Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 83 : Prospect Buys With The Itch

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Ep. 83 : Prospect Buys With The Itch · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode eighty three of Cards
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and Categories. I'm Mike Coolard from Rasball, joined as always
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: by my very good friend Jeremie Brewer, also from Asball.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: It's a night of morning here on this podcast as
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: our boy, Cooper Bowman not going to be making that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Cincinnati Red squad. So how are you handling this loss?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What stage degree for? Are you in denial?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Denial? Denial?
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: It is a river, but it is not where Cooper
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Bowman should be.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: He's going back to the A's.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: I guess if there's a silver lining with that ballpark there,
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: maybe it is a little better opportunity, but it's not
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: what it was going to be in Great America.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So I'm very disappointed.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: If he could break a club in the Rule five
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: eligibility house, gonna do it going back to Oakland, So
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: we'll be back. But there goes our intros for the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: next few months.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is I'm still gonna make sure that
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I pound that Cooper Bowman tag one more time on
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: ras ball with this podcast.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it was a tough.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Spring training for him with the Reds out in Arizona,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: as he got into thirteen games thirty played appearances, slashed
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a Measley one twenty two sixty seven eighteen WRC plus
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: no Hummer's three stone bases though, so he was running.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: They gave him a shot. They gave him a true shot,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: which is which is great to see. He just did it,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: just he just couldn't capital it. I think they wanted
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: it to work out.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, I think there's still some hope for
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: him on the Athletics because he does just go back
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: to Triple A and kind of goes back to where
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: he was at the end of the season when we
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: were already really excited about him. Not exactly like the
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: greatest middle infield there in Sacramento between Zach Geloff and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Jacob Wilson, and I mean J. J. Bludet is an
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: OK centerfielder. But I think Bowman, Cooper Cooper Bowman can
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: probably played a little bit better and even at second base.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Like the guys that he's got to overcome on the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: bench are Luis Urias and a story of Ruiz. So
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's still a possibility that we
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: get a pretty decent number of steals out of Cooper
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Bowman when he gets an opportunity with the Athletics. So
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you still maybe in like a really deep draft and
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: hold maybe like your last pick first steals.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I still think it's a it's a it's a wise.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: I think he still has a decent floor. He's he
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: always truggled every level he's gone to until he kind
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: of got his footing. We did the same thing in
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Triple A last year. He did the same thing with
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Double AA, and so I still have high hopes for him.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: If anything, that's just put a little cold water on
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: some of the most people weren't already watching. But yeah,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I still think, you know, he's he's old enough from
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: a prospect perspective that he's gonna get a shot.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: He absolutely will.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm sure I'll be pitching some Cooper Bowman
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: shares as ale only pickups when things get really shallow
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the season in the Waiver Wire article.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I guess I should intro what we've got
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: coming up.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: For the main segment of this pod, we have Rasball's
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: keeper Dynasty Guru prospect man extraordinaire, the itch Nick rus
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: is going to join us to talk about prospect investments
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: both for dynasty keeper leagues in terms of guys who
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: he's buying and loves the profiles. And then we're gonna
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: also talk about cards to invest in, because we've talked
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: about it a lot on our podcast that usually those
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: two values run in parallel, between the cards and the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: dynasty keeper values. So I think it's a great time
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: to kind of examine that market on both ends for
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: these players and determine who might be some great pickups.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: All right, But with that, other than the Cooper Bowman news,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: we still have some other news and notes, and we've
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: got some big ones this time.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: So right off the.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Bat, we've got Garrett Cole picture for the New York Yankees,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the ace undergoing Tommy John surgery, which, honestly, the more
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and more I think about this injury, I think we
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: probably should have.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: Seen it coming.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Considering this is really when we were discussing his elbow
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: injury at the beginning of twenty twenty four, I thought
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: that's where this was going to head, and he battled
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: his way through it, got the PRP injections, got the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: rest and rehab, came back as his diminished self last
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: year and certainly did not have the same strikeout stuff
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: that he had previously but finished the season quote unquote
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: healthy and on the mound, came back into the spring here,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: and that elbow did not bounce back for Garrett Cole,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: so he should be out for an entire year. I
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: mean he went on underwent the surgery immediately. That some
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of the like ways I saw it phrased were that,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: you know, he's a good competitive Yankees player or whatever,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: make sure they undergo the surgery immediately, even though like
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I think he probably needed this since the beginning of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: last year and delayed it and delayed it and delayed it.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: That like, if he had really played his cards right,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: he would have been a part of the twenty twenty
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: five Yankees at some point if he had just undergone
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the knife last year. But Garret Cole's getting up there
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: in age also, like this is gonna hurt his Hall
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of Fame chances. I think too, he had he was
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: on a decent track. So what do you think this
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: pretends for the next couple of years of Garrett Cole's career,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: as he's got still some mega dollars left on that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: deal with New York.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Clearly twenty twenty five is gone. I think you have
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to say a majority of twenty six is gone. Seems
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: that most pitchers coming back, they do need that twelve
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: to eighteen month window to like get ramped up, get
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the control back, things like that. And you know he's
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: gonna be you know, at that point thirty five, you know,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: almost thirty six, and so he's already on that back
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: in the career. It's this is concerning. It is concerning.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I think you're right, Like I, this had to have
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: already been there.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: It didn't happen the spring.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: Why they didn't investigate closer after you know, the playoffs
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: last year and get this done because then they could
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: at least bet that, yeah, you're gonna be back for
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: twenty six, you would have got that full eighteen months.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: So this this is rough, But yeah, you're you're right.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: He's contract runs through twenty twenty eight. Uh so they've
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: got to get him healthy and they hope to get
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: one more year on the back end out of this,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: maybe two two good years. But this is this is
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: tough news, and I think you're right, Like, from a
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Hall perspective, the guys only got one hundred and fifty
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: three wins over his career. Don't get me wrong, It
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: strikes a lot of guys out has a three eighteen era,
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: but yeah, you just wanted a little bit more longevity
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: out of him and this, this is really gonna hurt him.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And things are falling apart fast for the Yankees
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: between the g and Carlos stanton Obo's injury. Both elbows
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: are injured and I think he's gonna have surgery on
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: both of them at the same time, which from quality
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: of life perspective, that's burial Gy and Carlo dj Lemayhew's injured.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: The Luis heel injury news has gotten worse every time
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: we've talked about it that it seems like he's going
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: to be out for half a year now. This completely
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: cements Marcus Stroman and Will Warren into that Yankees rotation
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: right now, which I think is huge up errors for
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: both of them. Why did you not put in a
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: bid in our Audito league on Will Warren? Is there
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: something you don't like it?
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: I know I still wanted to. I couldn't figure out
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: who to cut. That was my problem.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: I love my team and I couldn't figure out who
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: to cut because I almost drafted Will Warren. He was
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: in like you, he was one of the top guys coming,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: but I stuck a few guys through that I was
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: thrilled to have, And honestly, you know, it was more
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: of like, hey, am I going to cut a prospective too,
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: And I know we'll talk about one of the guys
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: that was kind of playing later later in the next segment.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Uh So I won't I won't.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: Bear that lead too much. But yeah, I think he's
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: got a lot of potential. Unfortunately for me in that league,
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I got a lot of pitching depth and I needed
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: to concentrate hitting.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: So it's tough.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: It's a tough sled sometimes in the ZOT New leagues.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I would I was very excited about Will
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Warren and very annoyed that I didn't have his spotfor
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: m Yeah.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: So I mean with that Will Warren, are you in
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: like kind of standard twelve team rod leagues? Are you
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: comfortable leaving any drafts from here until the beginning of
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: the season with Will Warren is one of your starting
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: nine pitchers?
