Latest / Foul Territory / Baseball America Hot Sheet trade breakdowns + Nationals to-do list

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Baseball America Hot Sheet trade breakdowns + Nationals to-do list · Foul Territory

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's the Nationals offseason to do list with Andrew Golden,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: who covers the Nats for the Washington Post. Andrew, great
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to see you, and I'll let you lay out what
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you think the Nats are going to do over the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: next couple of months leading up to spring training. I
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: think this is important non Nats fans pay attention to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: number one on your list.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Go ahead, Yeah, thanks for having you on, guys. Yeah,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: I think in terms of my Nationals to do list,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: my number one is I think the Nationals to trade
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Mackenzie Gore but keep CJ. Abrams. That's my number one.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Number two is acquire a first basement and that's really
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: important for the Nationals, I think, either via trade or
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: in free agency. And the thirdest, continue to shape the
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: vision for the team. There's been a lot of changes,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: and I think that that's a very important goal for
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: them moving forward.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: All Right, I'll start off explain number one, Trade Gore,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: keep Abrams. What makes you say that?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think with McKenzie, like I think, like, first
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: of all, obviously, pitcher injuries are very common, so you
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: don't want to ever risk losing value in a guy,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: especially a pitcher who has the caliber Mackenzie Gore and
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: as we've seen during free agency, teams really value potential
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and they value stuff, and Mackenzie or has that. He
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: has a swing and miss stuff. He has two years
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: of team control, and he's pretty cheap comparatively to a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: lot of the free agent leavers that are out there,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the free agent starters that are out there on the market.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Like a fan of Valadez and my guys like that,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: and so I think that it's be valuable for them
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to trade, you know, McKenzie while they have the opportunity
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: to do so. Cj Abras, on the other hands, I
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: think that they can develop him a lot more. I
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: think his defense, he's been one of the worst short
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: stops in baseball since he debuted in twenty twenty two.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: But I think he has a lot of potentially he
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: can unlock to improve because I don't necessarily see that
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: he's that bad when I watch him just from the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: eye test, and then offensively, he's a really talented player.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I think there's another level that he can unlock, and
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: so I would hold on to him, see if he
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: can improve his value, you know, for another season, and
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: then maybe see what the market looks like next year.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: But I don't see him any need to trade CJ
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: right now. But McKenzie I definitely think that.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: They all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna follow up on that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: And it kind of goes down to your your last
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: question too. They went out and made kind of an
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: unorthodox hire and their manager, Jake but Tarra, do they
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: believe that he is the guy for the next x
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: amount of years, you know, hiring someone so young with
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: not a ton of experience, And the fall up question
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: is if they do trade McKenzie Gore, is this someone
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: they're trying to bring into the organization that's going to
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: help them today or are they building for three four
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: years out and as Terror the guy who's going to
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: be there to see it through.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think but Teria's obviously shown that he really
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: can develop guys, and obviously that's part of the appeal
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: of trying to hire a guy like him, is that
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: he's as good a development. So I think when you
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: look at what the long term goals are, I think
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the goals to develop the Nationals and the players that
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: they have internally and the players that they draft and
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: develop into like really bigly contributors who can help them
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: down the line. So I think Paterra is here to
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: see this through. And so I think that when you're
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: looking at what they can get into return for McKenzie gore, like,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: I think the goal is to do things that will
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: set them up to help him in the future. And
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: so whether that is somebody who is you know, just
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: like Harry Ford who doesn't have a lot of you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: doesn't have a lot of big lead time and it
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: has like six years that they can get out of him,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I think if he can help right now, then sure,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: if it fits within their timeline. I think they also
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: to acquire guys who are in the minor leagues and
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: could be good in a couple of years. I think
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: their goal is not to compete right now or even
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: next year, but I think looking a couple of years
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: down the line, and so I think it ever helps
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: them fit that vision all right.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: Well, then leading into your second point, then acquiring a
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: first baseman, is it gonna be another stop gap first
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: baseman again it Peede Alonzo is not available anymore, but
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: I felt like Peter Alonzo was gonna be that, and
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: we always use it. It's a lazy narrative. That Jason Worth,
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: the guy, the guy who you're like, Oh, if I'm
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: a free agent, I'm okay hitting behind Pete Alonzo, I'm
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: okay hitting in front of Peter Alonzo or whatever it is.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: So I want to go to what the Nats are building.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Is it just gonna be another Josh Bell? Is it
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: gonna be another you know? Is it gonna be Reyes
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: Hoskins because they know him? And now East what are
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: we looking for here?
