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Hot Sheet: AL West Top Prospects · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think the talent has always been there. He's certainly
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: someone that has the physicality. I think the floor here
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is if you know, he doesn't find a way to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: sort of command his full arsenal.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: The name is Kamar Rocker.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: If you're a college baseball fan, you've heard that name
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: for a while now. He is the top prospect in
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: the Texas Rangers farm system and he could make a
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: big impact in Major League Baseball this year. Let's hit
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: a prospect profile Scott Brown along with Baseball Americas, JJ
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Let's get to it, JJ, Kamara
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Rocker this year for the Rangers in the rotation making
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: a big impact.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: What do you think I would say that we saw
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: him at the end of last year, it would be
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: I think they need him to make an impact this year.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: There's only one big hurdle, and you mentioned it. You know,
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: Kamar Rocker has been a guy that we've been everyone
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: has been watching, paying attention to for years now. I
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: remember watching them high school and he was already a dude,
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: and he was already physically a dude when he was
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: in high school. But goes to Vandy has one of
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: the better freshman years, especially one of the best postseasons
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: we'll ever see in college baseball, and you think at
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: that point, Okay, by now we're talking about a guy
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: who's years into his big league career and then the
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: injury strike and even like later in his Vanderbilt career,
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: like in his draft year, you would see that velocity
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: kind of wax and Wayne depending on the outing. The
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: Mets draft him and then they don't sign him and
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: they say the medicals they had to back away. The
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: Rangers then go out and draft him, and then he
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: blew out his elbow, and so that's why we're still
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: talking about him as a prospect coming into twenty five.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: But that's also the question that the biggest question I
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: would say that we face with Rocker in twenty five.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: You want to see him improve his secondaries, the third
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: pitch to kind of help him that better as a starter.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: But the big thing is is how many innings are
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: they going to be comfortable letting him go this year?
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Because of the injuries. We are years away from the
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: last time that Comar Rocker went one hundred innings in
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: a season or close to it. Are they gonna be willing?
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Are they going to be able to basically hand him
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: the ball and say, okay, we can expect twenty twenty
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: five starts out of you.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: Jeff.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: That's to me, that's the question that we It's gonna
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: be really interesting to see because stuff wise, there shouldn't
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: be as much of a question.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, there's probably a bigger question
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: in terms of health. I do think there's some stuff
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: that popped up and sort of showed itself in the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: major leagues. In particular, he's probably gonna have to switch
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: off of that four seam fastball. It graded really poorly
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: on a ton of stuff models the public ones like
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, Cyrus's stuff plus et cetera. That's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: on fangrabs. The sinker grades out as a plus pitch.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: I think he probably ends up having to go there.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: He's lost some rides since his college days. I think
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: some of that was attracking devices. Some of it might
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: also be, you know, some of the elbow and shoulder
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: injuries that he's dealt with. We've seen that happen with
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: other prospects. Forrest Whitley's a guy that sort of lost
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: some of his ride over time and switched to a sinker.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: The sinker plays pretty well, might make him a little
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: bit less of a strikeout guy and more of a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: bad contact guy that can miss bats with that slider. Certainly,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the development of a third pitch, you know, whether that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: ends up being you know, his cutter or his change up,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: or sort of a combination of the two, it should
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: be interesting to see, you know, how that stuff develops
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: over the course of the year, how the Rangers decide
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: to sort of develop him, and you know where where
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the arsenal sort of goes from there.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: It is. It is an interesting pitch mix.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I think just the big question is, you know, what's
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the third pitch and does he really make that switch
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: to a primary sort of two seam sinker type of
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: fastball and maybe only throw the four seamer in certain counts.
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: I kind of think with that also, like this is
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: going to be the crucial year for this of because
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: of the timetable and all, Okay, we really are going
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: to see on that third pitch. You know, maybe it
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: is a cutter. Maybe again it could be a change up,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: but I especially say it's going to throw in a
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: curve as well. But I would love to see kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: of a cutter that just gives him something else in
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: the zone that really kind of would start pushing Rocker
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: to being more of that bad contact, that weak contact
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: kind of guy, not the you know, maybe a little
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: less than the strikeouts than maybe people expected if you
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: saw him back in twenty nineteen in the postseason for
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Vandyan all. But the slider's still really good. But I
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: would also say with that, like, if that doesn't come along,
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: and I think he's gonna have plenty of time to
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: work here as a starter, receive it does, but it
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: also is a mix. Jeff to me that that does
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: say like if it didn't work out as a starter
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: long term, it could be he could be a really
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: good reliever. I don't want to pitt you know, I
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: think he's going to end up as a starter, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the fallback options I feel like here are pretty good
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: as well as long as he stays healthy.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree, And I think you know, you
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: brought up a good point. You know, the slider is
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a really good pitch. I think some people probably refer
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to as a cutter, and then you know, call the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: curve ball slider.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It's just sort of how how the pitches are shaped.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: But could get a little bit more of like a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: ride traditional maybe like a like a cut fastball. You know,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: that might be another another you know, element that he
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: could sort of add to his game. But once again,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: we don't know what the medicals are. Fully, we don't
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: know what his limitations are in terms of like what
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: types of pitches he can throw. But I think the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: talent has always been there. He's certainly someone that has
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the physicality. I think the floor here is if you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: he doesn't find a way to sort of command his
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: full arsenal, which was a little bit of an issue
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: in the major leagues in terms of hitting his spots
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: and showing consistent command, and isn't able to handle a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: huge workload. Maybe he's a multi inning reliever that can
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: be really nasty and you know, high leverage situations. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I think he does have the stuff to be successful
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: as a major leaguer. It's just does he have the durability,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Does he have the track record, you know, a strike throwing,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: all those sort of things to be you know, a
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: starter that can go out there and give you twenty
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: five plus starts a year. And I think that question
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: is still just very much up in the air.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: The other thing that does stand out to me, though,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: is this is an organization that there's two number one prospects.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: There's one A and one B. Rocker is basically big
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: league ready. Sebastian Walcott's not. But if you're a Rangers fan,
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: after you just graduated White Langford, you dressed graduated Evan Carter,
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: now you have Rocker and you have Walcott knocking on
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: the door before too long, that's a pretty good situation
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: to be in, you know, especially I know last year
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: was not twenty twenty four was not the year that
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Rangers fans wanted, but you know, that World Series, the
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: champagne smell is just kind of coming out after that
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: twenty three season. So it does feel like that the
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Rangers are in a pretty decent spot right now.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Walcott was a riser, right.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: We weren't talking a lot about him in this kind
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: of conversation a year ago. So you love to see
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: that when you're not excited about someone or you just
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: don't know about someone, and then all of a sudden
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: he hits the equation here for this team, I want
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: to finish with this. I didn't hear the word that
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I was looking for from from Rocker. Can we call
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: it a death ball? Is that still a thing? Remember
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: when that was a thing last year? Like the little
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: baby curve? I think he calls it a curve. Can
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: we say that he has a death ball just because
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: it's good marketing?
