Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 137 : Under The Radar Prospects

Transcript

Ep. 137 : Under The Radar Prospects · Cards & Categories

0:16
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode one thirty seven of
0:20
Speaker 1: Cards and Categories. I am my Cool Art from Baseball Prospectus,
0:23
Speaker 1: and I am joined by my very good friend Jeremy
0:26
Speaker 1: Brewer from Rasball. We are recording here on Tuesday, April
0:30
Speaker 1: twenty ninth. It's actually Wednesday, April twenty ninth. Wow, I've
0:33
Speaker 1: had quite the day. I nailed that intro and then
0:37
Speaker 1: I butchered the day. But how are you doing tonight, Buddy?
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Speaker 2: Done? Just fine? I know my when lost records a
0:43
Speaker 2: little rough, so hopefully I make it through this podcast.
0:45
Speaker 2: Don't get fired, but I'm ready to go. It's gonna
0:50
Speaker 2: be a fun time.
0:51
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I think that's where we're gonna start,
0:53
Speaker 1: because well, maybe I should preview the main segment because
0:56
Speaker 1: I figured that's probably a good way to actually hook
0:59
Speaker 1: in listeners. Stick around and see what we've got to
1:02
Speaker 1: say on the news and notes before we get into
1:04
Speaker 1: our main segment, which will be covering prospects that are
1:08
Speaker 1: really breaking out and kind of rising to the top
1:12
Speaker 1: of their levels, but haven't been necessarily the most heralded
1:15
Speaker 1: prospects out there, So some of these guys will probably
1:18
Speaker 1: on some lists out there. But we're using the itches
1:21
Speaker 1: top one hundred fantasy prospects to make this evaluation, and
1:25
Speaker 1: last time I checked, none of the ones that we're
1:27
Speaker 1: covering were within that list. Some of them were draftees
1:30
Speaker 1: and have really showed off as they've gotten into minor
1:33
Speaker 1: league baseball this year, as well as just some guys
1:36
Speaker 1: that are making the most of the opportunity. So we're
1:38
Speaker 1: going to discuss kind of what we're gonna do with
1:40
Speaker 1: their values going forward, if we believe in what they've
1:43
Speaker 1: produced so far and if they can be valuable pieces
1:46
Speaker 1: in fantasy keeper dynasty situations. So with that, let's get
1:50
Speaker 1: into the news and notes, and you alluded to it.
1:52
Speaker 1: It is the week of firings, especially for really significant
1:56
Speaker 1: squads that we're expected to contend and you know, had
2:00
Speaker 1: World Series aspirations. Let's start in Boston first, where they
2:04
Speaker 1: let go Alex Cora and the majority of that coaching staff.
2:09
Speaker 1: Like it was almost a wholesale hiring across the board,
2:11
Speaker 1: because Cora went as well as the hitting coach, the
2:14
Speaker 1: assistant hitting coach, the bench coach, the third base outfield coach,
2:18
Speaker 1: and the major league hitting strategist, as well as Jason Veritek,
2:23
Speaker 1: who was the run prevention coach, which is, uh, that's
2:28
Speaker 1: a that's quite the He wasn't doing defense, I don't think,
2:31
Speaker 1: like straight up, but like that's what it would imply
2:33
Speaker 1: to me. I think he was just catching coordinator of
2:36
Speaker 1: some sort. Also, what's been funny is just like the
2:40
Speaker 1: names that are involved in this have been hilarious because
2:43
Speaker 1: there's a Joe Cronin involved who used to be a
2:46
Speaker 1: player for the Red Sox back in the forties. It's
2:49
Speaker 1: not that Joe Cronan, but he got let go in
2:52
Speaker 1: Alex corras Stead, the Red Sox brought in Chad Tracy,
2:56
Speaker 1: who was their Triple A manager. Not that Chad Tracy
2:59
Speaker 1: that you're thinking of played back in the two thousands
3:02
Speaker 1: with like the d backs and third basement. This is
3:05
Speaker 1: a different third baseman who was drafted back in the
3:08
Speaker 1: day by the Texas Rangers and kind of kicked around
3:11
Speaker 1: the miners but never made to the majors. I think
3:14
Speaker 1: it's probably the most logical move, considering they fired just
3:17
Speaker 1: about everybody within Boston to be promoting Tracy their Triple
3:21
Speaker 1: A manager who has overseen you in the development of
3:25
Speaker 1: Roman Anthony Peyton, Toley some of the other big names
3:28
Speaker 1: that we have there in Boston. Ironically, the pitching has
3:32
Speaker 1: been the bad part of the Boston squad, but that
3:35
Speaker 1: stuck around because Craig Breslo has had a relationship with
3:38
Speaker 1: Andrew Bailey in the past. But certainly as things have
3:43
Speaker 1: fallen off the rails in Boston, Breslo and Bailey have
3:47
Speaker 1: nowhere to hide at this point. I know, I ask
3:50
Speaker 1: you this every time we have turnover at a minuagerial spot,
3:53
Speaker 1: and I think I almost pushed you to the brink
3:55
Speaker 1: of seeing if there is a fantasy impact when the
3:57
Speaker 1: Giants hired Tony Vittello, There's got to be one here, right, Like,
4:01
Speaker 1: there has to be a fantasy impact in terms of
4:03
Speaker 1: just this whole sale house clearing, right that, like the manager,
4:08
Speaker 1: all these other coaches, especially on the hitting side, and
4:12
Speaker 1: on top of it, just the tumultuous nature of this.