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: I hate to break your heart, but I would think
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: of being in their stop gap, That's my guess. I
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: don't think it's gonna be like a big, a big
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: name guy. I would be shocked me. Maybe there's a
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: potential that they they do pull that off, but I
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: would expect it to be somebody who's a stop gap.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Maybe you may acquire somebody in a trade. Maybe there's
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: a team that has, you know, has a surplus of
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of you know, first base that will to acquire me.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Even the Oils and Orioles have Mount Castle, they have
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Kobe May over there obviously, p Alonzo and Rutchman and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Desio and all those guys, and so I think that
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: maybe their potential fit. Maybe, but I would look to,
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: you know, I see a stop gap or somebody who
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: they can maybe get in a trade, but I wouldn't
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: expect them to sign like a p Alonzo or a
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: big name guy. Obviously not p Alonzo.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Since there are a couple of years out, do you
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: see any guys on their current roster that are extension
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: candidates that they could kind of build around, you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: for the future.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Here I mean, obviously James Wood was the big one,
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: right Like, I mean, who wouldn't want to resign James
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Wood to a long term deal. But when I look
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: at the roster, a couple of guys that intrigue me.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Dalen Lyle is somebody who was the n I think
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: here of the month of September and was a really
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: good rookie in the second half. I always kind of
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: wonder if it'd be possible to look at him as
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: an extension candidate. And the other guy I look at
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: two is Kate Cavali. He was the first round picking
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty, missed a couple of seasons recovering from Tommy John,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: but he looked pretty good last year. He has the
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: stuff to be a top of the rotation guy, but
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: he's also dealt with injuries. So I'm winning if there's
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: an ability to maybe leverage that and see if there's
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: a way to work out a long term deal. And
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: so obviously James would I think CJL Abrams obviously could
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: fit in that you want to extend CJ. But two
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: guys that I think will be interesting will be Dalen Lyle.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: They're outfielder who I think will be their starting right
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: fielder next year. And then Kay Cavali, who I think
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: has a lot of potential but has had some injuries.
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: I love Lyles. I love Lyles like just his fire.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: He just looks like he's like a little angry at
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: the baseball field when he's out there. So I love that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I love that you said that. Here's my thing. Your
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: third point is continue to shape the vision of the organization.
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: Why are we going to see that? Paul Taboni was
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: on our show and he really said not says the
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: right things, but he kind of commands that presence that
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: I don't think everybody in the that's current organization does.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: When are you going to see something from or what
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: would be something that you would want to see from
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Paul Taboni? Because your first point was keep cj Abrams.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: You're also saying maybe worth three or four years out.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: C j Abrams is a free agent. C j Abrams,
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: You're gonna basically build cj Abrams up for a draft
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: pick as a qualifying offer or a trade in a year.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: So like, when will we see or what is one
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: thing that you would want to see the organization do
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: this year by the end of the season that shapes
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: their future vision?
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think just invest in technology and really show
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: they can use that technology to actually develop the players,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: and they need to develop. I think they have a
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: lot of young talent internally, and so I think what
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I want to see is just gradual and steady improve
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: it from those guys like A James would takes a
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: step forward, if Dylan Cruiz takes a step forward, Dalan
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Lyle CJ. I think, like I think, what would be
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: a successful year for them is when you look back
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: and you see if these players have gotten better, and
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: that's proved to me that their development plan and what
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: they're putting into place to help these players improve is
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: actually working. The same thing goes for their starting pitching rotation.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: I think even if they keep McKenzie, you know, Kei
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Cavali and some of the young guys that they have.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: They have a lot of young guys that they can
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: kind of work and grow and build with it. So
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I think this year for me is just seeing like
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: which of these guys can be impact players down the line.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: I think, like who can they actually develop? So that's
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: what I'm looking for this year.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: All right, kind of off topic, but we just had
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Ken Rosenthal on and Scott brought up a good point.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: How do you feel about maybe a dead period from
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: starting tomorrow through the end of New Year's where you
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: don't have to work, no transactions could be done, you
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: could step away from your phone, you don't have to write.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Are you in on that?
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd be totally on that. I actually, you know,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: funny enough last year and Nathaniel Lob got traded. I
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: was actually a holiday party with my friends at my phone.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: They put your phone away for the night. I put
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: my phone down, wasn't looking, and I look at my
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: phone five hours later and Nathaniel Lobe been traded. I
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: missed everything, honestly, Like, I'll actually all for it. I'd
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: be cool with it because I definitely missed the Nathaniel
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: treat last year.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: Well, and the first time you were on, I remember
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: when you were on you said your mom was watching,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: So is she still going to be watching?
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: What's going on here?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: I actually didn't tell her I was gonna be on today,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: so I'm not here. She's watching. I know my wife
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: is watching, so I told her by it, so I'm
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: sure she's watching.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: More more important. That is more important. But your mom
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: probably still wants a phone call to know when you're
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: going to be on, or at least like retweet it,
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: retweet it and send.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: It to her.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: She definitely will, she definitely will.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I love it well, Andrew, Happy holidays. Great to have
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: you on, Thanks for getting us caught up on the Nats.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And we will see you in twenty twenty six.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: So I was good looking forward to doing this soon.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: And you all have a happy holiday.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: You too, appreciate you. Check out Andrew's work in the
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Washington Post.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: We'll swing right back.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: It is the final Hot sheet of twenty twenty five,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: and we'll keep running it every Monday, twenty twenty six.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Scott Brown with Baseball Americas, JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: And these are some of my favorite shows, JJ, because
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: we get to go over prospect returns as part of
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: trade packages. And let's be real, there and many fans
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: out there that don't know every single prospect in every organization,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: and that's part of what BA does best, and that's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: from big deals to small So I just wanted to
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: start it out this way. We're going to get into
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: some larger deals and some bigger named prospects. But right
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: before the show started, Jeff McNeil, a name many of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: us know, was traded from the Mets over to the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: A's and it is not the.
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: Most well known prospect.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And this is where most baseball shows aren't going to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: go this deep.
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: We are.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: The Mets receive right handed pitching prospect, your Don Rodriguez.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: The A's get Jeff McNeil and close to six million
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: bucks to help cover the sixteen million that is due
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: for him, and the Mets will also pay the two
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: million dollar buyout if his option is an exercise, and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the way he's been playing lately, it probably won't. So
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the A's essentially get Jeff McNeil for about ten million
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: bucks this coming season, and they give away someone pretty
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: far down the list.