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think I think sneaking him in
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: the last few rounds, Like, I like what I see
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: with him. He has that good profile, looks like controls
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: getting better and better and better. His pitch mix is improved,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: he keeps it on the ground. All those things are working,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: and he's looked pretty gushed tarn good. And he's got
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: a decent team behind him. Most of them are hurt now,
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: but he's got a decent team behind him. So yeah,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: like I see him as well teamer, absolutely as an
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: option at this point in time.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think it's electric stuff. It's essentially
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: it's honestly it's Clark Schmidt with a little more control,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: which is really really fascinating considering what he's got in
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the arsenal. And I do think that when we get
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: new stuff plus metrics for twenty twenty five, I think
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: we'll see an uptick in what Will Warren has in
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: his arsenal as well, because when you watch any of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the clips from him in spring training, which he's having
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a great spring training one fifty four ERA forty eight
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: percent ground ball rate nine point three k nine over
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: eleven and two thirds, it's because the stuff is just nasty.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: So Will Warren full endorsement here from Cards and Categories podcast.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: All right, next injury we have is another number one
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: starter going down a lot less severe. Well, maybe question mark,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: because we don't know necessarily how this is all going
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: to work out. We have c addaal Mariner's picture. George
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Kirby is down with shoulder inflammation. He's gonna open the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: season on the il. The team doesn't sound terribly concerned
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: right now, but like it does look like Kirby's probably
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: gonna miss maybe a month is maybe my best estimate.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And shoulders are finicky, especially for pictures. I honestly think
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: that they're more finicky than elbows, because like elbows, it's
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: just a bunch of ligaments, and if the ligaments go,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you get Tommy John and it seems like a pretty
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: rote process. Shoulders are scary. Look at Brandon wood Druff,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: look at I mean, the Johan Santana.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: We can go.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, we could just list injuries all day and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: be up to a three hour podcast of shoulders that
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: have gone awry. So what's your concern level here with
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: George Kirby and any comfort in leaving any draft scenarios
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: with him right now?
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's I'm concerned. I'm actually very concerned
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: with George. For George Kirby for a few reasons. One
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: the shoulders, you call it out too. There's a good
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: depth there in Seattle that they don't have to rush
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: him back, and so what might be a month might
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: end up being two because they need him long term.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, I don't know that.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: They're gonna be terribly competitive this year. They're gonna be decent,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: but I think they wanted him to be fully healthy.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And if you look at drafts this this spring, since
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: this news, like his men pick was forty three on
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: NFBC data here and his max pick was two sixty two,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: I think somebody didn't read the news on the forty three.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: But like it's like one of those where I'm completely
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: out on him, but then I hit like pick two fifty,
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I'll throw a dart at the guy, I guess,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: And so it is very very polarizing what to do.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: I'm generally avoiding him, but yeah, I have a pretty
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: solid rotation and feel pretty comfortable and.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: He's sitting there in around like eighteen. Sure I'll take
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: a shot.
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I think I'm there too.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Obviously, if the price falls that far, you've got to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: be able and you have the il spot to stash him.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Not a bad call, but certainly it's got to be
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a real, real low prize if I'm going to be
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: buying any George Kirky this close.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: You have to get healthy and then you if ramp
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: back up, and that takes longer than everybody thinks.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, well let's get to our next injury, because honestly,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: all of the Big Apple is just snake bitten, and
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it looks like going to this spring as the Mets
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: have another injury, and this one honestly might hurt more
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: than even those starting pitching injuries to Sean Mania and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Frankie Montes, despite how thin the pitching core was. And
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: this is Francisco Alvarez broke his left handmate bone. I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: had to undergo surgery to get that removed. If you're
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: familiar with baseball at all, you know the handmaate bone. Honestly,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: probably only people who are baseball seam heads know what
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: handmad bones are because it seems like that's the only
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: way between golfing and baseball. And I'm probably cricket I
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: guess too. Is like the motion of swinging something triggers
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that handmate bone in your wrist slash hand. It's not
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: actually a nets sary bone, but if it gets broken,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: it causes a lot of pain.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: So Alvarez is out six to eight weeks.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Also, just this is a huge black black hole in
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the Mets lineup now because they have no catching death.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: That's kind of crazy that they even kind of made
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that gamble. But there is nobody behind him, so not
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: even anybody worth picking up from, like a backup.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: Our opportunity in New York.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: But this is a really concerning injury for me too,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: because I liked Alvarez coming into the season, has been
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: showing great power. I think we were getting in line
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: for probably a pretty decent Francisco Alvarez breakout season with
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Juan Soto hitting in front of him, and like, I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been surprised if he pushed thirty five plus homers,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but honestly, at this point now I'd be surprised if
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: he pushes fifteen homers. This is not an injury where
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I mean.
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: They come back.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: They come back, they get on the field when you
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: get this handmade surgery. But it studies have shown it
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: takes a long time for the power to come back,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: sometimes year or years, and when you're somebody like Francisco Alvarez,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that's all the game is is power. So are you
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: in the same boat with me? Are you really really
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: low on Alvarez now after this surgery?
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I am.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I'm very concerned. I think you make the point that,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: like this just takes time to recover and get get
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: back healthy, Like it it's just the grip of the bat,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: the strength in the hands, like it just takes time
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: to get that fully back out, to get all the
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: muscles around that working again. And so I it's like,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're gonna say July August before like we
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: can see hopefully see the Alvares we wanted, and it
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: might take even longer. If anything, maybe this is a
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: good use for like a GASMANI Grundal or a James
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: McCann or something like maybe if you're taking us shot
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: in a second catcher league, because I don't see how
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: they don't go after somebody they said they aren't going to,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: but I don't see how they don't do that. So
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: I think that there's probably maybe a silver lining for
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: a free agent catcher. But yeah, I'm I'm I'm out
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: on Alvarez at this point.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's also confounding that if you're like the
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: White Sox or the Marlins, you aren't trading from they
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: actually have a little bit catch your depth in those teams,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: But like, why would you not be trading that considering
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: some of the youth you've got coming. It's it is
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: confounding that you wouldn't want to just like try to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: extract some value out of the Mets.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I'm totally out on Alvarez.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: You'd think so.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But I do think that this is a good
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: person to like star for end of twenty twenty five pickups, because,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: like I said, if he does struggle all season and
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Alvarez just can't produce at the plate because of the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: recovery from this injury, and he has just a real
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: terrible season, what a great bi Loo opportunity. Because then
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: I do I love Alvarez's bat and I think he's
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: got a pretty high ceiling that if you're in a
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: dynasty keeper situation, great pickup. I think at the end
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of twenty five, if you're looking up and like he's
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: only got fifteen homers in like a twenty batting average,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: that's a great buying opportunity.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's where savvy owners win, especially the dynasty type leagues.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: They look at this as an opportunity. They put it
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: on a reminder for themselves. Look in August and make
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: a play for him.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, we've got just a little bit of
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: card update news because we have a couple of additions
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to the calendar from last week in terms of Panini
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: National Treasures twenty twenty four officially coming out on April second,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and Panini Stars as Stripes twenty twenty five is coming
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: out on four eighteen, supposedly, so we'll see. These Panini
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: releases have been getting pushed back a lot, but those
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: around the calendar. We still got twenty twenty four Tops
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Heritage High Number coming out on March twenty six. We'll
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: probably do a little bit more of a deep dive
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: when we get closer to that, just considering how significant
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of a release that they'll be. With all the Jackson's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and the Paul Skins autos and rookie cards in there,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: it should be a fun rip of if you're looking
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: for one here over the next few weeks. But with that,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: let's wrap up this intro section because I'm excited for
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: us to get to our conversation with the Itch about
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: these prospects. So stick around everybody. We're going to take
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a short break and.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: Be right back.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, welcome back everybody. We have a great
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: segment coming up here where we're going to discuss some
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: prospect buys not only from Fantasy Dynasty that we've always
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: been doing, but also a little bit of a card
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: mix too.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: So what we're going to do.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Is run through some players who have been suggested by
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: our very own the Itch, Nick Ruz, who's joining us
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: right now from rasball.
