Latest / Foul Territory / JJ Cooper's prospect review: Nick Kurtz, Chandler Simpson, Catchers

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JJ Cooper's prospect review: Nick Kurtz, Chandler Simpson, Catchers · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There might be guys who could be as fast as
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Treidler Simpson in a sixty, but baseball speed's a little
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: more important is how quickly you accelerate, and no one
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: accelerates faster than Chandler Simpson.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: There we go, JJ Cooper back on vowel territory. You
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: can catch him all over Baseball America. Get yourself a
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: subscription at Baseball America dot com, but also the star
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of Hot Sheet. But JJ, we felt like we needed
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: you back on the show today to chat. So let's
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: start with Nick Kurtz coming to the show. Are you excited?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: He just got drafted obviously last year, maybe higher than
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: some expected, but he tore through the minor leagues? And
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: how is this going to shake out with the major
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: league roster?
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  Speaker 1: That's the thing I'm most fascinated by here. I can't
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: really find a scout. I can't find a coach who's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: seen Nick Kurts play who doesn't think he's going to hit.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But where are how is this kind of this rule's cube?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: How this puzzle is going to work out for the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: A's Because I mean, we got Rooker.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: I don't do you really want to play Brent Rooker?
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: In the outfield regularly.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Solderstrm has been hitting enough that you've pretty much got
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to play Solderstrum. You've got him at first base, You've
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: got Nick Kurtz, You've got Brent Rooker. It does feel
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: like it's gonna be kind of an interesting comma to
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: figure out how to get all three of those getting
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: in the lineup on a regular basis. But at the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: same time, I get it, Like, I mean, Kurt's as
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: fast as he's moved to the big leagues, I don't
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: think there was a lot being you know, he's really
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  Speaker 1: being challenged in Las Vegas very much lean the miners
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and home runs at the time of his call up.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And again, this guy who's got power, but he's would say,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: really more of a pure hitter who has power than
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a guy who's a slugger who you hope can hit
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a little bit.
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  Speaker 3: It's a pretty polished approach.
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  Speaker 4: I don't care about his approach. JJ.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: Have you seen the thing going around with the A's
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: announcers were told they have to pause between Nick and
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  Speaker 5: Kurts so when they say his name because they're afraid
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: something people might misconstrue it for another something. So I
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: don't know what that could be. But I'm just saying
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  Speaker 5: there was a whole thing going around with the A's
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  Speaker 5: announcers now that he's being called up.
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  Speaker 3: Did you see this, Scott, No, I have no idea.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, so there's this big thing going around on X
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  Speaker 5: where they're saying that the A's announcers have been told
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  Speaker 5: not to say his name fast and to pause in
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: between because they don't want him to be confused for
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: something else. I'm serious. So it's like Nick, Kurt, Kurt.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: They want to make sure there is a pause in between,
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: which is crazy to me because you're just saying the
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: guy's name.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, but it's a thing. I never worried about that
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: till you just said that.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Now I had neither right.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: I had never thought of it. I had never thought
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: of it either, And then I was reading about this
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: guy this morning and that was one of the things
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: they were saying.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you you probably know this. Maybe I know
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: more because I used to work for the league. You
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: do get a lot of directives on Yeah, that's a
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: crazy careful valute. I didn't even think about that.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Now it's just gonna be in my.
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  Speaker 4: Head right now.