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: So we do have we We just wrapped up the
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: prospect handbooks. So we just have ranked the top thirty
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: prospect in the A's system, like literally sending that to
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: the printer today. Jordon Rodriguez not one of those thirty. However,
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: he does rank because we also do the depth chart
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: that kind of expands it to like sixty players. Jordon
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: Rodriguez is our thirteenth ranked A's right handed starting pitching prospect.
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: So put him in the forty to forty five range.
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: I would say in the A's system, he has fifteen
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: innings in the DSL right. So this is you could
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: go a couple of ways in this. When you make
• 10:42
  Speaker 6: a trade like this, I kind of like this approach.
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: This is the we're going to take a flyer on
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: a guy who is far far away, who we like
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: the projectability. Now, the stuff, the present stuff's fine. He
• 10:54
  Speaker 6: sits in the low nineties, he can touch ninety five,
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: he's got a slider. But you are projecting out like
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: he's going to be five six years down the road.
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: There's a chance here that he could be something. And
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: when you're kind of making almost a little bit of
• 11:07
  Speaker 6: a salary dump kind of move here, that's probably a
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: better approach. If you're the Mets, you know, than it
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: is to try to pick up, you know, a close
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: to the majors guy who's only going to be an
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: up and down guy. Probably not going to say that
• 11:22
  Speaker 6: this is the trade that we will remember for years
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: to come. But there, you know, every now and then, Hey,
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: there was a Yordon who was traded in a deal
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: like this years ago. Josh Field traded for Jordon Alvarez
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: had yet to play a game for the Dodgers, and
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: he ends up being Yordon Alvarez for the Astros. So
• 11:39
  Speaker 6: it does happen. It's just a you know, the likelihood
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: of that is very very low.
• 11:44
  Speaker 7: Yep, it's just only only from the Yordon quota.
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: Like there's obviously a higher percentage of this hitting simply
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: because his name is Jordon. But I mean it's kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: of interesting, like low level guy, pretty good extensions, like
• 11:57
  Speaker 8: six and a half feet of extension. Based in the
• 11:59
  Speaker 8: data we have, it's low nineties and projectable. You can't
• 12:02
  Speaker 8: really tell too much on fastball shape down there because
• 12:06
  Speaker 8: some of those trackmens aren't exactly well calibrated. So it
• 12:10
  Speaker 8: was puting like seventeen inches of IVB and like fourteen
• 12:13
  Speaker 8: inches of armside, which is just kind of a nonsense number,
• 12:16
  Speaker 8: so probably a little bit of ride and some heavy
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: arm side run from decent extensions. So maybe something they
• 12:21
  Speaker 8: can do with this, But yeah, not a huge name.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Well, we have bigger names to dissect. Now let's hit
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the first moved me.
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: We'll get to a few deals here.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Let's start with Shane Bass being acquired by the Baltimore Orioles.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: So what did you think of this deal and the
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: package in return for someone who has high upside? And
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I thought I saw that in the return package.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: JJ. Do you agree? Oh?
• 12:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah, like this would You could very well argue that
• 12:51
  Speaker 6: this is an overpay from the standpoint of the race
• 12:55
  Speaker 6: got four pieces back. At the same time, I'm going
• 12:59
  Speaker 6: to sound like I'm talking about both sides of my mouth,
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: but I'm not. It also is a trade that I
• 13:03
  Speaker 6: like for the Orioles because the key thing here is
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: is while they traded, they they had the Orioles had
• 13:08
  Speaker 6: the draft of all drafts this year because they had
• 13:11
  Speaker 6: so many picks, they had so much money to spend.
• 13:14
  Speaker 6: And then they turned around and they traded Slater to
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: brun and Caden bodein from that group, they also traded
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: Austin Overn who's intriguing outfielder as well. But they didn't
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: trade from the top of their system. They didn't trade
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: a top one hundred prospect. They didn't really trade. You know,
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: this is not Nate George being involved in this in
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: this deal, This is not really even Michael Ferrett is
• 13:33
  Speaker 6: probably right now the closest to the big league's prospect.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: They traded.
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: All of those guys that the Rays got are very
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: plausible future big leaguers. But if I'm the Orioles, I
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: just significantly upgraded my rotation, and I did so without
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: trading Obviously not a Samuel Basio, Obviously not you know, again,
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: a Nate George. Guys like that, guys who are the
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: top top of my system. I traded guys who were
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: further away. I love Caden Bodin, think Jeff does too.
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: Really good defensive catcher, really great back to ball skills.
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: But this is the Orioles. They have Besio, they have Rushman,
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: it's not something. And they had Ike Irish is going
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: to catch a little bit as well, another part of.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: That big draft.
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: So the Orioles traded from a position of depth, positions
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: of depth and strength. I can't tell you how you
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: know debraun and over and two outfielders were gonna fit
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: when you can't even figure out how the guys who
• 14:22
  Speaker 6: were in the Oriols outfield last year are gonna fit now.
• 14:26
  Speaker 6: So trading from positions of strength, it makes the Rays
• 14:29
  Speaker 6: deeper in the farm system for further away, you know,
• 14:32
  Speaker 6: but for years from now. But at the same time,
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: if I'm the O's, I'd much rather have Shane Boss.