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: Nick.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I love your stuff on rasball dot com. It's some
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: of the best fantasy prospect work I think that's out
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: there in the games.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: So it's a it's a pleasure to have you on.
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: Welcome aboard, and thank you so much for the kind words,
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: and thank you for having me. I've been looking forward
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: to this.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we figured this would be a kind of great
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: time to cross both the cards and the categories to
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: be able to show, you know, who are we looking
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: at investing in going into the twenty twenty five season
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: from a prospect dynasty keeper perspective, but also the cards
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: because I think as we've kind of emphasized throughout this
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: podcast history is that often the markets kind of go
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: hand in hand between the cards and the dynasty values
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: that you might be able to get out of players
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: out there.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: So I know that.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: You've wrapped up your kind of previews on rasball for
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: all thirty teams there where can people also reach out
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to you if they want to find you on socials?
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: I'm on the Blue Sky right now, as I got
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: in there early enough that I'm the itch there. I
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: think I think I was the prospect itch at the
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: X and I think I don't know, I should have
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: looked that up ahead of time. Too much on there. Yeah,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: but Gray will occasionally, you know, or I'll read post,
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: he'll put my article out, and if you read Brasball,
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: you may already be following Gray. He's pretty good on
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: the socials.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, he is the man on the socials.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I think he's helping build the Blue Sky, yeah for sure.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: And then so I will also in the show notes
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: if you're listening to this pod, certainly click in there
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: because it will link directly to the itches profile on Rasball,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: where you can read all those wonderful previews and you're
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: wonderful weekly articles that grow up so that people can
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: kind of get the latest and greatest news on all
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the prospect hyped and what they've been performing as So,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: what we're gonna do is we're gonna do kind of
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: like a panel here to run through seven names that
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: we've identified. Jeremy, you're still around here, Say hi to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: everybody out there.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: I'm still here.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: I'm still here.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just letting everybody know you're still hanging around. Because
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: what we'll do is I'll pass over to you Nick
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: to be able to do some of the background information
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: on what you think about the keeper dynasty values of
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: these players, and then what Brew is going to do
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: is pick a PC card to put in for each
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: of these players. So I thought that'd be kind of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: a fun thing to do. I can say that if
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you're looking to buy investments of these players, really the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: best place to go is to their first bow Bowman
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Chrome First Bowman autos. Those will be the hottest cards
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: all the time for prospects, and unless there is like
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: a short print of some sort of really specific card,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: maybe that might also be a chase card. But certainly
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: if you're looking to put in just some dollars on
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: basic investments. The first bowman's are the way to go
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: for all these players. But of course, since we're cards
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and categories and we get a little bit into some
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: goofy PC picks, I know, Brew, you've got a few
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: lined up for us. But let's dive into the discussion
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of these prospects. So the first one we've got is
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Leayo Dallas Derese. So obviously a very hot name out
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: there in both the dynasty keeper market and in terms
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: of the card market because he was signed as part
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty four free agent international class and
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: just broke out immediately in the San Diego Padres system,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: flying through that system the way that certainly others that
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: have in front of him, like Ethan Salas and others
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: coming off a season where as a seventeen year old
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in a ball, Leo Dallas Devrese slash two thirty seven,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: three sixty one, four forty one with a one to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: sixteen WRC plus came with eleven homers thirteen stone bases.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: You can see right there in that statistical line what
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: makes him pretty exciting. But Nick, what do you really
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: love about Leo Dallas Devrees as a prospect? Coming through
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: for Fantasy and kind of where do you have him
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: roughly in your overall rankings.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: He's top ten prospect overall. I'm trying to remember who
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: was pitching the other day. He was taking a right
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: handed at bet against you know, a major league pitcher,
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: and he's a child. I mean, you know, he's eighteen
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: or whatever now or seventeen right now, and he's a
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: switch hitter, and he's taken a right handed at bat
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: and he blasts a home run that misses by a
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: foot down the foul line, and eventually he gets out,
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: and his spring stats are not going to be good,
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: but he shouldn't be in spring training anyway at seventeen eighteen.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: He's physically an adult, Like you watch him in the
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: batter's box, and the shoulders, the size of the person,
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: all the way throughout the bat speed. It was I
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: believe Longenhaegen. Eric Longenhagen with Fangrafs had said that this
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: sources he was contacting about that class said that Defrees
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: was the best prospect of the decade from the international crop.
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: I don't know, I use crop, they're not corn, but yeah,
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: he's he's just a unique dude. I don't know, I
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: don't know. I don't. I was gonna say if I'm
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: comfortable buying him still when I went and looked at
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: the prices of his cards just right now, and the
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: way the padres like to push players up to their
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: level of failure and then see how they react, Like
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: I'm thinking of Ethan Salas. If you'd bought Ethan Salas
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: right away, we definitely lost money. Now would be a
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: time to buy Ethan Salas the catcher they signed for
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: five or six million years ago.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: But I don't know.
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: I like to freeze way better than I ever liked Salas,
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: And I if I had one hundred and twenty five
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: dollars to put on a first Boma chrome or whatever,
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: I think that's a safe place to put it. I
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: don't think it's going anywhere, but.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And in terms of just what you're looking at
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: from a fantasy like ceiling from Derese, what do you
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: think he could be at peak? And what is your
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: best guess on what he might actually be making it
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: to the majors and making an impact for our lineups
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and dynasty keeper leaks.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: It's a long way off, hard to know how his
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: speed will age. I do think he's he looks to
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: me like a thirty thirty five home run hitter with
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: solid batting average on bass skills. Yeah. I he looks
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: big to me a little bit in terms of like
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: how fast is he going to stay? But some guys,
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: you know, keep their speed even if they're a little bigger,
• 24:49
  Speaker 5: not like, you know, he's just muscular for a kid.
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, got it? Okay, Well, brew, what did you pick
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: here to put into the PC for Leo Dallas Devisee. Well,
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I'm going with the cards.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: So when he kind of really hit the scene last
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: year in the fall, I was traveling through Nashville with
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: where and of course whenever I travel for work, I
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: go to card shops because you know why not.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: And I was thrilled.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: To you know, Leo Devreese card in the showcase of
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: the National Card Shop and I'm like, I'm going to
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: get it steal here. And they had it for like
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: fifty bucks and it's not nearly worth that. But the
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four Panini Boys of Summer five Fuel Materials card,
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: it is one of those wonderful relic cards that have
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: five different relics on there. You got the bat, you
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: got the leather, you got the shoe, got the jersey.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: I'm probably missing one because I can't count to five.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: But it's absolutely beautiful card, very unique. It's only maybe
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: a twenty dollars card at this point in time, you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: being the unlicensed version with Panini, but absolutely cool card.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Like I said, one that I almost owned, and so
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I've always regretted not doing that.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: So you didn't grab it.