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: I think, well, like I wouldn't say death I would say,
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: like it can it can cut you.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: But I don't know if you're going to bleed.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: Out, Okay, doomball, Jeff doomball, Like it's a minor version
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: of the death ball.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's a it's a harder curveball with
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you know, less vertical drop.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: It's sort of slurvy in nature.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Maybe has like a little bit more like drop than
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: your typical slurve. But it's a hard it's a hard curveball.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Certainly based on like how tread was sort of marketing
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the pitch when they start sorted to talk and have
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the conversation around the whole death ball Moniker, it's certainly
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: from like a movement perspective fits into that. I just
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: don't know that it's you know, it's not a pitch
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: that he's throwing thirty percent of the time or anything,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: which you know, if you're gonna have something like a
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: death ball, that kind of label on a pitch. It's
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the type of pitch that you're going to be leading
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: on quite a bit, because yeah, you're killing it back.
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: I would say, you can't give her that's the death ball.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, mm hmm.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we're just trying to come up with
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: some other names, right that the ghost fork. Obviously that
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: that earns its nickname. It's ridiculous for Sega, and he
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: uses it plenty, So all right, doomball, maybe you're I
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: don't know if he even uses enough to be able
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: to call it that, but I think Rangers fans will
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: just settle for twenty five plus starts and keeping him
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: in the rotation and seeing him do good things for
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: them and finally kind of live up to what we
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: saw back in college from him.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: So thanks for watching this one.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Of course, if you are a fan of other teams
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: and you'd like to learn about their top prospects, we
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: have videos for you, and if you don't see your
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: team yet, it will be coming out on a day
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: by day basis here during spring training.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: This is the team that never has that year where
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: they say, you know what, we know that realistically, we're
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: just not there. You need to take a step back
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: to take a step forward. That's not been something that
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: the Angels have been willing to do.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: All right, let's be quick because we're covering the Angels
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: and their top prospect while he is still a prospect.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: If you know, you know as a.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Prospect profile, the name of that prospect is Caden Dana,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Scott Brown, JJ Cooper, Jeff Ponce and JJ. I mentioned
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: this because the Angels like to rush their prospects. So
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: talk me through their game plan here.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Okay, their game plan is we saw Kat and Dana
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: reach the big leagues last year. The Angels are not
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: an organization that that preaches a whole lot of patience.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: So I would say that, you know, we're looking at
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: him in spring training and a healthy Kate Dana is
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: battling for a spot rotation. And then I would say, hey,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: what we've seen in recent years, especially with the pictures,
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: I would just ask for a little bit of patience.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: We're talking about a picture who is younger than some
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: of the pictures who will be drafted in the twenty
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: twenty five MB draft, and I think he could use
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: some additional time as additional seasoning. I don't think that
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: not having Caden Dana in the big leagues on opening
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: day is going to be the difference between this club
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: making a deep playoff run or not. I think I
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: can feel comfortable saying that's probably not gonna be the
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: case with that being the idea. Like let's you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: we've seen with Patrick Sandival and Read Deptmer's and Griffin Canning,
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: and we could go through this list. There are a
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: lot of guys who move quickly for them starting pictures
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: and got a lot of up and down performances out
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: of them. And Jeff, I just don't know if I
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: would say right now we like Caten Dan as a
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: prospect stop on a prospect, But I do think that
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: we're not talking about a fully finished, a fully polished
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: Oh this guy has checked off every box you need
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: to see to say he's ready to be a big
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: league starter.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think we even saw it when he
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: came up to the big leagues last year. You know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: he's a guy that gets by on really good pitch ability.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: You know, he throws strikes, he competes in the zone consistently,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: he gets deeper into starts. There's a lot to be
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: said for that. He certainly handled you know, double a
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: as well as one could be expected at how old
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: he was.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: But I think when you dig into some of the.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Numbers, and I'm not the first person to call this,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: you know, to the forefront with Dana, his release spot,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: his release heights on his pitches are all over the place.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: What that means it's a little bit easier to pick
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: everything up. You know, He's thrown from a seventy three
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: inch release height on the fastball, and then it drops
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: down four or five inches for the slider, it drops
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: down about four or five inches for the for the changeup,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and he mixes in a curve ball that actually comes
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: from a higher slot than his fastball. All these teams
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: have access to this information. It's going to be out
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: there and pre game scouting reports. After the first you know,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: at bat or even the first couple of pitches, guys
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: are going to start picking up you know, where the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ball's coming out of the hand.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: These are major league hitters.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: These guys are great at adjusting, great at picking up
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: little you know, details and little etiosyncrasies of each one
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: of these players that I think Dana probably is best
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: serve spending more time at Double A. If they'd actually
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: want to send a prospect a Triple A for the
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: first time in a very long time, perhaps that's where
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: he ends up.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I think there's even a case that could be made
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: that maybe Dana shouldn't have been a number one prospect.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Maybe really Christian Moore might be the more upside guy
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: when you think about all the tools that he has
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and some of the stuff that maybe he needs to refine.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Isn't quite the gap to get to major league regular
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: that I think it is with Dana right now. There's
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: four different pitch shapes. Like I said, he can compete
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: with all of them. He throws them for strikes, He
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: gets deep into starts. You know, he showed efficiency and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the ability to get outs consistently at the Double A level.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I still think he needs a little bit more time
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: just to be nurtured a little bit more in terms of,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: you know, making sure the release heights are just a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: little bit more consistent, because those gaps are four or
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: five inches are pretty big gaps. When you're talking about
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: a guy who doesn't you know, that isn't throwing a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: slider that's you know, outlier movement or outlier velocity, or
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a combination of the both. It's kind of stock sort
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: of pitch mix, and there's some elements that I feel
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: like lack deception, and I think that's an element that
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes it's hard to measure with the numbers, but when
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: we see it in the release heights, I think it's
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: really quite a big issue. So needs a little bit
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: more time. I think he was rushed a little bit
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: too quickly to the major leagues, but that's kind of
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: been the mo for the Angels of the last three
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: four seasons.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: I do want to kind of in positive, you know,
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: say something positive on data here, which is we do
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: like them. This is a guy who has big league
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: starter or potential. Most of his peers, most of his contemporaries,
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: are hoping to get to double A in twenty twenty five.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: He's already reached the majors. It's just that, Yeah, you
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: want to see him get to add this polish. You
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: want to see him the things Jeff mentioned, these aren't
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: unsolvable problems. They're just things that ideally you want to
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: fix while you're in the minors, not the majors. So
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: I would say with all of this it is it's like,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: please a little bit of patience here, and kind of
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: could say the same thing. Christian Moore reached Double A
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: last year pretty much, you know, seemingly a couple of
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: hours after he signed, which is not that unusual for
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: the Angels and what they do at their top picks.
