hurt. I'd assume he's out for the year. You know, he's 21. He's going to be a first baseman. you know, again, not to call everyone Victor Figaroa, but I would say this is a guy where, you know, it's probably a $10 auto that will probably go for $15 to 18 bucks because he's a Met. ⁓ again, you know, I'll probably get a card of his because I'm a Mets fan. If you're not a Mets fan, I ⁓ I wouldn't sweat it. I'm gonna skip Wandy Asien for now and get back to him last. That's my year. ⁓ we got Wyatt Vincent, 11th round pick in 2025. 2025. ⁓ 19-year-old ⁓ prep guy, 807 OPS in the complex, struggled in a brief single A stint. There's no real carrying tool there. ⁓ I think he's basically just like a depth filler guy, he's not a throwaway, but I'm just not really sure what the upside is there. ⁓ Will Watson is an interesting one. Arm out of Clemson. He's 23 years old. He was 13 in pipeline when we put together these notes. ⁓ he might have Fallen. A lot of helium coming into this year. He was great last year. This year in 2026, he threw 23 innings to the tune of a 743 ERA. 21 Ks, 12 walks. Whip was pushing two. ⁓ Basically a disaster year. Then he got hurt. He's gonna be 24 by spring training next year, so it's not really an age where you can afford to have a lost year. ⁓ you know, he kind of looked like a nice potential back end guy. There. ⁓ Still could be, but you know, again, 24 going into next year with a lot to prove. Just not. Even as a Mets fan who liked him a lot last year, it's just hard for me to justify spending the money there. ⁓ Union Paro, 19 year old. He had nine at bats ⁓ in the complex this year, then he got hurt. ⁓ He was a DSL repeater in 2025. 903 OPS there, 26 walks, 24k. Lot of swipes. He's turning twenty this month. he'll probably have to do the complex again next year as a twenty-year-old. That's just I I think he kind of missed the train. Rounding out the Mets. We got Wandy Asian who just turned 17 like 10 days ago. One of the biggest Jheremy: Yeah. Jaba: IFA's last year. I know he was definitely top three depending where you look. ⁓ only sixty-one at bats. He got hurt a few times. Three homers, six steals, nine ninety-five OPS. There was a lot more swing and miss than you'd like. I mean 24Ks to 19 walks, 61 at bats, not bad. But I know that the contact rates were bordering on you know concerning. ⁓ hits the ball in the air a lot. When he does hit it, he hit a ball at 116. ⁓ as we talked about a couple episodes ago, that's not normal. ⁓ that is, you know, grown man power, and he is younger than basically all of his peers. He's basically a high school junior right now, hitting a ball at 116 with a wood bat. That's insane. Yeah, so that gives you the upside there. ⁓ he's a Met. He's gonna be a big buy. I think he'll probably be in the top five in price. Jheremy: I'm sorry, it's I'm sure. Yeah. Jaba: Which I don't love. I would've liked him in like kind of that six to ten range. I'll inevitably talk myself into chasing it, ⁓ once it comes out because he's a Met. I do like him a lot. He is not, however, the best player in the NL East in this release. And with that being said, I'll ⁓ with that little tease, I'll let Jeremy ⁓ jump into the Philadelphia Phillies. Jheremy: Yeah. I think the Mets fans are gonna buy Wandy even more because they stole him from the Yankees. Once the Yankees cleared off your international department, like Wanda back up and they jumped all over him. Like I was with you with Will Watson last this past offseason heading into this year. I'm like, ⁓ maybe if he's in twenty six Bowman, we buy some. Something's up, obviously. He's not missing bats. He was missing more than he had more than a strikeout in an inning. Now he's not even averaging that this year. So something's up there. I don't know what. I also won't speculate. Jaba: Read. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Jheremy: Maybe they're working on something. I just don't think now's the time you start working on something. Philadelphia Phillies, as he alluded to. ⁓ Francisco Renteria. I we have a note 'cause we we started breaking these down a little bit ago that he might be the guy to challenge Luis Hernandez for the top spot. I think this is a guy who's going to ⁓ challenge Angebel Gomez for the top spot. Kind of things have changed there. ⁓ Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: Yeah, I mean, he's somebody I'm actually familiar with and have seen play when he was thirteen years old. He came to our thirteen U event out at the University of Tennessee. He was kind of freaky then. He was in our twelve U game as well. So he actually has