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: I didn't grab it. It was when I thought the.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: Story was a different way and you seem disappointed. I
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: was like, it's too disappointed.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: And I read it. So yeah, no, I'm so the point.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: I did not grab it, and I still regret it.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: I'm not driving the like eight hours back down there
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: to get it.
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: So you don't even have an autograph on here and
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: you're charging fifty bucks for it.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: But yeah, yeah, it was like right at the heat
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: of his little hype going with the Fall League, so
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: I had to pass it. But I've regretted ever since.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: So I'm out of the PC now.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is a great pick because we
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: talked about this boys at summer set a little bit
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: when it came out on the schedule. Because every picture
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: that I saw from the materials on the release were
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: gorgeous that I think this is a great pick LEO
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Dallas Devrees also included in twenty twenty four Bowman Chrome.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: If you're chasing it at all, that good luck because
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: it's pretty dang expensive that because of all these defres
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: cards in there. But I can't believe this card's only
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: like eighteen bucks that you found for us on eBay.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: That it seems like a pretty good investment that honestly
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: might not make it out of this podcast recording between
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: the three of us.
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: Oh dang, it's only eighteen bucks.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's only there's two two available if you
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: want to go to grab them first two to get there.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, only three of us. All right, Well, let's move
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: on to our next name.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: And this one is another guy who really broke out
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four and just shot up prospect lists
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere with his crazy Dominican League performance. Well,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I g guess not Dominican League performance, but like the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Dominican Complex League performance. And that is Jesus made from
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Brewers. Another teenager here, as he doesn't turn
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: eighteen for another month and a half, still only seventeen
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: at this point.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: But in his.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Sample of fifty one games down in the DSL, six
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: homers twenty eight stone bases with a three point thirty one,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: four point fifty eight five point fifty four slug and
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a one sixty nine WRC slash or one sixty nine
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: WRC plus overall, that's a crazy debut for somebody who
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: didn't have too much prospect type when he was signed
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: on the international market. So, Nick, what have you been
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: doing in leagues with Jesus Made? Just given that meteoric rise?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And maybe actually this is a good conversation point for
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: you being the prospect guy here for us at rasball.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Will you do with players like this in general, given
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: how noisy DSL stats can be, and like how much
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: weight do you put into them and when do they
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: become believable for you?
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: Well, that's a really good question. I think it's case
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: to K's Made is coming up in an era where
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: you hear the exit velocities and the chase rates and
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: the kinds of things that we wouldn't have an end zone,
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: contact raids and kind of things that we wouldn't really
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: have had. I don't think just a few years ago
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: in the public sphere. I'm sure they've had it, and
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: I mean, why else do the thing. I'm sure they've
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: had all that stuff internally for the teams. But now
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: we know that he hits the ball as hard as
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: a major leaguer as a teenager. He doesn't chase at all,
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: and he doesn't swing and miss inside the strike zone,
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: and these are things that even in the DSL that's
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: sticky stuff, and theoretically it should carry over. He's one
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: of the He's a case of I don't know. It
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: made me frust one of the things that would make
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: me frustrated. When I used to be really big into
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: cards and I sort of came through two cards at
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: the same time as Dynasty, and I'd been doing keeper
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: leagues forever and been interested in prospect stuff since I
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: was a kid, and like, sometimes you'll fall in love
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: with the prospect and you can't really find the card
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: you want to buy for him until it's too late,
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: and it's probably too late, like, but I do have
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: him in all my Dynasty leagues, and people are offering
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: me terrible offers for him, and so mostly just deciding
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: to keep him, Like I can't imagine anybody offering me
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: what I think he's worth. I think it was Prospects
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: Live had him. I know Matt Thompson had him third
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: overall in his Prospects Live and were top hundred, and
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: this was like a while ago, and I thought I
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: was a high guy on him before then, and Baseball
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: America's pushing him up the list, and it sort of
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: becomes this race to push the guy up the list,
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: and because he's obviously one of the guys. It happened
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: with Sebastian Walcott too, the same way. I don't really
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: think it's transferable from one guy to another, though, you know,
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: like you're asking me about when is it real? And
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: I don't know that there's any because well been Francisa,
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: who's will segue a teaser, spoiler or whatever guy on
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: the list who just doesn't have that kind of smoke,
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: and he's been incredible, you know, and so it's it's
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: hard to tell.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: All Right, Well, Hazus Made doesn't have a Bowman yet. Honestly,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: I think he's probably gonna be in twenty twenty five
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: bowman regular product. That the way that players like this
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: usually trend kind of mirrors Ellie de la Cruz, who
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: also didn't come through in any Bowman product until I
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: was at twenty three or twenty two. Brew is one
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of those I don't know if you know it off
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: the top of your head, do you remember which one was?
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: But we got at their.
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: Best, sorry, at their best. The Bowman people are holding
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: these guys back until they moved.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah exactly, and then from there we do still
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: have some Hazes Moday cards on the market because thankfully
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Panini has helped us out and they've had made cards
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: ready since he was even younger than he is now.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: It doesn't get I mean, we're running out of runway
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: at this point. But what my day card? Did you
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: who choose to put into our PC?
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: Here? Brew?
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you made made right calls Ponini Elite Extra. I
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: was actually looking His cards came out in twenty twenty
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: two there, so you know, if you want to claim
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: it as his rookie cards, yeah he had think he
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: was twelve at that.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Point, but.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: You know, and so those cards are selling like his
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Bowman first Wood and so I picked his button Relic
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: Auto out of five.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: It sold for four hundred.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: Dollars and it is a cool card.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: His Auto needs some work. It's a jay in and
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: m that's it. So he's got he's got some maturing
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: to do, but very cool card. You gotta love the
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Dominican colors on the card. So but what's interesting to
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: me is that product hasn't kind of taken off like that.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: So you can still go buy a box of twenty
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: twenty two Elite Extra for eighty bucks, get eight autos
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: in that box, and it feels that. I mean, there's
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: a lot of autos in that box, a lot of
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: guys you never heard of. But if you're going through
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Elite Extra, which is usually like fifty cent bens dollar bens,
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: if you see Hayesu Mata, go ahead and grab it.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Because even the numbered cards, just of the base number,
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: they're going for like fifty bucks. It's it's crazy what
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: they are. So if you're chasing Hayesus Mata Elite Extra
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty two Panini, it's basically that. And he hit
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: leaf in twenty twenty four like one insert, so pretty
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: thin pickens.
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: And that's early enough that they might trade at a
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: similar rate to the Chrome Auto once the twenty twenty
• 33:40
  Speaker 5: five Chrome Ato. I've found that if it's early enough,
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: I think John Carlo Stampon was kind of this way
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: from right, but it was before the Chrome Auto enough
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: that it was comparative.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, given that there is no Bowman on the market
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: and people have been talking about Jesus Mo Day all
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: off season in every Dynasty league out there, that, yeah,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I think this is that's a great call and great
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: call out on the boxes only being eighty bucks with
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: individual like eight individual autos, so like that's a that's
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: a good rip, that's a good value.
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: I haven't opened anything wrote that down.