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: As Jeff mentioned, this is really kind of a strange
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: situation where the Angels don't really use their High A
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: or their Triple A clubs a whole lot for their
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: best prospects, which kind of.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: Makes for an uneven.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Development process because you're asking guys a lot of the times.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: Nelson Rod is another one we saw this with, who
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: jumped straight to Double A and was one of the
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: youngest players in that league. Probably should have been in
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: hig A. But the Angels don't really send their top
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: prospects to HIE. Their top college draftees often go to
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Double A, you know, almost straight from the draft. We
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: see that over and over and yeah, there are examples
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: where it's worked out. Zac Netto's a guy where it
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: worked out. There's also a lot of guys where it
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: hasn't worked out, where you look back and say, okay,
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: you know, Nolan Shaniel has already burned a year plus
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: of service time trying to figure it out in the
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: big leagues, and he's not like completely lost up there,
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: but he's nothing. He's not making a big impact or
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: anything like that. And by pushing guys that quickly, you
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: kind of are asking them to figure out some of
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: the toughest things to figure out at the toughest level,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: rather than letting them figure that out in the minors
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: in games that don't count the same way that they
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: count the big leagues.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: JJ philosophical question for you why, I mean, you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: do the locker rooms smell in triple A? Why would
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: they do this? And the reason I ask it with
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: such curiosity is it's one thing. If this is being
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: done by many other organizations, I don't feel like the
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: Angels have earned the recent right to be going against
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: the grain or setting a tone and saying, you know what,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: this is the right way to develop prospects.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: That's what confuses me.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, I obviously always have this cynical brain that says,
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: you know, does ownership want to see who he picks
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: as a shiny toy in the big leagues too quickly?
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: But you can maybe bring me back down to Earth
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and tell me what's happening here.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: I'd say two things. One I do follow like, Salt
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: Lake is not a fun place to pitch, so there
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: is a little bit of an aversion not just there.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: But you're playing salt Lake, you're Reno, You're in parks
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: that are really tough pitchers parks, So okay, maybe you
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: want to avoid some of that, and that there's some
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: logic to that. But the other thing is that we've
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: just seen over and over is that it's kind of
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: this never ending cycle, which is the team has lacked
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: upper level minor league depth, which kind of then means
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: that your best options sometimes are these players who really
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: may not be ready. Right, So it could be something
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: where you say, Okay, you know, well this guy could
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: use some more time. But if you're really looking and
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: asking the question, saying, well, who's our best option, in
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: a lot of these cases, these have been the best options,
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: these players who may not be fully ready. But the
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: Angels kind of have never. We saw this with the
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: show Eyotani final year of his contract, right, there's just never.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: Even though this is a team that has not gone
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: to the playoffs in a really long time, you know,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: and Mike Trout is still sitting on one career postseason hit.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: This is the team that never has that year where
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: they say, you know what, we know that realistically we're
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: just not there. We need to take a step back,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: to take a step forward. That's not been something that
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: the Angels have been willing to do. And again, I
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: would say under this ownership, under multiple front offices, under
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: this ownership, because of that, you see guys kind of
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: pushed up there faster than maybe they're ready in some
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: cases because well, we don't really have another good option.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: This is a team that has not had a whole
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: lot of triple A kind of that depth that you
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: can just plug in when an injury arises, and there
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: have been plenty of injuries also obviously for the Angels.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very unique organization and of course it
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: always looks weird when you match them up with the
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: team that's pretty close by in the Dodgers. But it
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: is what it is right now and they're going through
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: it still as an organization. Hope you enjoyed this one.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Obviously got some good Caden Dana and a little bit
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: of Christian Mortok in there, and if you get yourself
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: a Baseball America's subscription. You can learn a lot more
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: about the Angels organization, specifically their farm system. We do
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: these for every single team, going through Top prospect by
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: top prospect, so check out some other videos.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Let's see how this goes.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Let's see if this guy can turn into something, and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I do think he has the upside, you know, to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: potentially be a fringe sort of All star level player.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: Let's hit the top prospect in the Houston Ashers organize.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: The name is Cam Smith. It's prospect profile time Scott
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Bron with Baseball Americas, JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Jeff
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: tell us about Cam Smith, acquired in the Kyle Tucker deal,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: and obviously Astros fans have been looking for that next
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: big star to attach themselves to and follow, hopefully to
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: the big leagues, maybe even this year.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's possible, probably less likely that he sees
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: an extensive amount of time, depending upon what the injuries are.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Where he ends up shaking out defensively is all big
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: part of it. That being said, I think this is
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: one of the first prospects the Astros have had in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: quite a long time that you could be really really
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: excited about. He was a slam dunk top one hundred prospect,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: right inside of our top fifty. The feedback that we
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: got throughout the top one hundred process of getting better
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and better and better, even the feedback that I was
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: getting when I put together my Cubs. Listen, we put
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: out those top tens, and he was inside that Cub's
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: top ten. Obviously was still a Cub in the handbook
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: ends up. You know, the trade happens after our deadline
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: with Tucker moving to the the Cubs.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: This was the big.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Piece that the Astros asked for in that trade. More
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: so than Parades or Wesneesky, it was Smith.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: That they wanted.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: It was a player that they were on and just
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: didn't have access to in the draft. Really really good athlete,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: somebody that over the last couple of years since I
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: saw him as a draft eligible sophomore after his freshman
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: season on the Cape. Throughout that summer working with Tino,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Martinez took some massive steps forward in terms of the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: bats of ball ability, the hit tool, knowing what to
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: swing at, getting into his power more consistently, and that
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: continued to track upward as he went to FSU and
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: then obviously had one of the best debuts of anybody
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: in that twenty twenty four draft. Really really good athlete.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: He hasn't necessarily translated to the defensive side of the ball,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: but moves well for his size. There's power output, you know,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the hit tool, like I said, has come along. He's