4:14
Speaker 1: It came after a big win for the Red Sox.
4:17
Speaker 1: Seems like a lot of the players were mystified by
4:20
Speaker 1: where this came from, as well as lots of players
4:23
Speaker 1: I think really supported and enjoyed the tutelage of Alex
4:26
Speaker 1: Core in Boston. So what's your take here? Or any
4:30
Speaker 1: discounts you're kind of like putting on future projections for
4:34
Speaker 1: Red Sox hitters or is it kind of same old.
4:35
Speaker 2: Same old. Yeah, I mean I feel like there is
4:39
Speaker 2: You're right, I feel like there is an impact. I'm
4:40
Speaker 2: not quite sure what it is when you change this
4:42
Speaker 2: many things that clearly there. I think the bigger piece
4:46
Speaker 2: will be playing time and who's going deeper into games
4:50
Speaker 2: things like that, and that's that's a harder one to predict.
4:54
Speaker 2: But you know, are are we gonna see guys that
4:57
Speaker 2: have been struggling get less of a run? So you know,
5:02
Speaker 2: is it gonna be Rafaela, who's you know, he's struggled
5:06
Speaker 2: to degree? Is he gonna you know, hit the bench
5:09
Speaker 2: a little bit more often? Are we gonna get a
5:12
Speaker 2: deeper run for a totally an early guys like that?
5:17
Speaker 2: Is Durban gonna be in the lineup at all? I
5:20
Speaker 2: think those are the things that I'm more looking out for.
5:23
Speaker 2: I do feel like there's probably be some performance changed somewhere.
5:26
Speaker 2: Feels like they really not the most out of Roman
5:28
Speaker 2: Anthony at this point, so like that's a guy I'm like,
5:31
Speaker 2: maybe this is what releases him, But it's hard to
5:34
Speaker 2: pick one out. I do think that there's gonna be impacts.
5:37
Speaker 2: I think the first one will show up as playing
5:39
Speaker 2: time and how they kind of rotate through guys, and
5:42
Speaker 2: and are they gonna be a little bit more aggressive
5:47
Speaker 2: with with the moves. And I would expect so, because
5:51
Speaker 2: if you're getting an opportunity to manage the club, you
5:54
Speaker 2: want to make an impact, you might as go for
5:55
Speaker 2: the bold moves, because this is probably your one shot
5:57
Speaker 2: for Chad Tracy.
5:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's all very fair, and I
6:01
Speaker 1: think that's actually a good point in terms of the development.
6:03
Speaker 1: You know, we saw a lot of these players round
6:06
Speaker 1: into form in Triple A underneath Chad Tracy, seeing if
6:09
Speaker 1: they can unlock it again within the big leagues. As
6:13
Speaker 1: you stated, Roman Anthony struggled. Russell Meyer has also struggled,
6:17
Speaker 1: but is sorry to come on a little bit of late.
6:19
Speaker 1: But Chad Durbin was not part of the Red Sox system,
6:24
Speaker 1: but is still young enough. You wonder if there's something there.