played some stateside. Somebody I've seen personally. He is long, he is lanky, he is athletic. Hit three seventy nine in the DSL this year with eleven home runs. Like damn near one to one ratio. Strike to walkout. Twenty six strike ⁓ twenty six bags, twenty four bags. Like, this is probably like the guy you kinda want. You jokingly said to me, Will, that maybe people think he's a pitcher based off his photo, and God I hope that's a case because that might be the only way I'm gonna buy him right away, honestly. Keaton Anthony. So basically, like if there's a one A in Angebel Gomez and he's probably just some solely your one at this point, I would have to imagine. Like I'm guessing renteria is Jaba: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I don't know. Jheremy: Probably two. Maybe Luis Fernandez. Like it's those two probably jockeying as two A, two B behind Gomez. So you pull him, you're happy to have him. ⁓ Keaton Anthony. he's twenty five years old. He had color in twenty six Bowman chrome. I'm just gonna throw it out there, like just go see what his color did, do some math there and see if people buy him. Philly fans are do do buy, which helps. ⁓ but yeah. Logan Dawson. Jaba: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, mine's a Jheremy: Twenty five ⁓ twenty twenty five draft pick out of New Jersey. He sixteenth rounder in A ball, six three, one ninety, hitting sub two hundred this year, a little over one to one on the K to strikeout ratio or straight K to walk ratio. But left handed stick, long projectable, twenty years old, was signed to go play with the Boston College Eagles. So little ⁓ little one there for you to go get something of. Jaba: So he's a traitor. No, I I want him less, not more. Jheremy: Trader, yes. Not only did he say no to the did he say no to the Eagles, he said yes to the Phillies. Jaba: Yeah, that's ⁓ that's the double. It's even worse than Adonis Guzman 'cause at least he was at B C for a minute. Then he went to Arizona where it's like, Okay, well, you know. Jheremy: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. ⁓ Romelli Espinosa, he is gone three levels already this year. From he he was at the complex, he dipped his toes in A ball for six games and is now in high A. Three games, seven at bats. Really not doing a whole lot of anything this year. ⁓ two two hundred thirty seven career lifetime average. ⁓ there is physical projection, six four, one sixty nine, so you can kind of bank on that. ⁓ I don't really have a whole lot else to add there. Ninety two strikeouts to ⁓ twenty nine blocks, all that's in his career, but still it's a fifty eight to nineteen, hitting two ⁓ six on the year with one home run. ⁓ yeah, I don't really have a whole lot to add there for you. So he's big and he's a shortstop. So if you pull a base auto, just tuck it in and hope for a moment. Not to use that as a ⁓ quick little here it is, but that's really all you're gonna do with that. Yeah. Jaba: Yeah. Yeah, I I I think Yep. You gotta trademark that. Yeah. Yeah, I agree on the Phillies. I think Renteria alone makes, you know, the Phillies a big team chase. ⁓ he's a monster. I echo everything Jeremy said. Huge fan of Francisco Renteria. ⁓ everyone else, you know, kinda who cares. Jheremy: Well, yeah. Yep. Jaba: Washington Nationals, we got our gold medalist for name of the product. Sir Jameson Jones leading us off, fifteenth rounder in twenty twenty four. ⁓ twenty years old, not good at baseball, ⁓ relatively speaking, obviously. ⁓ no offense to Sir Jameson. six thirty four OPS in single A, he's a catcher, sixty three WRC plus, thirty percent K rate, just nothing appetizing there. I think he's in there for his name. Which is in fairness very cool. ⁓ not a guy I'm buying or chasing. ⁓ Sean Paul Linion. ⁓ not to be confused with Sean Paul. ⁓ Yankees organization. five seventy seven ERA, twenty one year old in high A. People think he's gonna be a reliever. I guess he's got a great change up. I don't I I don't know. I I don't Jheremy: Strong. Jaba: You know, w when you kinda have that reliever tag on already, I just think it's kinda who cares. Jheremy: Yeah. Yeah. Another who is color, go see what his prices did. Factor in an auto, whatever kind of multiplier you want to use and you can kinda get your value. Like he sells okay. There's like some kind of thing with that, but Yeah. Right, right. Jaba: I I'm sorry, he's on the Yankee he's in the Yankees organization now. I should ⁓ whi which is weird 'cause that happened like over the winter. ⁓ Jheremy: But they're just using the same card, same photo, so Jaba: Yeah, I I mean the Yankees