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: always had pretty good swing decisions. You know, doesn't chase
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: a whole lot, keeps it pretty tighty zone. He's going
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to get on base. He can run a little bit.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: The big question though, is does he end up at
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: third base long term, which is his natural position. He
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: has sort of the tools to maybe play a corner
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: outfield spot, including the arm and enough foot speed to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: handle enough range in an outfield corner. Or he's big
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: enough that he and has sort of the offensive profile
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that maybe he moves to first base. Now they committed
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: some money to Christian Walker in a few years, it
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: might be a few years away. That's not going to
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: stop the Astros from potentially giving him looks at a
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: variety of different positions. Not the same level of prospect,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: but we did see like a Joey Lauperfido last year
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: play it or the last couple of years play second
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: base play, you know, some first base play, some center field,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: some other corner outfield spots. So I do think they'll
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: focus on positional versatility with Smith, hoping that he sort
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: of locks down a position.
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: I would say with that, we saw that.
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: You know, Dana Brown has said that he's going to
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: look him at third base, They're going to look him
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: at Ryan Field, They're gona look him at first base.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: In the long term.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: Generally, when you hear something like that, that does not
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: mean you can kind of look at the defensive spectrum
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: and say he's probably not going to end up at
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: the toughest of those positions. There are exceptions to that
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: doesn't mean it's not going to happen. But if you
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: told me that this means that Cam Smith's more likely
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: to be an outfielder as an Astro, wouldn't shock me.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: And I think that there's going to be the opportunity
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: there that they could use him in the outfield. I
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: think third base. If he can pull off being a
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: third basement long term, obviously say that's best for him
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: and best for the Astros. But the key thing here
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: is Jeff mentioned is the bat, and if the bat
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: is as good as we think it could be it's
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: not really going to matter that much because he could
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: be a very productive outfielder, you know, has the bat
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: to kind of carry that, and I do think that again,
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: working on that versatility this year while he's still in
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: the minors also kind of does kind of provide those
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: multiple options. As Jeff mentioned, you got Christian Walker, but
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: if there's an injury at first base, he could fit in.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: As applause, Blancher there, you know, let's see what, you know,
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: what third base looks like. Obviously Bregman's gone, the zac
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: parades is there. Let's see kind of by the time
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: Cam Smith is ready, is third base a bigger need
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: or is an outfield spot a bigger need where they
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: have an astroisk do have a number of kind of candidates,
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: but they don't have Kyle Tucker anymore. So I think
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: that really the Astros, what they're getting here is a
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: really good bat, and thankfully for them, a guy with
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: enough athleticism, enough versatility that he could be kind of
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: a viable option at multiple different positions depending on what
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: the team needs. But you know, Jeff, kind of with that,
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: as you mentioned, is probably a late this year, you know,
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: late late twenty five, but realistically probably twenty six. We're
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: hoping to see him in Houston long term. There, you
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: know what, We're gonna know a lot more I would
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: say by then about how this lineup kind of sets up.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's it's gonna depend on sort
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: of who ends up shaking out as the potential outfield
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: day outfield, they're in Houston with Tucker to partying. You know,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: there's been some talk about jose L two they move
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: into left field, even after Alex Bragman signed in Boston.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: You know, al Tuove moving to left seems like it's
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: a viable option, a place that he might see some
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: some run and some opportunities. I think he's keeping the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: seat warm, whether it's for a Jacob Melton, you know,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: who is number two in this system, you know, or
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Cam Smith if he moves there long term. I do
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: think he has the tools, and I think it's sort
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: of an interesting question as like, you know, when Cam
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Smith moved in, how close was he to Melton? Melton
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was sort of the de facto won the last couple
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of years. He was the number one in the handbook.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: The trade happens, Smith moves ahead of him. For me,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: it wasn't much of a question. I just think when
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: you look at Melton's a very good player. He hit
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you know well when he was at Oregon State. The
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: all around profile is very good there. But I think
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: when you talk about offensive impact and tools, Smith has
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: more power, has more feel to hit, has sort of
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that athleticism, that bigger body. There's there's more maybe to
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: come as well that I think when you look at
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the overall player, and he was young, I mean he's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: a you know, for a draft eligible softomore, was just
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: eligible for the draft. I think when you look at
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: all those things, he's really the number one guy. Maybe
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: him and Melton end up sort of fitting in with
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Myers or whoever it might be, you know, in center field,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: or you know, maybe Melton ends up in center field
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and they move Meyers over to a corner. I think
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: ultimately that's how this is all going to shake out.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: He has the offensive upside, He has the big power
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: with the hit tool to match. And I think, you know,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: if you're a Houston Astros fan, this is kind of exciting.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah you lost Kyle Tucker, Yeah you did lose Alex Bregman.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: You know, two major cogs in that machine that won
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you multiple championships, but you know, downsizing a little bit
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to a young player with some upside that. I think
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the Astros have also done a really good job of
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: developing their internal players and making them better, regardless of
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: what their pedigree was. I think you have to sort
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of trust the process a little bit and say, all right,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: let's see how this goes. Let's see if this guy
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: can turn into something. And I do think he has
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: the upside, you know, to potentially be a fringe sort
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of all star level player. All right, So to bring
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: us to what's happening right now with the current club, JJ,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the Astros, like Jeff mentioned, lose some of those superstars
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: for a variety of reasons. It's very difficult to maintain
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the consistency that they've had for a very long time.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: It's super impressive when you look at the big league
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: roster as of now, as of when we're doing this,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: their outfield hitting wise, looks like it's projected to be
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: one of the worst in baseball. It could be their seven,
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: eight to nine hitters, which you rarely ever see. Okay,
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: so we're having this conversation, I start to think back to,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: you know, the Verlander trade, right when they deal away
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: who was at Gilbert and Clifford. Maybe that doesn't necessarily matter.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: Just want to get your scope of where they're at
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: as a farm system to be able to replenish enough
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: to be playoff contenders every year and not have pain.