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  Speaker 5: You got to make sure, you pause longer than you're
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: now You're just gonna make an awkward pause.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And now I'm just going to give him a nickname,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: which we should do. But I mean, this guy could
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: be a hitting star right from the jump too, right.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I mean I think we were were you a little
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: surprised to see that he went that high in the
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  Speaker 2: draft last year or no, because of the way that
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the A's picked.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I think if it hadn't been for the injury he
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: had mid season last year, he may have, you know,
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  Speaker 1: like been even maybe a little higher, like he could
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: have been in that Charlie Condon mix of like the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: best pure college bat. But he did he'd kind of
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: been a couple of injuries. That's the one thing we
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: want to see this year is kind of a full
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: healthy year. To his credit, he came back from it
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: was a shoulder injury that when he had it, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: there was a question like, Okay, is he gonna be
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: able to come back this season.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: He made it back pretty quickly from it.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: But I do think like the time that it happened
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: right kind of in the middle of the season where
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: teams are all kind of you know, kind of lining
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: up their boards and all I do think it may
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: have affect him a little bit, Like looking at this
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a year later, you know, we.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Want to see Charlie Condon be healthy.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: But when you look at, say, who's the best just
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: pure bat out of that draft, you look at what
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Kurtz is doing, You look at what Cam Smith is doing.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Charlie Condon, obviously we want to get him back from
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a he had a wrist in suffered in spring training.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: But it's gonna He's got a lot of work to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: do to kind of catch up to these guys who
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: both are already in the big leagues, and I think
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Condon kind of is probably still probably months away. So
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I do think that this is shaping up to be
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a fascinating AL Rookie of the Year race we talked
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: about on the Hot Sheet Show. I don't even know
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: who's going to win on the NL side, But on
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the AL side, man, there's a lot of good candidates.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Is this just another example that Major League Baseball loves
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: the fact that they can They're going to be able
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: to get rid of the minor leagues even sooner because
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: there are these draft picks, all of the all of
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: the Angels draft picks, are just going to the big
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: leagues and now a number fourth overall pick. Teams are like, WHOA,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: we can just wait and let these kids develop and
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: their nil nil deals in college and we'll just call
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: them up to the big leagues in a year and
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: then we can get rid of more minor league teams.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I will point out with that, like if this ever happened,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that we pushed it more to the college side. There
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: is y'all mentioned about Vlad Junior earlier. You're talking about
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: first base free agent contracts and you said, you all
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: not most guys aren't free agents at twenty six.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: When we talk about like.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: What we see with a Bobby Wit junior, and we
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: see the guys who are those premium high school draftees
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: at the top of the draft, you know they're going
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to take a little bit longer. But those are also
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: like those are the guys those of the international signings.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: Are the guys who signed the massive free agent contracts.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Why because when a Bobby Wit junior makes it to
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the big leagues at nineteen or twenty, when I know
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Jackson Holliday hasn't had a great start to his big
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: league career, but he's twenty one. When guys like that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: hit free agency at twenty six twenty seven, that's when
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: you see the SODO type deals. If it gets pushed
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: more and more to the college side.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: Even when those.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Guys move quickly, you're still talking about usually you're talking
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: about free agent at twenty eight twenty nine, And that's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: not it doesn't feel like a massive difference. But you
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: guys know better than I do. That's a ton of
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: difference when it comes to your bargaining power as a.
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• 7:04
  Speaker 4: All right, Who are other draft picks that we should
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: be or I mean, other call ups that we should
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: be looking at or anticipating or watching that are already up.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: There are a couple of interesting ones this week, you know.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Craig Yoho came up with the best change up in
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the Miners. I don't know if it's going to be
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: a brief stay for the Brewers pen or kind of
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: like where they bring them up and then they send
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: them back down and then they bring him up, or
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: maybe he's there to stay, but he's kind of an
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: interesting reliever to watch. The one I'm and I want
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to ask, I've got I'm getting to talk to, you know,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: catchers here. Augustin Ramirez just came up for the Marlins
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and the knock on him has always been his defense.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: I know y'all talked about it before. Also, the Marlin
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: is doing things a little differently here now in the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: minor leagues with their catchers, But I'm going to be
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: interested to see how his defensive development continues in the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: big leagues. He's got to do it pretty quick because
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Joe Mack, who's a top hundred prospect for US, is
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: coming up behind him. But as I'm watching, I feel
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: like that catcher development and improvements in the minors are
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: such a you see so much more there than you
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: do an amateur baseball that I feel like it really
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: makes it kind of tough to evaluate catchers. Like when
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: I'm watching now and you say okay on a low pitch. Now,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: it seems like every team is teaching show a target,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: drop the glove and then kind of catch it in
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: an upward motion.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Never saw that three four years ago.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: You know, we're seeing things change so much on the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: catcher side that I do feel like when I'm saying
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: a guy can hit, but I'm worried that we're hearing
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: worry some reports about his defense of a minor league catcher.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Some of those guys end up being Austin Well, so, like,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I think that's a really tough thing to evaluate. So
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I'm interested to see how Agustin Ramirez develops, how much
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: he catches for the Marlins, because while I've heard a
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: lot of concerns about his defense, I do feel like
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that catching defense is something that proper instruction, the tools
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to do it, and a lot of want to and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: kind of intelligence can kind of help guys exceed what
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: may be is the expectations for those guys in the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: minors or are coming out of the draft or being
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: signed as.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: A international amateur.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: But for you guys like how I mean again, as
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: two guys who've done it, like it feels like that,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: how do.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: You kind of look at it as far as how
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: a guy can develop?