• 14:38
  Speaker 8: Yeah, and I think you get those three years of
• 14:39
  Speaker 8: control as well, So you essentially like trade out four
• 14:43
  Speaker 8: years of Grayson Rodriguez and any of the baggage and
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: health concerns that that came along with Rodriguez. You trade
• 14:50
  Speaker 8: that out for bos who's someone who's had a somewhat
• 14:52
  Speaker 8: checkered injury history. But at the same time, like you
• 14:55
  Speaker 8: kind of look at last year, you know, built up
• 14:58
  Speaker 8: some innings. You can probably project another twenty or thirty
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: onto that next year, and you're looking at somebody who's
• 15:04
  Speaker 8: you know, consistently out there for potentially thirty starts with
• 15:08
  Speaker 8: upside for more. They have had some success in terms
• 15:11
  Speaker 8: of reclamation projects, not that I would necessarily put Bo's
• 15:15
  Speaker 8: in the same camp as Trevor Rodgers, but we did
• 15:17
  Speaker 8: see them really, you know, watch him take a massive
• 15:21
  Speaker 8: step forward over the last year or so within that organization.
• 15:25
  Speaker 8: So I think that's definitely one thing to look at
• 15:28
  Speaker 8: within this trade is I think there's value going both ways.
• 15:31
  Speaker 8: It's one of those classic This is kind of a
• 15:33
  Speaker 8: good deal for both teams and the Rays depending upon
• 15:36
  Speaker 8: what they decide to do over the next month plus
• 15:39
  Speaker 8: leading up to camp, they could still potentially move some
• 15:43
  Speaker 8: of this prospect capital that they've built up to acquire,
• 15:48
  Speaker 8: you know, more major league talent. I know they've been
• 15:50
  Speaker 8: sort of in the mix on the Kettle Marte trades,
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: so this doesn't necessarily signify that the Raiser out of
• 15:56
  Speaker 8: it for next year, but simply sort of trading one
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: out set for some other assets they obviously liked and
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: felt they could maybe package together with some of the
• 16:05
  Speaker 8: other players in the system for upgrades.
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: In the major league team.
• 16:08
  Speaker 8: So I think this is kind of like the first
• 16:09
  Speaker 8: shoot to drop with some more Al East activity, and
• 16:12
  Speaker 8: there's been a lot this far.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of jokes by the way, I
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: just remember it online too JJ about how the pick
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: goes over to Baltimore. They spend the four million bucks
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: on de Brun and then they get the player back.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So I know it also requires Shane boz moving. Let's
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: not discount that, but it is clever. They were like,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: you take the pick. Oh you picked him. Oh he
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: gave him four million bucks. We love him, We'll take them.
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: Yeah, exactly. Obviously, this also was the same day we
• 16:40
  Speaker 6: saw another trade. I know what Jeff just said there,
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: and I agree that it's very possible at the race
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: just look at this as a way to move from
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: one guy to another. But Brandon Lawle going to the Pirates,
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: getting back the three we deal with the Astros trade
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito, who end up now joining
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: what is a much deeper Rais system. I also kind
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: of think that there's a chance that this is the
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: Rays kind of taking a step back, looking around and realizing, hey,
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: in a division where the Blue Jays just went to
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: the World Series, where the Orioles are doing everything in
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: their power to kind of prove that last year was
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: an aberration, where the Red Sox are getting better. Because
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: we've got another trade that we're going to talk about there.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: And Okay, the Yankees haven't done a ton yet, but
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: the Yankees were there just a couple of years ago.
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: They still have Aaron Judge, they have Garrett Cole coming back.
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: I do think it's really hard to see how the
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: Rays are going to be that competitive, even if they
• 17:33
  Speaker 6: did pick up Marte or someone else in a deal
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: for twenty twenty six. So if you told me that
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: this is the raise way to kind of take a
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: step back and kind of try to rebuild for twenty
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: seven and beyond, that also makes some sense to me,
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: because when I look at the rest of this division,
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: I do feel like that even with the prospect editions
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: they have, even with you know, some guys who should
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: be in the big leagues coming up from the miners
• 17:54
  Speaker 6: this year, in twenty twenty six, I still think the
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: Rays are probably pretty clearly the number five team in
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: a very difficult division.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Right now, What do you think, Jeff, I mean the
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: other move.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: First of all, it's always fun to see a three team,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: as we called it the other day, a three team sizzler,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: which is a favorite word of Todd Father, who was
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: on the show the other day. But you know, you
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: don't see them often. I thought this was fascinating. I mean,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: even from the Mike Burrows perspective. Here's someone that clearly
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the Pirates can afford to trade away, and at some
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: point you do have to show that you're ready to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: at least spend a little bit and compete. It seems
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: like they finally have put a stake down and said, okay,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: here's a guy who could at thirty home runs for
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: us at second base in Brandon Lau. And I think
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: it actually shows an ounce of seriousness to the marketplace.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: This helps them for their next free agent signing, so
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: that they can say, hey, look, you're not going to
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: be the first and only guy here.
• 18:51
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I agree, And I think, you know, this was
• 18:54
  Speaker 8: sort of a necessary move for the Pirates to actually
• 18:57
  Speaker 8: bring in, you know, some MLB oliver every day positional talent.
• 19:02
  Speaker 7: They really haven't had that over the last several years.
• 19:05
  Speaker 8: And there could be you know, there could be some
• 19:07
  Speaker 8: other players coming up from the farm system shortly.
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: We've talked a lot about.