• 34:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there you go, you're already gonna get.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did the other day. I think I did,
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Like I think.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I did like twenty fourteen USA for like forty Bucks,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: which has like Bregman and Conforto and Lindor and if
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: you guys like that. I think I picked up the
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: car Carlos Rodona Auto. But those things are so fun
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: because nobody cares about them anymore. And then there's surprisingly
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: some really really cool stuff. I think Elit Extra has
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: some some stuff like that as well.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: All right, good find there. Okay, let's get on to
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: our next guy. Who is I mean, this one is
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: shooting through the roof real fast in both terms, of
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: dynasty keeper leagues, and in terms of card value, that
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: is Cam Smith from the Houston Astros, currently third baseman,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: maybe future outfielder, as he's been hot, hot, hot in
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: spring training been Oh my gosh, it got even crazier
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: since my last check these stats. In his twenty two
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: plate appearances in the spring, Camsmith is slashing five point
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: twenty nine six thirty six one thousand. That's a three
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: h four WRC plus in spring training. I mean, it
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: is spring training stats, but that's fun. Two homers, five runs,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: seven rbi, a twenty two point seven percent walk percentage,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: thirteen point six percent k percent. So Smith obviously arrived
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: in Houston from the Cubs after being taken as the
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: fourteenth overall pick in last year's draft, traded in the
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker trade, and yeah, might be on the precipice
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: of making the Houston Astros opening day roster. Certainly, he
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: went pretty early in like the twentieth round of my
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: TGFBI draft, so he's going in just regular drafts right now.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Cam Smith is a very very hot named nick. What
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: are you doing with him in dynasty keeper leagues right now?
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Are you selling right now at the top of the peak,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: or do you think that this guy is legit and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: that cam Smith can be an upper tier player for
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: dynasty and keeper leagues?
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you can. I had a league where
• 36:19
  Speaker 5: I took Christian Moore over Cam Smith early during the
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: first year play draft season, and then recently I offered
• 36:28
  Speaker 5: Christian Moore straight up for cam Smith, who I took
• 36:31
  Speaker 5: Christian more like second and cam Smith went fifteenth in
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: this league it was, and then I he rejected it
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: pretty quickly, And I'm sad because I really think cam
• 36:43
  Speaker 5: Smith is just a better hitter, and Houston is sort
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: of an ideal spot to break a guy in like
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: that kind left field. You've got out Tuva and jord
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: On and it's just I don't know it's better than
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: Chicago that the trade from Chicago to Houston. Really he
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: was already gonna be good, but Houston has a huge
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: right center field and he has a pretty smooth natural
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: double swing to right center field, and he can also
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: turn on the home run pretty easily, and so it's
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: just like Houston's I think he might make Cubs fans
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: hate that Kyle Tucker trade. And that's saying something because
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: Kyle Tucker is amazing.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty good. What do you think that Cam
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Smith could do at peak? In terms of power average?
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: He looks like a three hundred hitter. I mean, he
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: looks like a three hundred hitter with thirty homere power
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: like like we'll see. But you know, he's been better
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: than that so far, a little bit every level so far.
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: I mean, they haven't been able to get him out.
• 37:54
  Speaker 5: And it's hard to know what these ACC guys from.
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: You know, I took more because he's from the SEC
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: and out Tennessee win a national championship and the Angels
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: are going to push him up to the majors anyway.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: But with the ACC guys, they maybe haven't found in
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: a level yet. And so the Nick Kurtz I'm sort
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: of knock. You know, there's a slight knock against Nick
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: Kurtz being from George. But the ACC is not that
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: far behind the SEC maybe and and maybe I'm overthinking that.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, there we go from Cam Smith. Pretty
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: big endorsement there from the Itch Brew. This is a
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: guy who was in twenty twenty four Bowman Draft products.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: So we've got plenty of cards out there. Unfortunately, they're
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: all in a Cubs jersey though a photoshopped Cubs jersey,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: because uh, that's who he was drafted by. So I
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: one give us the PC pick, but then two maybe
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: touch a little bit on like what do you do
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: with players like this where the prospect card does not
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: match their current team and so there's that kind of
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: lack of singularity between the Bowman Chrome first and what
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: their actual jersey will be when they hit the majors.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for me, I really struggle with that, and it
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: hurts their market honestly, it does. Like I'm a guy
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: that wants to have the player in that my team's jersey,
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: and otherwise I don't really want to own it. Make
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: exceptions like I'm a big Cardinals fan, so I do
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: have on a Wayne right for the Braves back in
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: the day, but it's it's very.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Few and far between.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: I think it does hurt throw overall value because there
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: are some collectors that can't get over that. Same time,
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: though Cam Smith Color.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Match twenty twenty four Bowman.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Draft Sapphire Auto you cannot beat it, so that's probably
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: the one saving grace here. One of the most beautiful
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: cards you'll see, the Sapphire or they did in twenty
• 39:47
  Speaker 3: twenty four. But when draft absolutely sticks out it is
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: phenomenal about a two fifty dollars card, So it's not
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: cheap right now, and it's probably only going up and
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Nick on to push on the spot. How much do
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: you think it is for a box of twenty twenty
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: four Bowan Draft Sapphire one box?
• 40:09
  Speaker 5: How many autos in a box?
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Let's see. I think it's usually like three.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Six hundred, nine hundred dollars for a box of bow drafts.
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: I knew we were playing a game, and I know
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: the game, and so I went high.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: And you are still too low nine hundred dollars. And
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: the one of the best things you can get is
• 40:33
  Speaker 3: cam Smith Auto and it's two fifty. So secondary market
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: if you want to play the game is the way
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: to go with the Draft Sapphire.
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: But this is a Beatle card. Great pick.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: I love it, and yeah this is It doesn't bode
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: well that we keep making PC.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: Picks of Sapphire cups cards.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: We're gonna lose our Cardinals slash White Sox fandom cards
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: here pretty soon.
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: I should have picked the red just to spite him.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well, let's move on to our next player,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: who is Lazara Montas, the outfielder slash DH for the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Seattle Mariners, and he has also been in camp.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Looks pretty good there too.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: In his seventeen played appearances, he's slashed three eighty five,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: five twenty nine, nine, twenty three with a two fifty
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: two WRC plus. I don't know exactly the level of
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: that competition because I've seen a few of the Lazara
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Montess at bats and it's usually been towards like the
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: back ends of bullpens and stuff, but still pretty exciting
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: what you can see in the future for Montas as
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: he's coming off of a season across high A and
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: single A in twenty twenty four, over which he hit
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: twenty one bombs slash two eighty eight, three ninety seven,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: four eighty four. And so I do have a question
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: here for you directly and in terms of Montess's profile
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: for you, Nick, is that, like, this is a guy
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: who has shown some pretty high k rates throughout the Myers,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: but great walk rates too, And so what do you
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: do with somebody like this who does have a decent
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: amount of swing and miss in his game, but obviously
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: light tower otherworldly power at the same time, where do
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: you find that balance? And then like, how do you
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: think that could shape Montesa's future going into twenty twenty
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: five and beyond for the Seattle Manners.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: Well, so I feel a little bad about putting him
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: on the list because this was maybe two or three
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: weeks ago. I did not know that he was already
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: being bought at the level at which he's being bought,
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: because I if I look at the market of Dynasty,
• 42:46
  Speaker 5: it's usually other lists, and every other list I look
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: at kind of hates, not hates, ranks Montes lower than
• 42:54
  Speaker 5: all the other Mariners hitters, and so like, I was
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: thinking that he might be undervalued, and like, I don't
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: hold a player like this if I feel like I'm
• 43:07
  Speaker 5: getting a fair offer like he's He's a high strikeout
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: left hander in Seattle where the ball doesn't carry and
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: it's extremely hard for lefties, and I really like the player,
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: But but I'm not gonna Yeah, I'm not going to
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: hold a player like this if I feel like I
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: can make my team better in the short term, even
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: if even if he might do enough three or four
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: years from now to make me regret it.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: All the comps here for Montes are usually like geared
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: towards Uh Alvarez, you know, yeah, and so was.