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: So I'll say this for them, like they've made, yes,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: they have. They are understandable thinner on the farm system.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: They had penalties, they had draft penalties, they had international
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: penalties for you know, for trash can gaate or whatever
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: you want to call it. They also did make trades
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: that they've made multiple trades to try to fix up
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: the big league club as they're making postseason runs. But Jeff,
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: the thing that does jump out to me, I'm looking
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: back on those trades. I can't really think of much
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: of any of them that you look at and say, oh,
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: they really would want to have that as a do over, right, Like, okay, yes,
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: they would help to have their outfield delp to still
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: have a Drew Gilbert. But it's not like Drew Gilbert
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: has blossom into one of the best prospects in baseball.
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: He's kind of still the question.
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: Still out on him very much.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: So kind of as you look at this, is there
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: any of these trades that have happened with this over
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: the last couple of years, as you've been doing these
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: astros lists that you look at and say, oh, man,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: they wish they could have that one over again.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: No.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I think they scout their system internally really really well,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: that the guys that they move moved away from. I
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: think you could argue that it was a potential overpay
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: by you know, moving a couple of prospects who were
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: ascending at that point in time. I think Gilbert at
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the time of the trade was a top one hundred prospect.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: But there were some whispers, you know, internally that the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: team thought that Melton was better than Gilbert.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: I had people with the.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Organization say that flat out to me, and you usually
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: don't hear someone you know, speak that directly about their
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: own players. I think when you look at Gilbert, he
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: really hasn't progressed much from the guy that we saw
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: at Tennessee. You know, I don't know that he would
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: necessarily be fighting, you know, fighting for a job here.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe he'd fit in left field over Ben Gammele. That
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: might be a slight upgrade Clifford at this point, the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: jury is still out if he's going to make enough
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: contact long term.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: So I don't know if I if.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Those trades really hurt them, especially when you sort of
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: consider Melton still here could come up reinforce that outfield.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Cam Smith, as we've talked about throughout this, you know,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: could be developed as a corner outfielder certainly has bigger
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: offensive upside than Iver Clifford, or Gilbert or Melton.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: For that matter.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: So I think the other thing you sort of have
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to say about the Astros is, you know, we've had
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: him as sort of a bottom tier farm system over
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: the last four or five seasons, but they've consistently produced
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: players that in the major leagues outperform what their pedigree
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: was or what their prospect rank was. I think, like
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Yaner Diaz, we were one of the earlier outlets on them,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: but generally I think the overall spectrum of you know,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: outlets out there ranking prospects were a little slower to
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: move on him. Jeremy Paina sort of came off of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: an injured year with a very small sample size and
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: then jumped in and you know, was the World Series MVP.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: You know, so I think you sort of factor all
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: those things in, it's still a really good lineup one
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: through seven, one through six, it's you know, probably as
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: strong as just about any lineup in baseball, especially when
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: you have yord On Alvarez in the middle. And you know,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I know, Christian Walker doesn't necessarily get the fanfare that
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: he deserves. This is one of the best home run
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: hit is one of the best power hitters in the game,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and he's now gonna be a you know, he's a
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: right hander, he's gonna be able to.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Take advantage of those Crawford boxes.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: So I think when you look at the overall picture,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: there's still really strong offensively, there's still a really solid
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: defensive team, and then you look at the pitching. They
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: still have plenty of pitching that's under control for a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: couple of years, so they could still win this division.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I still think they're going to compete. I'd love to
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: see them make another move and try to reinforce that outfield,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: but maybe that comes internally.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Well, good, you did it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: You made Astros fans feel better just now with all
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: So there you go.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Astros fans. Much more coverage over at Baseball America dot Com.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Go get yourself a subscription. Subscribe to this YouTube channel
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: for many more videos, including ones that cover each top
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: prospect per organization being unveiled throughout spring training.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: We'll see on the next one.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I don't think Emerson, like, are you gonna get Emerson's peak?