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Is it fair to say that a guy can probably
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: make more improvement defensively as a catcher than you could
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: if you're talking about shortstops, you talk about center fielders
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: or or a lot of other positions.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I think shortstops, you're you're gifted as a shortstop as
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: a sixteen year old. Can you work on mechanics, yes,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: but there's so many things in the catching game, and
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: a ghosting he's in the Marlin system. So clearly he
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: hasn't called any pitches, you know, on his own, since
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: the Marlins are calling them all for them. But that's
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: the biggest thing behind the dish. You're not gonna move.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: You're not gonna move a ton. Differently, yes, guys can
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: change their receiving and all that stuff. ABS kind of
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: squash a little bit of that, But defensively, you got
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: to learn to call a game. You got to learn
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: to call a game, and you have to learn to
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: be able to deal with that loco pitcher on the
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: mound who may or may not be the same guy
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: from one start to the next, from one relief appearance
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: to the next.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: That's the part when I look at what we're talking
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: about with what the Marlins are doing, you know, right now,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: I kind of think of this you mentioned ABS right
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: like one of the reasons I think that we'll see
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: eventually a challenge system that I don't think we'll go
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to full ABS ever, where you know, the robots are
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: calling every pitch beyond it's a bigger change than you
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: probably need to have. Once you go down that road,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: it's really hard to ever come back because in the minors,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: the umpires who are developing. If they're just doing roboumps,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: how are they ever going to learn to call balls
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and strikes the same thing here? I mean, obviously it's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit different because in college, the number of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: catchers who actually call their own game in college is
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: a small numbers, So it's something that catchers are having
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: to develop as pros. But like you said, like if
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you don't do it in the minors, I don't know
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: how Even if you don't do it until late in
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: your minor league career, it's going to be really hard
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to kind of develop that skill when everything else is
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: getting tougher too.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: Like that, it does.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Seem like to me that amall is where you want
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: to learn that, because yes, you're one hundred percent as
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: a catcher going to make mistakes. You're going to do
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: that in a little bit of a smaller stage where
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: a lot less people are going to notice, and where
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the pitcher also can't get nearly as mad at you
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: because yeah, you called the wrong pitch there, but at
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the same time, he also missed the target the next
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: seven times, and you know that was his fault too,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So everyone's kind of learning at that level. It seems
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: like you kind of want to figure those things out
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: on a much smaller stage than you would at Triple
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: A or the majors.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: I would agree, JJ, how fast is How fast is
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: Taylor Simpson?
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: Oh? Man?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: I love watching Taylor Simpson play? You know that playing Sunday,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: the controversial one where it's like, oh is this you.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Know a hit or an error?