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: This game after Alvarez? He watches Alvarez video, and.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: So, I mean, what do you think he can he
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: be jord On Alvarez? Do you think?
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Or is it jord On Alvarez in Seattle or is
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: he like some percentage of jord On?
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: I just peak you think Jordan Alvarez did not make
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: any top hundred lists right before he debuted and was
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: a monster as a rookie, And so it's sort of
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: like history repeating itself where people didn't think ord On
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: Alvarez could be or Don Alvarez. And so I don't know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: I don't know. That's sort of my answer. I think
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: Seattle is way harder than Houston. As I said, I
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: have some family out there. I've been to a game
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: in that park. It's right on top of the ocean.
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: Like there's a reason the ball doesn't carry. It's never
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: going to change. But he hits the ball so hard
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: that he might be able to pull you know, regular
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: thirty homer seasons, And he hits the ball so hard
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: that he might hit too eighty just because no, you know,
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: ball drops, HiT's so hard, don't even catch it, you know,
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: I yeah, anyway, Yeah, I'm fascinated to see what he
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: does as he approaches double A and kind of gets
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: into a little bit more of a regular or hitting
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: environment in the in the Southern League compared to where
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: he's been, and he's probably in some pretty good offensive environments.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: But I do hold some of the hesitations for Montes.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I think that you share here too, that like it's
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: a I love him, but he's not something I someone
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: I've been acquiring in dynasties and stuff just because of
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: some of those factors, because I think I need another
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: year of seasoning for me personally. But brew this is
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: guy who has already been out there in cards and
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: has first out there, has been around for a couple
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: of years, and you know, because his first DSL season
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: was back all the way in twenty twenty two, has
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: been a prospect for a hot minute, has a has
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: a decent number of cards. So which card did you
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: pick for our PC for Lazara Montes? You're right, there
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: are choices and I took advantage of it. Lazarro Montes,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: I'm going to go with his twenty twenty three Bowmen's
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: Best the Randy Johnson Parallel Auto, which is this if
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: you recall that set, these are the ones that Randy
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: Johnson took the photos for these cards. And Lazaramantes is
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: a great audigograph on card auto out of two fifty.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: There it is Lazara Montes sitting what appears to be
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: in the desert on a boulder with a bucket hat.
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: Which it is not in the desert.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: He is sitting outside of a Sheraton inn in next
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: to it cactus like that, but like I get your point,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: there's a cactus behind him.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: There's a cactus behind him.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: It's a Nearsson enough for sure.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: But it's absolutely just wonderful, like gimmick of a card
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: that it's so fun. And you know, I've always thought
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: that Randy Johnson connections were so hard. You know, he's
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: a unique players. It's a unique card. And if there's
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: anybody gonna blow up a bird with a swing of
• 46:43
  Speaker 3: the bat, it's gonna be Lasaramantes.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Great pick and the Seattle kind of threw line there too.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: You can't beat that.
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: I and relatively affordable, just about one hundred bucks for
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: this card. That's what I found. Okay, well, let's move.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: On to our next player, who is well been Francisca
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: from the Cleveland Guardians. He debuted in twenty twenty three
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: in the DSL, so got up to ABE all Lex
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: last year after being in the complex for a little
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: bit across two levels. In twenty twenty four, he hit
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: three twenty six, four eleven, four seventy four good for
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: a one forty WRC plus plays a pretty slick shortstop.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: Actually maybe not, I take that back.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: His fielding rating on Fangrafts is only a thirty future fifty, so.
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: Maybe not quite slick and yet.
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: A little bit more of a not quite the specimen
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: that we've been talking about here is he's only five
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: foot eight, so he's a little bit more of like
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: a Jose Ramirez build, I think compared to.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: Some of our other players.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: But I mean, if you want to be compared to
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: anybody in the Cleveland system, it probably is Jose Ramirez.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: So Nick, this is somebody who is I think starting
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: to rise up prospect lists out there. As you know,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: he's shown good patience and good just strikes awareness in
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: his time in the minors, just about even walk in
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: strikeout rates last year and great speed, asset, a little
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: bit of pop still developing. What do you think Welbin
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: Francisca can be when he hits the major leagues?
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: You say the name, I'm not into comps, but you
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: say the name Lindor, and it's like, you know, it's
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: just kind of perfect for him. I mean, it's just
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: he is probably not gonna hit thirty eight homers, but
• 48:30
  Speaker 5: neither was Lindor, and so like, I don't know what
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: he's gonna be ultimately, but I know that he is
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: the Cleveland Like you said it was a Ramirez, nobody
• 48:40
  Speaker 5: thought I was a Ramirez, is gonna go forty forty,
• 48:43
  Speaker 5: you know, like he is the Cleveland blueprint of a
• 48:46
  Speaker 5: small player who's just very, very good at baseball. But
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: like it just it comes kind of naturally to him.
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: I don't know how he feels about it, but as
• 48:55
  Speaker 5: I watch him do it, it looks like, you know,
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: I like to say that I like players for whom
• 49:02
  Speaker 5: hitting is the easy part. Like there are parts of
• 49:05
  Speaker 5: the game that need work, but when I swing the
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: bad I'm going to hit the baseball and that part
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: is kind of easy for me. And I just like
• 49:14
  Speaker 5: that kind of player and he's that. And somebody asked
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: me about Carson Williams and another player for whom hitting
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: is the tough part today in a chat. I wish
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: I could remember right now, but it's like, that's just
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: not my type of player. Like, if I have to
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: invest fifty dollars and I want it to be in
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: a guy who can connect with the baseball, I think.
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: That makes sense.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: And so for wellb In Francisca, he debuted in Bowman
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Products in twenty twenty three as a part of the
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Bowman Chrome set, had other cards dating back to his
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: original kind of signing date back around twenty twenty and
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: so again a guy brew where you've got a few
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: cards to be able to pick from. So which direction
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: did you go here for Wellben Francisca to put into
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: our PC?
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I could have gone with his Bowman I
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: didn't because I wanted to play with Inception this time
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: through a wonderful set. Bowman Inception follows tops Inception kind
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: of framing, and I went with his twenty twenty three
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: Bowman Inception Auto out of fifty Gold Electricity Parallel. It
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: is a really really cool card. He actually signs his
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: autographed as far as w Francisca.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: He just says one.
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: He says his first letter, his first name, but it
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: has it kind of pops out because all the lightning
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: bolts that are coming cut off the card are kind
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: of in a gold foil. So it really looks great
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: and it's relatively affordable card. Last one I found sold
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: for twenty bucks and so something that you can add
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: to the PC without that big of a deal. And
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: he just looks absolutely got the shades on. He looks
• 50:58
  Speaker 3: like he's getting ready fielding position. It is a wonderful,
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: wonderful card. I could have gone with the first I didn't,
• 51:04
  Speaker 3: but I stuck in Bowman Round for you.