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: Connor Griffin and you know, the hope that there's maybe
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: even a chance he's up very early this spring with
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: a big league club, So I think, you know, that
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: sort of sets the stage. The Astros were very aggressive.
• 19:22
  Speaker 8: I had said this, you know, over the last couple
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: of weeks that Melton in particular have been dangled, you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: for pitching upgrades. They certainly view Burrows as one took
• 19:32
  Speaker 8: a big step forward, kind of tightened up that arsenal
• 19:35
  Speaker 8: a little bit more last year, and it'll be interesting
• 19:38
  Speaker 8: to see what the what the Astros were able to
• 19:40
  Speaker 8: do with him. They obviously identified something there and they've
• 19:43
  Speaker 8: been excellent in sort of taking these guys and shepherding
• 19:46
  Speaker 8: these arms to you know, three to four win seasons
• 19:49
  Speaker 8: kind of out of nowhere at times. So Borrow has
• 19:51
  Speaker 8: big town Borrows, his big talent. Should be interesting to
• 19:53
  Speaker 8: see what they do with him. And then I think
• 19:55
  Speaker 8: from the Rays perspective, you had a guy in Jacob
• 19:58
  Speaker 8: Melton that you know, in a lot of ways as
• 20:01
  Speaker 8: kind of an upgrade from some of the options that
• 20:04
  Speaker 8: they had in the outfield last year. It's a pretty
• 20:07
  Speaker 8: good bat. There's contact there, there's power there, there's a
• 20:10
  Speaker 8: lot of base running ability and just you know, in
• 20:13
  Speaker 8: general speed in his game. Can play all three outfield
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: positions pretty comfortably, and he's seen a lot of time
• 20:19
  Speaker 8: you know, in the corners as well as in center
• 20:21
  Speaker 8: field over the last three or four years. So he's
• 20:24
  Speaker 8: really interesting. And then Britail was somebody that depending on
• 20:26
  Speaker 8: who you talk to, he was ranked as highly as
• 20:29
  Speaker 8: one by some teams in this farms in this farm system,
• 20:34
  Speaker 8: and I think there's good reason. I mean, he's undersize,
• 20:36
  Speaker 8: but it's you know, three above average pitches, probably two
• 20:40
  Speaker 8: plus pitches at the very least, there's command there. It's
• 20:43
  Speaker 8: just a matter of you know how durable is a
• 20:46
  Speaker 8: guy who put on a lot of weight in a
• 20:48
  Speaker 8: short period of time, added a lot of philosophy onto
• 20:50
  Speaker 8: his fastball in a short period of time. This is
• 20:52
  Speaker 8: somebody was throwing low nineties a few years ago, and
• 20:56
  Speaker 8: you know, how is that workload with all those additional
• 20:59
  Speaker 8: factors going to sort of look over the next couple
• 21:01
  Speaker 8: of years. If he gets back to what he looked
• 21:03
  Speaker 8: like in his first year and you know, maybe puts
• 21:06
  Speaker 8: together a ninety to one hundred inning season, I think
• 21:09
  Speaker 8: that probably looks pretty good in the rays a year
• 21:11
  Speaker 8: from now, and you know, maybe trend Storret a top
• 21:13
  Speaker 8: one hundred prospect.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: One more trade to hit, then we'll get the signings.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: What did you think of the Wilson Contreras acquisition for
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox Jeff and three pitchers going the other way.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 8: You know, I was talking to a Cardinals official finishing
• 21:28
  Speaker 8: up the handbook last week and I was kind of like,
• 21:30
  Speaker 8: are there going to.
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: Be any trades? Like how inaccurate is this list going
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: to look?
• 21:34
  Speaker 8: And I was assured that before Christmas that the list
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: would not would certainly look inaccurate.
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: I think it's good.
• 21:41
  Speaker 8: You know, it seems like, you know, High and Bloom
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: and Craig Breslo have no hard feelings between the two
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: of them, because I think this is maybe two trades
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: this offseason, but I think threes since the Stephen Matt's
• 21:52
  Speaker 8: trade at the deadline last year. They love connecting on deals,
• 21:57
  Speaker 8: and obviously High and Bloom, you.
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: Know, knows the players in this system.
• 22:00
  Speaker 8: A lot of the guys that he's acquired were players
• 22:02
  Speaker 8: that you know, he initially had acquired when he was
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: still with the Red Sox. I think Dobbins is interesting
• 22:08
  Speaker 8: from the sense of a guy that has a little
• 22:10
  Speaker 8: bit of major league experience, you know, maybe isn't going
• 22:14
  Speaker 8: to blow you away. I can't think it's kind of
• 22:15
  Speaker 8: the same as Richard Fitz that was in the previous deal,
• 22:18
  Speaker 8: but he is somebody that's going to give you major
• 22:20
  Speaker 8: league caliber innings and kind of be a bridge to
• 22:23
  Speaker 8: this group of really talented arms that are now coming
• 22:26
  Speaker 8: through the system led by Liam Doyle. And they acquire
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: Brandon Clark, who is really big stuff. We'll see where
• 22:31
  Speaker 8: that goes, Tin or Franklin. And then you know, you
• 22:34
  Speaker 8: add in, you know, Frajardo, who I think we had
• 22:36
  Speaker 8: talked about in the show a few weeks ago. He
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: was a top ten Red Sox prospect I think greaked
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: eighth or ninth in that system. He's going to slide
• 22:44
  Speaker 8: into like ten or eleven in the Cardinals system.