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Well, the thing about it is is he's exceptionally fast.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: That's the fastest home to first time. I love with
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the video you are show in here, but that was
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the fastest home the first time we've seen this year
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: on a swing three to nine, which is basically eighty
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and a stack cast three nine is really more like
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: probably a three to eight. The funny thing about this
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: is is I don't think he'll lead the majors. When
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: we talk about stackcast stats, we talk about sprint speed.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Sprint speed is your top speed? I would say that there.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I've talked to Ray's officials who say, if you said
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: there was a sixty, right, there might be guys who
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: could be as fast as Treandler Simpson in a sixty.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: But baseball speed's a little more important. Is how quickly
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you accelerate and no one accelerates faster than Chandler Simpson,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: and that's that's what's going to be the difference for him.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: That's why he steals all those bases, that's why he's
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: going to be the fastest guy in the majors. Because yeah, okay,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: if they're said, if you tell me that someone can
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: be faster going first home on that rare play, that's
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: less useful than if Chandler Simpson is the fastest from
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: home to first, the fastest from first to second, the fastest.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And again, this is the thing we're gonna be interested
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to watch is defensively, we're starting to see more times
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: where he kind of just is not having to think
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: about it and just sees the ball in the gap
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: and just takes off at it and basically outruns the baseball.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Those are the ways he's going to impact the game.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: And as I love to keep saying, I think he's
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a better hitter than a lot of people are giving
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: him credit for. I think of as a hitter, think
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: of him that there's no power there, but there are
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: some real back to ball skills. And the thing that
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I just keep watching him do that impresses me is
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: when he gets velo in, he can get that bat
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: head out. And that's the thing to me that usually
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: when you talk about these, you know, these eighty grade
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: runners who you question like that have no power. Usually
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: they can't handle velocity like that. Taydler Simpson has shown
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: not every time, but he's shown pretty consistently he can.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And once he shows that he can handle the inside pitch,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: then you go away. And then he just whacks it
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to third base or shortstopper in between the hole. And
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: if he gets it, if the shortstopper or the third
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: basement has to take a step or two one way
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: or the other, yeah, he's not being thrown out.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: We know the potentials there. So it's a yes or no.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: Will he steal one hundred bases in the big leagues
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: in one season?
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: No, because I just don't think that the game's going
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: to let him right, like, even if he hits three hundred.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: We're now in the world. I know that they've loosened
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: up the stolen base rules and all that, but at
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the same time, we're in a risk averse era when
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: it comes to steals. When Vince Coleman was doing that,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: if he got thrown out twice on Tuesday. They wanted
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: him to try three times on Wednesday. Right now, it's
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: something where it's going to be something where if you
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: don't have an eighty five percent success rate on it,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: he's going to get some red lights. Right There are
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: gonna be times they give him the green, but it's
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: never going to be like it was when Vince Coleman
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: or Ricky Henderson was doing it, where those guys had
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the green light every time they reach base. Now I
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: feel like it's like, Okay, sometimes it's green, sometimes it's yellow,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: and sometimes it's red.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Yoho, how good is this the Do we have a
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: different name for the Airbender?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Like?
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Is this the air Slicer?
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: So I'm working on this because Yoho, there's gotta be
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: something here. I'm not creative enough, but there's got to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: be something with the yoho yo yo maybe or something
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: like that, because that kind of works, you know, maybe,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: but it is.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: It is such a fun change up to watch.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I know that, you know, change ups aren't the sexiest pitch,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: but man, is fun to watch when a guy goes
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: back to back to back to a hitter with a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: change up and get some you know where the hitter
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: knows the change up's coming, and it just doesn't matter
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: because it's just such an effective pitch.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: And by the way we saw it last night, he
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: throws ninety five.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I don't want to make it sound like this is
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Doug Jones out of here, you know, who's like, Okay,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: it's eighty four, But check out the change up. This
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: is a guy who's going to have enough other stuff.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: He's a well rounded reliever who just happens to have
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: this absolute, filthy weapon of a change up.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: You got anything, krats?
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Nothing?
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: Why I don't have a nicknames.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: For him, like an even a dad joke kind of thing.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: Nothing. Nothing. I mean, I've been thinking about it since
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I saw him in spring training. I mean he was
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: he was, he hands to me lead out he's in
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: spring It's just like the name is so easy, Like
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: you got to come up with an easy nickname. I
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: like the yo yo. But it's not a bad st.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, guys, because I did want to.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I didn't want to ask you because I've been watching
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of catchers. We got thirteen catchers in our
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: top one hundred right now, right and damn when you're
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: working obviously, the left hand. Nowadays you know, left hand's
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: more important than the right hand. Right how you receive?