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Maybe with those guys.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think there's a runway here
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: for those guys in the next year or two. Like
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of these hitters to be knocking on the door.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: We've seen it over and over and over again.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: The Seattle Mariners have a very strong farm system. Let's
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: get into their top prospect right now, Colt Emerson your
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: prospect profile Scott brun along with Baseball Americas JJ Cooper
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: and Jeff Ponce. Jeff Colt Emerson has a chance to
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: be a star factor of fiction.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: That's fact.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Had an opportunity to see him in person over a
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: couple of games during the Arizona Fall League during the
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: first week only had thirteen games out there. You know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: it was one of the younger players, was actually I
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: think over four years younger than the average player in
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: the AFL, so you know, obviously was showing off really
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: well against good competition. Hit three seventy four to thirty
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: six five thirty seven, had nine runs scored over thirteen games.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: It's an offensive league, but even as far as you know,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: standout offensive performances for as young as he was as
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: a as a nineteen year old in that league, you know,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: somebody that didn't have any experience outside a ball I
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: thought he really really showed well. Maybe wasn't the greatest season,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't necessarily meet full expectations of what we
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: had anticipated or expected from him in twenty twenty four.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I think some of that was Obviously he was dealing
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: with injuries. That's one of the reasons that he ended
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: up in the Arizona Fall League because he was limited
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: to seventy games. But when we look at the underlying data,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: it's just like great bats of ball skills. There's no
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: questions about that at all. Twelve point six percent miss rate,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: which is pretty goofy, you know, doesn't swing and miss,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: doesn't chase or expand the zone very much. Is still
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the type of a player that you know, isn't passive
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in the zone. He's attacking strikes when he has those opportunities.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Shows above average power for his age and level. I
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: think this is, you know, the Corey Seeger comp. You know,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the bat first bigger shortstop comps get thrown around a lot.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I think it is app to here. I think he
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: is definitely somebody that sort of fits into that category
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: of a guy who could hit for average. The power
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: should grow. He doesn't necessarily have to sell out for
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: that power as well. But I think when we come
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: back to this video in five, six, seven years and
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: he's had a couple of years of service time in MLB,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I think we're gonna be talking about, you know, a
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: twenty five home run bat that can hit two eighty plus,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: you know, play a solid shortstop, maybe a really good
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: third base, but it's going to stick on that left
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: side of the infield.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Just a really talented all around player.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: I got good news Mariners fans. I know that there's
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: a lot of understandable frustration. I feel like there might
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: even be a little bit of anger about the Mariners'
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: lineup and the lack of production they've gotten. Obviously, ad
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: middedly it's a pitcher's park, but Emerson is one of
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: a number of very very impressive Mariners bets who.
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: Are on the way up.
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: The thing that's the thing that really does jump out
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: with him is you just feel really confident that he's
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: going to hit for average, he's going to get on base,
• 33:55
  Speaker 4: the power is going to be there. But you know,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: if you said that speaking of Seegers, you know, if
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: you said that it was a Kyle Seger type power
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: down the road, if you've said that it's kind of
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: that prime and profile down the road, I actually would
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: think that that's not a bad profile either, which is
• 34:10
  Speaker 4: maybe he ends up at third base, maybe he ends
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: up being a high average guy, gets on base and
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: shows above average power, but not like thirty plus home
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: run type power. That would be great and that would
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: be a star like to answer Scott's question, that, to me,
• 34:24
  Speaker 4: that's the kind of guy who goes to All Star Games.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: And the thing that's going to be interesting to see
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: with this Mariner's group of prospects coming up is there
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: is going to be a lot of figuring out who
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: fits where because there are a number of these guys
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: who you know, Jeff, when I look at it, there's
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: a healthy competition going on here because when we say
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: who's the number one prospect of the Mariner system, it's
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: called Emerson. But if you said who's two, three, four,
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: five six, you could make a whole lot of different
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: arguments because there's a lot of these guys who you
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: could look up at the end of this year and say, oh,
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: that guy's one of the best offensive prospects in the
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: minor leagues, could you?
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: And I think you know, when you consider that and
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: you consider what the talent they have in their player
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: development system, just in terms of getting the best out
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: of their pitching prospects, I think it's really exciting that
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: they have all of these talented hitters up at the top.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: You have guys like Cole Young. You know, he's a
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: really good all around player. The tools are maybe a
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: little bit less loud than others around him.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Johnny Farmelo is pretty tooled up. I think has big upside.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Michael Arroyo just from a pure bats ball power age
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: two level production sort of standpoint, checks all those boxes
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: in a really high level way. I know, we put
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: out our robo Scout Top one hundred during the offseason.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: He was number two, much to my surprise. But that's
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: sort of how the model views him. It's very similar
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: to a lot of models that teams use we roll
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: in some data to that as well, so I think
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: it kind of puts into perspective all these guys, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: we haven't even talked about Felnon Sellston, who's a very
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: talented international prospect which just hasn't been on the field
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: all that much, Harry Ford, lazarro Mantes, and then we
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: start to get into some of the pitching prospects who,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: as we just talked about, with their play development system,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I think anytime a talented arm gets into the Mariners system,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you maybe boost them a little bit, the same way
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: you would with.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: The Dodgers prospect et cetera.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: So the fact that they have this young core of
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: hitters that are all kind of coming up around the
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: same time, really really talented, is going to be interesting
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to see how it all shakes out.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: And it's something that Seattle certainly needs.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: They need some firepower offensively kind of match up with
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Julio Rodriguez, who's still very very young in the future
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: and in the coming years. So I think there's a
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: lot of reasons for excitement, especially in the infield. We
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: talk about some of these Mariners prospects.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: JJ I'm not a Mariners fan, but I watched this
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: team a lot, and I feel the frustration I think
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: many people in baseball field of frustration when you see
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: the starting staff that they put together, especially over the
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: last couple of years, and how good they've been from
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: start to finish in a season.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: And you know, I haven't even.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: Made the playoffs for these last couple of years.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: So let me ask you this.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: We're talking up Mariners prospects, including Emerson. Are they going
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: to match up their timetable, their ETA with the starting
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: staff that they have. If not, it's a big problem. Okay,
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: that's because those guys are stars. They're going to get expensive,
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: and some of them are going to leave if not
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: gets traded. So I've seen this happen before. I couldn't
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: think of one in the last thirty seconds, but there
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: are examples, if I think deeply enough, about teams that
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: have one stage coming, but the other stage is already there,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: and by the time the position players all get to
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: the show, they're like, damn, we don't really have the
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: aces like we used to have, so we didn't time
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: this up.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: Well, that's the great question, and the answer is no,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: because the time is now like you would have to
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: have all these guys ready to go, because I don't
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: know where you could point to and say that this
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: is not the time for the marriage rotation you know
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: they have. I'm not saying that maybe you know, George
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Kirby or Brian wu or take your pick, someone has
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: a better year in their future. But they're pitching staffs
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: one of the best in baseball right now. They're starting
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: rotation and Luis Castillo and these are guys who ideally,
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: if you had this group of prospects all ready to
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: arrive this year for Opening Day, which you don't, then
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: that would be when it's matching up pretty well. Really,
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: to be honest, it would be them arriving the midpoint
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: of last year so that this year they go into
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: the season having already checked off the know what the
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: big leagues are like. And we're talking about a number
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: of guys who are n a ball So I think
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: the other way you could approach this, and it doesn't
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: seem like this is the way that really they're they're
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: you know, there are the Depoto quotes about sustainability. This
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: is a team that this wave of hitters could arrive
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: in time to kind of keep the team above five
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: hundred above above heads above water as the pitching gets expensive,
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: as the pitching starts to hit free agency, even in
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: some cases. But I don't think it's going to arrive
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: in time to say, oh, it's synced up perfectly, because
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: if it syncd up perfectly, they'd already be there.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: And that kind of led me into my conclusion here,
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: which is, for a team that's been run by a
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: GM president baseball ops who loves to make trades, it's
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: been shocking to see them kind of toned down the
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: trade activity at a time when I thought, maybe they
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: should turn it up if they don't have the budget,
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: acquire those cheaper league minimum bats that are potential stars
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: who can give you more of return now and sacrifice
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: a little bit more of the future because who cares.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: I know you want to keep it rolling for a
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: long period of time, but now you're shaking your head, Jep.