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: I think this is a great choice. This is a
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: fun looking card. I love it that like, yeah, it's
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: a cheap too.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: It's crazy that we're finding some of these cheaper cards
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: for some of these guys who really could pop that
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: like it. It's really I'm just about to hit like
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: by on so many of these, it's hard.
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: To tell a story where it doesn't go right for
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: him that too as a player.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: And as I looked like I pulled Electricity Parallel, which
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: was like twenty bucks. If you go for just the
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: non electricity, which there's billion parallels like five bucks, like
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: they're they're very very available.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, probably sitting in dollar boxes too. So keep your
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: eyes peeled for wellb in Francisca because he also wasn't
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: a big part of that twenty twenty three Bowman Chrome
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: like prospects list. I don't think either. I mean, I
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: think he really broke out a lot in twenty twenty
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: four that he's probably so buried in dollar boxes out there.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: Maybe. Okay, let's get on to.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Our next player who was traded in the off season
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: and goes way back. He's got the oldest card in
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: terms of Bowman first in twenty twenty three. We are
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: talking about the Marlins infielder Maximo a Costa, who came
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: over in the Jake Berger trade.
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: In the off season.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: And Acosta has been with the Rangers previously and debuted
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty one in the Complex League. Last
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: year in twenty twenty four, reached double A during which
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: he played one hundred and four games with the Rangers
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: and hit two eighty eight three point fifty three four
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: twenty five in those games that was good for a
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: one nineteen WRC plus did it as a twenty one
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: year old in Double A. So, I mean, compared to
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: some of the other guys that we've talked about, a
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Costa's probably lowered down prospect list, but has a great
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: opportunity now that he's playing in Miami.
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: So, Nick, what do you love about Acosta's profile?
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Between the opportunity in Miami and just kind of the
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: game that he offers for us in dynasty keeper leagues.
• 53:10
  Speaker 5: It's mostly the opportunity plus the speed, but also he
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: came up as a guy that everybody loved and then
• 53:18
  Speaker 5: got stuck in a deep organization, had a couple ofugh
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: years or maybe I don't know, I'm not looking at
• 53:23
  Speaker 5: just play a profile right now, but he didn't, you know,
• 53:26
  Speaker 5: immediately tear up the world as a seventeen year old
• 53:29
  Speaker 5: or eighteen year old or nineteen year old might not
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: especially like minor league life is I don't know, not
• 53:36
  Speaker 5: like I haven't been a minor league player recently. But
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: you get on a bus and you play on a
• 53:41
  Speaker 5: small town in front of very few people, and it's
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: just a different world. And so it takes time, I
• 53:48
  Speaker 5: think to grow. I mean, while other kids are in
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: college like learning about philosophy, you know, in psychology and
• 53:57
  Speaker 5: things that help you like understand what it is to
• 53:59
  Speaker 5: be a person and manage your emotions. You're out there
• 54:02
  Speaker 5: failing on the baseball field every day against people who'd
• 54:05
  Speaker 5: graduated college, and so I don't know, this is a
• 54:10
  Speaker 5: I think Acosta went through some of the trials, and
• 54:12
  Speaker 5: I really value that as a prospect evaluator. If you
• 54:15
  Speaker 5: have some down turns and you come back really strong
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: and suddenly you're part of a deadline trade and now
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: you're potentially a starting infielder on a major league team,
• 54:25
  Speaker 5: even if it's a bad one. I just think he's
• 54:29
  Speaker 5: like fifteen dollars. The first Bowman chrome is like fifteen
• 54:32
  Speaker 5: bucks ship and so that's part of the thing I
• 54:35
  Speaker 5: love about him. It's just so you could get any
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: card you want to ask right now, and he's looking
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: at a chance.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Yeahact the card is because it was a part of
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: just regular twenty twenty one Bowman that like Bowman paper
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: that came out in the spring, and it was a
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: heavily printed set in the middle of the pandemic. I know,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I see these acoast of cards in every dollar box
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: I ever sort through.
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: So certainly.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's autos buried in some of those dollar
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: boxes out there at shows two, so certainly keep your
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: eyes peeled for those maximum costas.
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: But I think you nailed it. This is a guy who.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: Great opportunity in Miami could swipe forty ish bags in
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: a season with a with a great non zero pop too.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: So brew with all those things, what card did you
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: pick for Maximo Costa to put into the PC?
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: I was really tempted to go with the first there,
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: just because it was kind of like that pandemic card
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: that like everybody was excited about, but it was but
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: didn't kind of come to fruition for the prices it
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: went for. But I didn't quite go there. I did
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: go with a Bowman chrome or sort of a Bowman
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: Draft chrome from twenty twenty one. There's one on one
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: printing plate is Cyan version because it is available right
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: now at eBay for sixty dollars, a one of one
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: of a hot prospect, Like, I feel like I should
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: be buying this because if he does what we just
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: talked about, that is a four one hundred dollars card,
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: and so I think it's just what you look for.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: One of ones.
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: It's hard to find him and at this price point,
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: I'm still shocked it's out there.
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: It's crazy, it is really crazy.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think part of it is the consideration
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: what we were talking about with Cam Smith changing teams.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: But like, yeah, I can't believe that this is the
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: it's it's the mirimas.
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: You can't even read the texas on his jersey.
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: It's fine.
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: This is what I used to do though. I used
• 56:24
  Speaker 5: to come through all the time for like all the
• 56:27
  Speaker 5: time for guys to buy.
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's and and again that you're right, dollar box guy.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: You're gonna find them all over the place. These the
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: kind of guys to pick up. People forgot about him
• 56:37
  Speaker 3: and all of a sudden they're gonna come back, come back.
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, he was overprinted, let's own that. But if
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: you can get things like this for cheap, it's it's
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: it's likely to pay off and it's not that big
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: of a gamble.
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: All right, Well, let's move on to our next guy.
• 56:53
  Speaker 5: Who.
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: I was glad that you picked this guy for us
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: to talk about, Nick, because he is who my pick
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: was during our nl West preview for the Arizona Diamondbacks
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: pick to click prospect, and that is Geno Groover from
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: the Arizona Diamondbacks. And this is a player who I've
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: just loved the profile in terms of what he was
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: able to do in twenty twenty four when he played
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: across a couple of levels in terms of a little
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: bit complex ball, but mostly in High A and then
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: a little taste of Double A as a twenty two
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: year old, put up ten bombs and four stolen bases
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: over sixty one games, hitting two eighty one three sixty
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: seven four seventy four slash line, good for a one
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: thirty three WRC plus. He was a second round pick
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three out of NC State and Geno
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: Groover is uh Is he also going by Lou James
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: Groover now, because I do see that on his fangrass
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: page that I just clicked on, So maybe he is
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: also going by a different name, which might make his
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: old cards a little short printed in that, but I
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: guess I should update the priors Lou James Gruber as
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: he is struggled a little bit in his spring training invite,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: but certainly has a lot of runway to the future
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: third base job in Arizona. Behind Ajoheno Suarez. But Nick,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: what do you think Gruver can be when he finally
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: does hit the majors for the DBS.
• 58:29
  Speaker 5: Well, it's tough because he's another ACC you said NC State.
• 58:33
  Speaker 5: He's another acc guy where we aren't quite and he
• 58:36
  Speaker 5: has yet to face any resistance. Like what's this you
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: said he's struggling in the spring, So twenty at bats
• 58:44
  Speaker 5: or something fifteen at bat I haven't looked.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got eighteen plate appearances with a homer thirty
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: three percent k rate one eighteen one sixty seven two
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: ninety four slash line nine plus.