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: And then they add a guy in Blake Ada who
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: probably falls into the back end of the list, maybe
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: into the thirties.
• 22:55
  Speaker 7: He's really interesting.
• 22:56
  Speaker 8: He's got two breaking balls with twenty eight plus RPMs,
• 22:59
  Speaker 8: a spin on them, got a nasty sweeper. I think
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: it's above average, you could maybe even call it plus.
• 23:05
  Speaker 8: There's set sixteen to seventeen inches of movement on that pitch,
• 23:08
  Speaker 8: three thousand RPMs on average, and he commands it and
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: gets a ton of whiffs inside and out of the
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: zone on that pitch. I think when someone has spin
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: traits like that. There's typically more opportunities for that style
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: of player, a guy that supinates like that, to add
• 23:25
  Speaker 8: a bunch of different styles of pitches, to add a cutter,
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: to add a sinker, if you add a little power
• 23:30
  Speaker 8: onto aids profile. I actually think that we could look
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: back in a couple of years and say, oh, they
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: got this guy as well, Like this was a pretty
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: good trade overall. So I think a good move for
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: the Red Sox. I think it fits that lineup and
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: sort of what they need in terms of right handed
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: power and a guy that can get on base, maybe
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: a little positional versatility as well, and you know, potentially
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: an upgrade at first base. But overall, I think, you know,
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: the Cardinals continue to add pitching talent into this system
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: that you know, for a lot of years was kind
• 23:58
  Speaker 8: of lacking anything but soft tossing left easy through a
• 24:01
  Speaker 8: lot of strikes. There's a lot of good stuff in
• 24:03
  Speaker 8: the system now and some really interesting arms across the board. Okay,
• 24:09
  Speaker 8: so those are significant trades over the past several days.
• 24:13
  Speaker 8: And now let's get to some standout international signings. So, Jeff,
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: I'm going to pass the rock right back to you.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: We got a bunch of questions on song Sung Moon
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the KBO star who signs with the Padres, And that's
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: one that I didn't even see a.
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: Lot out there about over the offseason. So what can
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: you tell us?
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Because he actually got more money I think than most
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: people anticipated. I believe it was thirteen million dollars for
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: him to sign up with the San Diego Padres. What
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: do you think they're going to get?
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: It's going to be interesting.
• 24:47
  Speaker 8: He was kind of a later stage breakout in terms
• 24:51
  Speaker 8: of when the production started to show up in his career.
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: Spent I think five or six years not really getting
• 24:59
  Speaker 8: full time at bats, broke into the first.
• 25:01
  Speaker 7: Team and twenty twenty two as a twenty.
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: Five year old, and then had a huge sort of
• 25:06
  Speaker 8: out power and production jump in twenty twenty four as
• 25:11
  Speaker 8: a twenty seven year old.
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: Followed that up this year.
• 25:14
  Speaker 8: He had a better year in twenty twenty four, where
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: he hit three forty four h nine five eighteen, had
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: nineteen home runs twenty one stolen bases. This year top
• 25:24
  Speaker 8: the home run number with twenty six. Batting average was
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: down a little bit, but I don't think the power
• 25:30
  Speaker 8: is going to quite play like this state side. It's
• 25:33
  Speaker 8: probably more like twelve to fifteen home runs. Maybe in
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: you know, a good luck season in terms of bat
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: and ball luck, he gets up to seventeen or eighteen,
• 25:43
  Speaker 8: but probably more like that twelve to fourteen, twelve to
• 25:46
  Speaker 8: fifteen range. Decent batting average, good contact. Hitter has some
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: positional versatility, you know, has played some first base, has
• 25:54
  Speaker 8: played some second base, has played some third base, so
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: it can kind of play all over the infield.
• 26:00
  Speaker 7: I don't know how good.
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: The defense is.
• 26:02
  Speaker 8: I think it's sort of average ish fringe averages that
• 26:05
  Speaker 8: he's you know, usable at multiple spots. View him more
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: as like a utility player than some of the Japanese
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: talent that's come over, but should be interesting to see
• 26:15
  Speaker 8: how it tracks. I just think it's hard with some
• 26:16
  Speaker 8: of these KBO guys, just based on the run environment
• 26:20
  Speaker 8: to know one for one, how that translates.
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: Speaking of Japanese guys, I'll kind of give us a
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: quick little update on who the White Sox sign Moon
• 26:28
  Speaker 6: tak up Murkami, who. I will say that what compared
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: to the fact that when you hear the tagline the
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: Japanese you know, the hitter who broke Sadahara's Japanese born
• 26:40
  Speaker 6: home run record in the MPB. Pretty shocking to see
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: that this guy went for pretty modest deal to the
• 26:45
  Speaker 6: White Sox, but it is. It is a I would say,
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: in this case, a low risk, high reward for both sides,
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: very short term deal two years. Murakami has real swing
• 26:55
  Speaker 6: and misissues there. How that's going to translate to the
• 26:59
  Speaker 6: US is going to be fascinating. Not a whole lot
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: of defensive value, probably a first base only in the US.