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: I mean the fifty four that thing only works so much.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: I'd rather have sixty percent for a few years and
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: then go back down to forty five to fifty percent
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: wins for a few years.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: Up, I'm the Mariners.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Well, you got Gilbert until twenty seven. You got Kirby
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: until twenty twenty eight, that the final season that they're
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: under contract, and then you got Miller and Wu until
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: twenty nine. So like there is a runway here. I
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: don't think Emerson, like, are you going to get Emerson's peak?
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: Maybe with those guys.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think there's a runway here
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: for those guys in the next year or two. Like
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of these hitters to be knocking on the door.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: We've seen it over and over and over again. A
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: guy gets up a double A. He is not that
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: far off for making the jump of the major leagues
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: that it wouldn't shock me if Emerson and a couple
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: of these other guys debut in twenty twenty six, twenty
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: twenty five, probably out of the question, But there is
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: a window there where they could get those guys together
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: for two or three years. Gilbert would be the one
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: they would have to extend. I don't think Castillo is
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: really in this equation for me. I'm thinking about the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: young pitchers that they have, and you know, they drafted
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Ryan Sloan, They've gotten you know, Jurangela Senia, Like, they
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: have some arms here that you know, potentially could sort
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: of backfill Castillo and Gilbert in the future.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: So I don't know. I feel like they have anne
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: homegrown corps.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: And the other part of it, too is you got
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: to expect that any hitters you go out and get,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: the production is probably gonna plummet a little bit when
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: they go into that ballpark. They got to figure out
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: the ballpark and how to make it a better offensive environment.
• 41:12
  Speaker 4: Frankly, the thing I would say with all of this
• 41:15
  Speaker 4: is is much like we talk about with the Orioles,
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: the Orioles are we talk about the Oriols, wehre's like
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: their one playoff series win away from putting a lot
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: of this question behind them. The Mariners are one really
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: good season away. If everything comes together this year, then
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: this will seem kind of like an obsolete thought. But
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: until they do, this is a very fair question to
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: ask because we.
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: Saw a young core come up together.
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: When we just mentioned all those pictures throwing a Julio
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: Rodriguez throwing a cal Riley, you got to win something
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: with it, and so far that hadn't happened. It very
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: well could this year or in the future. But until
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: you do, there's gonna be that pressure. There's gonna be
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: that frustration, understandably from a really good fan base to
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: see them get over.
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: That what's been really a long drought. Let's just be honest.
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: This is a team.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: If you're a Seattle Mariners fan, you've known heartbreak more
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: than you've known success.
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you deserve better. So that's why we're here to
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: talk it out. And you do have a really good
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: farm system right now with some depth to it. So
• 42:17
  Speaker 3: thanks for watching this one. We do this on every
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: single team here in spring training, so if you've missed
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: any and go back and check them out and look
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: forward to more here on the Baseball America YouTube channel.
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: Do not kind of lump the A's in with the
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: bottom feeders, because I promise you if you compare this
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: A's lineup to say the Rockies lineup or the Marlins
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: lineup or the White Sox lineup, it's not in that
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: same comparison.
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: Okay, A's fans, let's talk about Nick Kurtz, their top prospect.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Is he coming to the show in twenty twenty five.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: It's a Baseball America Prospect profile Scott bron with ba's
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Obviously, I want to get
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: your take on Nick overall, But JJ, do you think
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: that he will make an impact on the twenty twenty
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: five A's a team that could surprise some people and
• 43:01
  Speaker 3: certainly could use some more help to the lineup if.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: He's healthy, and that's a big gift because he's had
• 43:05
  Speaker 4: some injury issues when he was at Wake Forest. But
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: if he's healthy, I would say I'd be surprised if
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: he doesn't. The best way I could lay this out
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: is if you look at Jacob Wilson kind of his
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: path and him last year, Nick Kurtz should, if anything,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: move faster than Jacob Wilson. Nick Kurtz is has less
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: concerned about the defense. He's a great you know, he's
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: a very good defender, but he's a first baseman, so
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: we're not really having to worry about that too much.
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: And then on top of that, you talk about his
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: polish at the plate, Well, this is the guy who
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: came out of Wake for us, it's not a little
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: bit more, you know, higher, you know, a tougher conference
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: in college ball and everything we've seen so far as
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: a pro which admittedly is about that much.
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: So you know, it's it's.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: A very short pro career so far, but everything that
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: the A's have seen so far seems to indicate that
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: Nick Kurtz could absolutely be a fast mover. The way
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: I would put it is is if I was Tyler Soderstrom.