• 58:57
  Speaker 5: I think this represents the first time that he has
• 59:00
  Speaker 5: struggled in a way that he would feel that way
• 59:05
  Speaker 5: since maybe at NC State there's probably a stretch because
• 59:09
  Speaker 5: with Arizona, he has only ever hit and hit and
• 59:11
  Speaker 5: hit and hit, and he's been hurt, and so I
• 59:15
  Speaker 5: think his card price slash dynasty stock reflects the fact
• 59:19
  Speaker 5: that he's been hurt. But he came into the draft
• 59:22
  Speaker 5: as a kid who could hit and everybody thought he
• 59:24
  Speaker 5: was going to hit, and then as a professional he
• 59:26
  Speaker 5: has just hit and hit and hit and got promoted
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: and hit. But he's been hurt and He's not like
• 59:33
  Speaker 5: a super powerful hitter or a super fast guy. So
• 59:37
  Speaker 5: we're looking at like a two eighty twenty five five
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: ten in the new speed world. You know, he's not
• 59:45
  Speaker 5: a superstar, but he's also extremely cheap in the card world.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he certainly is very affordable. And now that I
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: also see his cards, it's very clear that he's been
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: signing his name his cards as the James Groover anyway,
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: So I think this is kind Yeah, it is.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have gone by Gino either if I had
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: low James in front of me. It Kromer, it is.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: It is quite the name, and it is. I love
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: him as a third base prospect too, just given how
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: shallow third base has become in our fantasy game that like,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: guys who just hit like this certainly don't seem to
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: be around very often. I'm just looking at some of
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: his first Bowman Chrome autos. You can give him for
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: like twenty to thirty bucks. They're pretty cheap. But brew,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: what did you pick considering he was in twenty twenty
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: four Bowmen Chrome so it's a relatively newer release, but
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: had other cards to choose from as well.
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: Well, I'm really disappointed because apparently eBay's purged all sold
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: listings and I picked out a great one and then
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: they got purged, so.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: I can't put in the show notes.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: But I was gonna go with his first Bowman Auto
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: Red Refractor out of five because it color match that
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: Diamondbacks Jersey so nicely.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: It just made it pop.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: So I'm gonna all in audibles we get something in
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: the show notes for folks to look at here, and
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with his ten of ten, his Pearl
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: Refractor from twenty twenty four. Another beautiful card, and you
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: already stole my talking points here of how he is
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: signing those. It's lou Grove the third He's got it.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: It's easy to read, it's so beautiful, and it is
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: a cool, cool card. And even the out of ten
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: it's like two hundred bucks, and so those kind of things,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: those are the ones to take off. So you know,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 3: you go try to find an out of ten of
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: a guy that's hit the last year. You're talking seven
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: hundred bucks, eight hundred bucks something like that. There's a
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: mortal y here for sure at this point in the game.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think given that, like he should open
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: again at double A and maybe make a triple A
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: by the end of the year. That I think he's
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: a great guy who when we get back to this
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: point in spring twenty twenty six, I think we're talking
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: about the James Gruber getting a shot at just regular
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: playing time with the Dbacks, especially if we see a
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: huge fall off from Suarez or maybe your boy to
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: Peven Smith doesn't quite follow through on his savant page.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of avenues I think in Arizona for Groover, and.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: I think you also want thing to call out is
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 3: you're looking for a card shows, especially if there's a
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: name change here. I've seen this with what I'm gonna
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 3: call be a homer here with one of our cardinal's prospects,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: tink Hints. His elite extra cards are Marcavian tent Hints,
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: and they're in dollar boxes because nobody realizes it's Tink.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: And I think as you look at it here, if
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: they're Geno Groover and he starts to go by the
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: James Gruver, you're gonna see an opportunity to buy some
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: of those card for cheap, because people don always make
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: those connections when players update their names.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, honestly, I didn't until I was scrolling through roster
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: resource just now and couldn't write down type in Groover
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: to be able to find him, and I found him
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: in the third phase. So yeah, that that's kind of
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: funny that that changed so quickly on us overnight. That's
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: it should present a good buying opportunity for cards, like
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: you said, as like that kind of filters its way
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: through yep. Okay, Well, Nick, it was great to have
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: you on and we had a blast here talking prospects
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: and cards and getting some of your bits of knowledge
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: on insights to both really right up our alley. So
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: it was great having you on, let people know where
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: they can find you and kind of read more and
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: more of your fantastic work throughout two twenty twenty five
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: to be able to buy into the next round of
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: prospects so they can be ready for this conversation and
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: investment process going into twenty twenty six.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah. Thanks, I had a blast, Thanks for having me.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 5: Can read my stuff at Rasball the Ititch. You can
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 5: find me at Blue Sky at the Itch, and I
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 5: feel like I'm pretty good at being right there on
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 5: the front curve of when it's about to happen for
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 5: a lot of players pitch I would make for myself,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 5: and I also try to go pro A Triple A
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: once I'm in the season, I'll try to get some
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 5: major league stuff, some Triple A stuff, some Double A stuff,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: some high stuff, and some low A stuff. And then
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 5: once they do DSL and complex, I try to touch
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 5: on every level every article.
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I would totally agree.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: I vouch for you being on the cutting edge because
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: you have helped me in my dynasty and keeper leagues
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: in terms of filling up those watched lists and knowing
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: who to pick up early between. I love your your
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: insight between the blend between scouting and numbers because I
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: think it provides a good balance of term in terms
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: of looking at who the player could be and what
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: his especially size and kind of future is as well
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: as looking and making sure that the numbers back it up.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: So it was great having you on. Thanks Nick, Yeah,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: thanks for having me.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 5: Have a good night. Yea, yeah or whatever you listen
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: to the.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: Yes exactly, all right, yeah, all right, well yeah, thanks
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: everybody for joining us on this podcast, and if you
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: haven't already, we appreciate you rating and reviewing this podcast
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: wherever you're listening to us, just so that we can
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: help spread and disseminate this podcast to more and more
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: listeners out there and get it kind of on different lists.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: You can also reach out to the podcast at cards
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: Categories at Blue Sky and you can email the pod
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: at cards categories at gmail dot com. Certainly check out
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: all of our show notes for links to those cards
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: that we discussed with the itch, but you can also
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: check out the show notes for links to Rasboll subscriptions
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: and some of the gear that we have with cards
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: and categories logos and blazoned on it. To help support
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: this podcast. You can find me Mike Coolard on Blue
• 1:05:50
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• 1:05:55
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• 1:05:59
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• 1:06:00
  Speaker 3: Brew Jay Brewer one seven, Blue Sky, Twitter x, whatever
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: you're on. Also finding rasball on the weekends doing hitter
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: profiles top one hundred hitters as well.
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: Exactly, and I actually forgot to say, I'm actually starting
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: a little bit early. I'm doing week zero waiver wire
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: this year, so my first piece will be on March
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: twenty second, to give you some strategies for in season
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: fab management as well as throw out a few initial
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: names that should be looked at to stream for the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: first week and or just kind of are criminally under
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: owned and should be picked up in lots of leagues
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: out there. So thanks for checking out this podcast. Like
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: I said, rate and review us where you can, and
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: check us out on rasball dot com where you can
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: see pictures of all the cards that we've discussed as well.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: And we will see you same time, same place next week.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: Take care everybody.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 5: E