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: What do you when you see a catcher, what tells
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you that this is the guy who who is going
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: to work for him in the major leagues? You know,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: versus a guy who it seems like it's a lot
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of times he's small margins. Obviously you hit on the intelligence.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: The ability to work with pictures is a key aspect
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: of it. But as a receiver, what are the things
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: that tell you that a guy, this guy's special.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: Strength, guys who can control If you're talking about just receiving,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: it's the strong guys like aj was never considered like
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: the prototypical like great receiving numbers catcher, but his strength
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: helped him control the ball, especially with the way the
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: dudes throw now, you have to be able to beat
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: the ball to the spot wherever it is, no matter
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: where you start up here to go down to come
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: up all that stuff, you have to beat the ball
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: to the spot. And so if a guy has fast,
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: strong hands, that those would be those would be the
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: like intangible out of game things that I would look
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: at and be like, Okay, he has a he has
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: a better chance of being a good receiver.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Ethan Sallas's stands out to me that way what you're
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: talking about right now, as far as a minor leaguer,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: like where he beats it to the he beats it
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to the spot, and then when he catches it, it
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: really stands out that like it's a soft, strong hand
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: where he never seems.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: To have to kind of work at it. Right.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: It's something where like when you see guys go up
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the zone. One of the things
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to watch was kind of the fluidity of it,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and you see those guys who they're trying to do it,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: but they don't trust their hands enough so they kind
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of stop, and so.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Then they go down a little bit and then they
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: go back up.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And those guys don't seem to to It doesn't seem
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to pay off as well for that as the guys
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: who can, like you said, who can beat it to
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the spot and then are comfortable, confident off their hands
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to do it in one motion.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: So for me, I look for something different. I look
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: for the way they catch the ball. Do they catch
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: it cleanly? That's that to me is the biggest indicator
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: of a guy that knows what he's doing and has
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: good hands. When you watch a catcher and people ask me,
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: like in the high school and colleguo, what do you
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: look for. I look for a guy to catch it cleanly. Right,
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: They don't clank a lot of balls. They just catch it.
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: They just catch the ball, right. Oh, they catch it,
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: they catch it, they catch it, they catch it's over here,
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: it's over here. Oh, they're not chasing balls, they're not
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: missing balls or not. And it just looks easy. The
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: easier it looks jj, the better they'll be able to receive.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: It.
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: Should just be easy. You're like, boom, caught another one. Oh,
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: I caught it. And you don't even notice them. That's
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: the thing, like if you notice a catcher, something's not right.
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: If the catcher goes to a game and you never
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: notice them other than maybe if they get a hit
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: or they throw a guy out, they've had a great game.
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: You just want to catch the ball, make it easy,
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: and go on to the next one.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: The one that when you said that that made me
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: think of it is when I'm watching a guy who
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: wear a slider kind of backs up on him so
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: he's expecting it out and it comes back yet on him.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: The guys who can do that and kind to make
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: that kind of that backhand look easy. That kind of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: tells me, okay that you know that. That's where you
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: mentioned it, Krats. You mentioned about how shortstops you can
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: improve some things, but like I kind of I kind
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: of think of it as almost like that's where you
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: kind of show those hands, almost those shortstop type hands
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: behind the plate. When is that fair that when a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: pitch doesn't do what you expected to do and you
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: have that ability, that confidence to kind of handle it
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: without like it seeming to be a big deal at all,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: that to me kind of stands out as, Okay, that
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: guy's probably got a little bit better hands than the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: average catch it.
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: You can tell, just like AJ said, you can tell,
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: you can you can see it right away.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: It's funny when you said that, Aj, because Eduardo Tait
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: is considered one of the better defensive young defensive catchers
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: in the miners. But one of the things trying to
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: watch some video of him this week, you see more
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: of the ball at the end of it, like it
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: seems to kind of it stays in the mid but
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: it doesn't just it's a center of the minute rattles
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: around a little bit where you're telling me, it's like, okay,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: you know that's it's a little bit different than that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: guy who just when Salas.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: It just hits the mitt and it disappears. It's like
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: a pillow.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: There you go. Hey, more of these kind of conversations
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: every single week on Hot Sheet Obviously you catch these
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: combos within Baseball America too, but JJ, thank you so much,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: great having you back on.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: Great to see you guys.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Yes you too, and we'll show it off taking up
• 21:30
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• 21:33
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• 21:36
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• 21:40
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• 21:42
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