thing maybe adds you know, turns a three dollar auto into a six dollar auto. I just you know, there's a lot of good places to spend your money here and a lot of okay places to spend your money. They're at least justifiable. I don't think this is one of them. ⁓ Norris de La Cruz, eighteen year old in the complex, outfielder, seven forty three OPS, but only had three extra base hits, three homers, twenty one ste steals. ⁓ He was better in the DSL last year. 898 OPS, just not a lot of pop. ⁓ I would definitely put him a tier above the last two guys, but you know, not particularly noteworthy in rounding it out is a guy who's very noteworthy, Samil Serrano, seventeen year old who just absolutely stuffed his stat sheet this year in the DSL, forty-four games, nine sixty-five OPS, thirteen extra base hits, five homers, twenty-six K's to twenty-four walks, eleven steals, guy who just does a bit of everything and does it well. Jheremy: Yeah. Yeah. Jaba: Yeah, but yeah. Jheremy: And our numbers they're even outdated a little bit. Not that it's like otherworldly, but like he added a couple more bags, ⁓ added a couple more ⁓ just tightened up strikeouts, like just like it's still even better than what he's saying. Jaba: Yeah. The walks have surpassed the strikeouts, 13 swipes, 5 homers, 14 extra base hits now. ⁓ you know, I'd put him behind Rentaria and Asian, but I do think he's another name that's definitely in the you know, similar to ⁓ Santiago Solarte. So we got Santiago Solarte and Samil Serrano. We got the the quadruple S's. Those are both kind of low tier one names for me. ⁓ I like them a lot. You know, Solarte is ⁓ Jheremy: ⁓ huh. Yeah. Jaba: a bit more of a you know raw power huge ceiling low floor guy serrano may not have the you know insane power potential that Solarte has but both good players I like Serrano a lot you know not a lot of holes in that profile hard to find kind of any sort of issue ⁓ with him I like him a lot again you know kinda in that 10 to 15 range for me ⁓ some people have him in the back of their top tens don't disagree with that Jheremy: Mm-hmm. Jaba: Don't think that's unfair. ⁓ for me personally, he probably won't be there, but he'll be right on the ⁓ bubble. So you know, another good name. I think you got three tier one guys in the NL East. Sorry, four. You got four with Renteria being a top three name, a CN top seven or eight, and then Serrano and Solarte definitely in like a top fifteen, maybe top twelve. So I I do think that, you know, it's a good Jheremy: One per t. Jaba: Good division, a lot of depth. You know, the Mets are pretty deep, the Marlins are deep, Braves only have one guy, he's solid. I don't know. I think it's better than the ALE's. Do you have any kind of overarching thoughts here? Jheremy: Agree. Agree. Overall. ⁓ every team has at least something. I think do you think Serrano's gonna like that's one of those guys we talked about before, like I watched the swing, that's like I really like that swing. Like, he's big, he's long, he's lanky, six three, one seventy three. I think I Ben Badler said he's an average runner. Gonna probably go out in center field. Eventually could move to a corner, but if he fills out and hits for juice, like who cares? Jaba: Yeah. Jheremy: Like where he plays defensively, it's it's a left left profile, he's limited anyway. So you're just hoping that power comes. ⁓ damn near signed for two million dollars. So that is something I would watch. The swing is very nice. I would recommend you go watch a couple of swings on Twitter. There's plenty of ⁓ there. He is a swing that is visually pleasing. So yeah, overall, pretty good ⁓ pretty good division with at least one chase per team. Jaba: That's right. Jheremy: Low dice is probably like your tier two chase, but a top five prospect and an org that sells really well, like I would call that a chase as well. Especially he's the only auto for the Braves. So the Braves fans will be chasing him. Regardless. So ⁓ value a little bit of everywhere and that marks two of ⁓ down for us now. Jaba: Yeah absolutely. Yeah. Two down. And ⁓ yeah, we got four to go. Those will be coming out kinda throughout this week. yeah, we're looking forward to release and getting some new product out there. I think 26 Bowman kind of sucked. ⁓ so really excited to have a new product out there. I'm really excited by this checklist. I've seen some people complaining. I think it's a great checklist. A lot of stuff I like. And if you don't like it, that's more for me. So Jheremy: How much? Jaba: Alright, thanks everyone for listening. Appreciate you all and let's go, Matt's.