• 27:04
  Speaker 6: Has played some third but probably not gonna be able
• 27:05
  Speaker 6: to do that in the US. But the thing about
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: it is he's going to the White Sox. The great
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: thing about this for both sides here is is that
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: if I'm the White Sox, I'm giving him four hundred
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: plate appearances. No matter what happens at those four hundred,
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna say, if he's bidding hitting a buck fifty,
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: there's no reason not to let it go. And then
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: on the flip side from Urkami, if you went to
• 27:24
  Speaker 6: a contender for a modest, short term deal, they would
• 27:27
  Speaker 6: probably give him two hundred play appearances and if it
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: wasn't working, that have cut him loose. He may need
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: a little time to adjust to the US. This is the
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: guy who could do that, and we'll see how it
• 27:35
  Speaker 6: pays off for both him and the White Sox.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Good stuff, guys, And now let's bring in another member
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: to the party. Here, we're gonna hit the final sprint
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: for a fascinating topic. Here comes to Jacob Rudner and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go right to you, Jacob on Janey Satto
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: who ends up with Penn State. Can you explain more
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: of how this all went and what this means for
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the future of players potentially hitting some college baseball overseas
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: instead of going pro out there.
• 28:09
  Speaker 9: Certainly, well, the first thing that needs to be addressed
• 28:11
  Speaker 9: is just how the heck Penn State. I think when
• 28:13
  Speaker 9: everybody found out that that was where this prospect was headed,
• 28:16
  Speaker 9: it was kind of a system shock for the college
• 28:19
  Speaker 9: baseball community. This is not exactly the path that most
• 28:23
  Speaker 9: potential early first rounders take. However, there were some connections
• 28:27
  Speaker 9: that were very meaningful for Sato in his recruitment, one
• 28:31
  Speaker 9: of them being that Penn State is home to the
• 28:34
  Speaker 9: best Japanese collegiate wrestler in the world. And I'm not
• 28:37
  Speaker 9: even going to attempt to butcher his name, but the
• 28:40
  Speaker 9: fact that he's on campus was significant, and Penn State
• 28:42
  Speaker 9: knew that they were going to be able to bring
• 28:44
  Speaker 9: in somebody who maybe had a little bit of a
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: language barrier, certainly a cultural barrier. Even the baseball calendar
• 28:50
  Speaker 9: is different. But because there was some infrastructure of elite
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: Japanese athletes going over to state college Pennsylvania, there was
• 28:57
  Speaker 9: a route for this to take place, and that's exactly
• 29:00
  Speaker 9: how it went down. As far as major talents from
• 29:03
  Speaker 9: Japan making them move to the United States, is this
• 29:06
  Speaker 9: going to become some widespread and frequently occurring trend with
• 29:09
  Speaker 9: again potential early first rounders. I somewhat doubt that, but
• 29:13
  Speaker 9: it is certainly a continuation of something that we've seen
• 29:16
  Speaker 9: at a modest rate, which is that there are Japanese
• 29:19
  Speaker 9: players who want to get to American college baseball in
• 29:23
  Speaker 9: order to become eligible for the MLB Draft. It gets
• 29:25
  Speaker 9: them the free agency sooner, it gets them into American
• 29:28
  Speaker 9: professional baseball sooner, and that's obviously meaningful from a financial standpoint.
• 29:31
  Speaker 9: So again, is it something that happens widespread. Probably not,
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: But I do think that for elite talent this may
• 29:38
  Speaker 9: become more frequent an occurrence from Japan to the United States.
• 29:44
  Speaker 6: So Jacob with this, I'm just kind of asking on this,
• 29:47
  Speaker 6: So what kind of talent are we talking about here?
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: You know, we're talking about a potential first half of
• 29:54
  Speaker 9: the first round pitcher. And I want to be clear,
• 29:56
  Speaker 9: this is not Paul Schemes of Japan coming over to
• 29:59
  Speaker 9: the United States. But it doesn't make him not bad.
• 30:01
  Speaker 9: It's a plus fastball, it's a potentially double plus splitter
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: that he throws into the low nineties against Team USA
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: over the summer the collegiate national team, he touched ninety
• 30:09
  Speaker 9: three with his splitter. Apparently, according to Rock Chalowski, it
• 30:13
  Speaker 9: was one of the more devastating splitters he's ever seen,
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: and he told me that Team USA's hitters just in general,
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: really struggled with it. Drew Burris, I believe, struck out
• 30:21
  Speaker 9: both times against Sato against that splitter. So there is
• 30:26
  Speaker 9: elite tools in the tool shed here. I think where
• 30:29
  Speaker 9: you start to get a little bit less generational talent
• 30:33
  Speaker 9: is in the control category, which is kind of a
• 30:35
  Speaker 9: question mark for a lot of evaluators.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: And then the spin. He doesn't have great feel for spin.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: It's a below.
• 30:40
  Speaker 9: Average, maybe fringe average slider with two plane break, he
• 30:44
  Speaker 9: doesn't get great spin on it. And then there's a
• 30:47
  Speaker 9: curveball in the high seventies that I got mostly forties
• 30:50
  Speaker 9: on on the scouting scale, so below average on the curveball.
• 30:53
  Speaker 9: There is some hope that he's going to be able
• 30:54
  Speaker 9: to round into form. He's very athletic, and so there
• 30:58
  Speaker 9: is potential that he's able to kind of broaden out
• 31:00
  Speaker 9: to pitch micks, but for now it is too comfortably
• 31:03
  Speaker 9: plus if not double plus pitches that kind of lead
• 31:06
  Speaker 9: the attack and will allow him to be a successful
• 31:08
  Speaker 9: starter in the big ten most likely.