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: Obviously you can kind of fit Soldstrum in a couple
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: of places, could d H. But if I was telling Salidstrum,
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: I would really want to get off to a really
• 44:07
  Speaker 4: good start because there is a Nick Kurtz sized freight
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: train coming down the tracks behind him, and it would
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: not shock me at all if by mid season a
• 44:16
  Speaker 4: little bit after that, we see Kurts in the big leagues,
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he kind
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: of hit the ground running the majors, because Jeff, this
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: is a really impressive and a really polished bat, isn't it.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think, you know, even the athleticism Occurts
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: is probably a little bit under sold. He's going to
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: stick at first base, but I think it'd be a
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: plus for first baseman. I don't think we'd necessarily talk
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: about first base defense and care that much about it,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: but it is important and I think it does make
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: a difference. I sort of look at the lineup right now.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: They have Ruker kind of penciled in a DH. It
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: wouldn't shock me if the hint, you know, if Kurtz
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: comes up and they want to keep Soderstrom's bat in
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the lineup, maybe Soderstrom moves to DH, they move Ruker
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: to the outfield, and he kind of pushes out Seth Brown.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I could see Kurtz coming up by July, maybe even
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: a little bit earlier than that, but by mid season
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: and kind of holding down that a's first base job.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: They need something to get the fans excited. It could
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: be a better team than people expect to think. Scott
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head when he said that,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: But I look at Kurtz and I think he's also
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: super polished. You know, the bats of ball skills are
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: well above average, the swing decisions are plus, the power
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: is plus, Like his raw power isn't that far off
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: from Jack kglianone, and he has much better plate skills,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: is a better first baseman. I think this was one
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: of the best hitters in the draft. It was a
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: really talented college positional class with Bizana, with Kurtz, with
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: weather Hall, with Cagnianon and others, and It wouldn't shock
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: me if we come back to this in a few
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: years and say, all right, like Nick Kurtz might actually
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: be the most impactful hitter. Maybe not all around player,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: but just in terms of what he can do. The
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: big question is just staying healthy. He really hasn't made
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: it through a fully or healthy Every single summer during
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: his college tenure at Wake Forest, he was shut down,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: had some sort of procedure.
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: He had the same thing when he came into.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: Pro ball last year, and then it arrived in AFL
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: a little bit late because of it. So I think
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the big thing with Kurtz is just staying on the
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: field and staying healthy. We've seen this with hitters before.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: He can go back and you know, you know, bring
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: a name up like Ian Kinsler, a guy that was
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: really injured over the early part of his career and
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: then kind of became an iron man. Like I've heard
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: this expression before when it comes to hit her injuries.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: But you know, with pictures, it's kind of, you know,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: a sign of things to come. When there's injuries early
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: on with hitters, sometimes it's just little stuff and even
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: some of the tissue injuries can go away over time.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: That's not to say that it's it's something that you
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: should sort of like just you know, wave away with
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: one hand and you know, ignore. But I do think
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: as long as he stays on the field and is
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: healthy and gets a full first half, it wouldn't shock
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: me if he spends the second half of the season
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: in the major leagues and really hits, because I think
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: he's not that far off from being a major league
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: quality hitter now, just a matter of maybe just seeing
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: it a little bit more.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: I will offer one counterpoint as far as a hitter,
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: a top draft pick hitter who started out with seeming
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: like an injury played career, then had a stretch of success,
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: and then the injuries came back, and that would be
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: Anthony Rendon, who you know, a kind of the unfortunate
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: example of that. But no, I agree with you in general.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: And the thing that does stand out Kurts is it's
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: not like he has a back injury that causes his problems.
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: A year after year he had a rib injury, he
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: had a shoulder injury. And that shoulder injury, I remember
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: when that happened last year, there was some thought like, Okay,
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: are we going to see Nick Kurts again during the
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: uh you know, during the regular season for for Wake
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: and he was back really quick, had a hamstring injury.
• 47:42
  Speaker 5: These are the kind of injuries that.
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: They happen and obviously it's not great, but they're not
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: things where you say, oh, that's a chronic shoulder injury
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: or a rib injury. That's the kind of thing that uh,
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: you know that that you say, Okay, it may just
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: be a fluke. And if you put that, whenever he's
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: been on the field, Nick Kurt has always performed. So
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: it's not even something where it takes him a long
• 48:03
  Speaker 4: time when he gets back. When he gets back, he's
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: usually back. He has that swing, he really knows his
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: swing where he just kind of hits the ground running
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: and back to being a Polish hitter almost from day
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: one when he comes back off the aisle.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: And then I'm going to take the global picture, of
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: course for this A's team, because they're trying to get
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: themselves into a better public sphere as they head to
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: Vegas at some point maybe but at least spend some
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: time in Sacramento. And I think this is the team
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: that has really gotten the most negative attention in our
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: sport for the last at least half decade. Is there
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: a future here just based on the farm system right
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: because I mean this team still gets tied on a
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: casual basis JJ to the movie that came out a
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: couple decades ago in Moneyball, and really they haven't been
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: ahead of the curve, I would say for a while now.
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: So do you think they're at a point here where
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: at least the losing has led to some success with
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: their farm system that's able to supplement a team that's
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: now at least spending a little bit more and could
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: turn them into a wildcard contender.
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: Well, I think so, because I think that you look
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: at this team right now. Jeff mentioned Brent Rooker. Brent
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: Rooker had a breakout year last year. Lawrence Butler, you know,
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: had a great half of the season last year. This
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: is the team that now, do not kind of lump
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: the A's in with the bottom feeders, because I promise
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: you if you compare this A's lineup to say the
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: Rockies lineup or the Marlins lineup or the White Sox lineup,
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: it's not in that same comparison. This is a team
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: that right now can put a reasonably reputable lineup onto
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: the field and then you throw in Fa Kurtz and
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: guys like this arrive before long. It could get even better.
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: Now the AO West is wide open. It does not
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: look like that the Astros are the Astros that dominated
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: this division for years. We'll see if the Rangers can
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: get back to the team that won the World Series
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: two years ago. So all that being said, the A's
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: look like a competitive team, and that's a big improvement,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: even if, okay, they're gonna be a competitive team playing
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: in a minor league ballpark.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this team could make some noise in twenty twenty
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: five and some promise here going forward, including also a
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: pretty good manager who they extended recently as well. And
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: that seems to be the formula, man if I'm the
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: A's trying to pinpoint that young talent and get some
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: extensions going because you know, otherwise you're going to get
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: closer to free agency and probably have to move those
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: guys unless they're suddenly going to be spending at a
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: different level. I highly doubt that I'm worried about them
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: paying their construction bills for Vegas if that happens. So anyway,
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: as fans and anyone else. Hope you enjoyed this one.
• 50:44
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• 50:49
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• 50:50
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• 51:00
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