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: Okay, when you say that, it kind of makes it
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: kind of can't help. But think of what we saw
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: at the big leagues last year of Roki Sazaki, who
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: had a really good fastball, although not as good as
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: it was you know in the past years, a great splitter,
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: and then had really kind of trouble spinning. It is
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: this kind of a potentially a similar profile. Doesn't mean
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: he's as good as Roki Sasaki, who obviously has also
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: already succeeded at the big league leven all, but are
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: that kind of profile potentially, you know, there are there
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: some similarities here.
• 31:40
  Speaker 9: Certainly I think that it's for the reasons that you
• 31:42
  Speaker 9: just said. This is somebody with a plus fastball. He
• 31:45
  Speaker 9: has triple digit velocity. We were told that he's touched
• 31:48
  Speaker 9: one hundred miles per hour. He was up to ninety
• 31:50
  Speaker 9: nine against the collegiate national team over the summer. The splitter,
• 31:53
  Speaker 9: like with Roki Sasaki, is in that double plus elite category,
• 31:57
  Speaker 9: and then, like you said, there's a lack of feel
• 31:59
  Speaker 9: for spin, big differences. While he is a good athlete,
• 32:02
  Speaker 9: he is not a very big guy. He's five for eleven,
• 32:05
  Speaker 9: one hundred and eighty pounds. There's a lot more room
• 32:07
  Speaker 9: still for physical projection despite him being on the older side.
• 32:10
  Speaker 9: I think it's important to remember he will be twenty
• 32:12
  Speaker 9: two when he is draft eligible in the United States
• 32:15
  Speaker 9: in twenty twenty seven. That matters, So it's not the
• 32:18
  Speaker 9: same exact prospect. I think that Roki, you know, for
• 32:22
  Speaker 9: all of the faults that he had and some of
• 32:23
  Speaker 9: the reasons that he went through struggles during the season,
• 32:26
  Speaker 9: he is a much larger pitcher. He's longer levered, and
• 32:29
  Speaker 9: I think that those things are easier to hang on to.
• 32:32
  Speaker 9: This is somebody who you know, by every definition is undersized,
• 32:35
  Speaker 9: but the stuff is certainly there, So yeah, you know,
• 32:37
  Speaker 9: I could see him being to Roki light Mini Rokie
• 32:41
  Speaker 9: if you.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: Will, Jacob, this isn't happening until twenty twenty seven. Next
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: year is twenty twenty six, so this is for the
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: twenty seven season. Do you think there's any chance that
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say it's a leverage play, but
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: that you know, an MPB team, however the system works,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: there can come through and be like will millions of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: dollars if you don't do this.
• 33:04
  Speaker 9: You know, money can buy a lot of changes of heart.
• 33:06
  Speaker 9: I don't think that that's likely in this situation. I
• 33:09
  Speaker 9: can't rule it out because I'm not familiar enough with
• 33:11
  Speaker 9: what could happen over there and the scene and the
• 33:13
  Speaker 9: precedent for those.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: Kinds of things.
• 33:15
  Speaker 9: But based on the conversations I've had, it does sound
• 33:17
  Speaker 9: like he's truly headed to Penn State. He's expected to
• 33:20
  Speaker 9: a roll in classes in the summer of twenty twenty six.
• 33:22
  Speaker 9: They are expecting him to play fallball with the program
• 33:25
  Speaker 9: in twenty twenty seven, and the only reason he isn't
• 33:27
  Speaker 9: playing baseball in the United States this spring, so the
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: college season of twenty twenty six is probably because of eligibility.
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: The academic calendar in Japan, even at the university level,
• 33:36
  Speaker 9: doesn't line up with the American collegiate calendar. On the
• 33:39
  Speaker 9: academic side, enrollment is still a factor. He will be
• 33:42
  Speaker 9: a student athlete, and so I think that that was
• 33:45
  Speaker 9: probably a barrier to getting him here at an age
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: appropriate time. Again, he is already twenty one years old,
• 33:49
  Speaker 9: so you know, I think that the commitment is there,
• 33:52
  Speaker 9: and it's just a matter of the logistics that push
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: him back to the twenty twenty seven season and twenty
• 33:56
  Speaker 9: twenty seven class.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Well, we appreciate the time, and also I think I
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: just will circle it back to where we started here,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Penn State, Penn State of all spots. Hey, here comes
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: potentially the next Roki Sazaki, first round pick in college ball,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: and he's going to be pitching it Penn State. Just
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: if you're a college baseball fan, you know how that hits.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: So anyway, Jacob, good stuff, JJ last word here on
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: our way out, as we say bye to everyone in
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five that has followed this show and really
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: all of Baseball America's coverage.
• 34:30
  Speaker 6: Thank you everyone, Happy holidays, Happy New Year. But also
• 34:34
  Speaker 6: with that if you're looking for a last minute Christmas
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: if if you go to Baseball America dot conflict on store,
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: you could order a Prospect handbook today and by the way,
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: they will have the you know, send me the email
• 34:46
  Speaker 6: address that you want a ship to and they will
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: have a digital copy of it before Christmas because we
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: send it to the printer today. We will be sending
• 34:53
  Speaker 6: out we hopefully tomorrow, all the handbooks to people who
• 34:57
  Speaker 6: have already pre ordered at baseball America dot com, so
• 35:00
  Speaker 6: you can do that. If you want a last minute
• 35:02
  Speaker 6: gift idea, here here's one that you can actually get
• 35:05
  Speaker 6: in their hands right on time.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Yep, and happy holidays everyone. We're back on January fifth
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to keep running with this show.
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: We'll see you then