6:26
Speaker 1: But it'll be intriguing to see the before and after
6:30
Speaker 1: as we get maybe another month out from this overhaul
6:33
Speaker 1: in Boston. Well, we also had another one just down
6:36
Speaker 1: the eastern seaboard in Philadelphia as Rob Thompson was relieved
6:41
Speaker 1: of his duties as the manager in Philadelphia. Funny thing
6:46
Speaker 1: is the Phillies actually reached out to Alex Korra to
6:48
Speaker 1: see if he wanted to take over for Rob Thompson.
6:51
Speaker 1: He did decline. So what we have is Don Mattingly,
6:54
Speaker 1: who has been at the Helm before in Miami and
6:57
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, taking over as managers. So a pretty steady presence.
7:02
Speaker 1: I think that it's a lot less disruptive from the
7:05
Speaker 1: day to day, and Manningly was already on the Phillies
7:08
Speaker 1: staff as the bench coach, so I also it is
7:12
Speaker 1: strange when you see the bench coach, who is a
7:15
Speaker 1: part of the staff and probably like the right hand
7:18
Speaker 1: man to the manager taking over for a team that
7:21
Speaker 1: was flailing. But maybe the change in voice will reignite.
7:24
Speaker 1: The Phillies did drive them to a win after the firing.
7:27
Speaker 1: So they're now ten and nineteen and it's going to
7:30
Speaker 1: be a very large, uphill battle for the Phillies to
7:34
Speaker 1: climb their way back into contention in the NL because
7:37
Speaker 1: it's been a really, really good league overall. So I
7:42
Speaker 1: actually don't think there's an impact here in Philadelphia, but
7:44
Speaker 1: just because of the lack of change that it almost
7:47
Speaker 1: just seems that it's a slightly different voice and somebody's
7:50
Speaker 1: had had to roll in Philadelphia. But it's also maybe
7:55
Speaker 1: one of the first heads to roll as this team
7:57
Speaker 1: is going to go through a pretty significant and ugly
8:00
Speaker 1: overhaul with the aging infrastructure that they've got around them
8:04
Speaker 1: and Dombrowski unloading all of the prospects they can to
8:07
Speaker 1: push it in the chips. So it might be the
8:10
Speaker 1: beginning of the end in Philadelphia, especially as we look
8:13
Speaker 1: back in future years. But what's your take here for
8:17
Speaker 1: the Phillies and any impacts that might be happening on
8:20
Speaker 1: the fantasy side.
8:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you could expect maybe a
8:23
Speaker 2: little different approach here and there. Mainly it was only
8:25
Speaker 2: with the club for months. Probably wasn't his plan, but
8:29
Speaker 2: you know, he's gonna take the helm. But it's not
8:33
Speaker 2: like the Red Sox where we have all this youth
8:35
Speaker 2: you're trying to lock and things like that. I mean,
8:37
Speaker 2: the average age I haven't done the math for that lineup,
8:39
Speaker 2: but it's got to be thirty or plus. And you know,
8:44
Speaker 2: from a rotation perspective, you've got some veterans there, You've
8:48
Speaker 2: really only got like an Andrew Painter who's kind of young,
8:50
Speaker 2: kind of figure things out from the lineup is like
8:53
Speaker 2: Justin Crawford, Like, it's it's really not a team that's
8:56
Speaker 2: trying to find their way. It's a team that's already established.
8:59
Speaker 2: I already knew who who they are. It's not like
9:01
Speaker 2: you're battling for positions. So yeah, I think it's kind
9:05
Speaker 2: of a status quo for them. But I do think
9:08
Speaker 2: a little signal that sends is if this team doesn't
9:11
Speaker 2: turn things around, this one might be blown up at
9:14
Speaker 2: the trade deadline. I would not be surprised at that.
9:17
Speaker 2: So if you're sitting there, you know, thinking about, you know,
9:22
Speaker 2: what are we doing at the closer position with Doran
9:25
Speaker 2: assuming he gets back, he might be gone. He might
9:28
Speaker 2: know that's a huge trade chip to have, Like you're
9:30
Speaker 2: sitting there with a guy like Trey Turner or Brandon
9:35
Speaker 2: marsh or Rice and Stott like guys that, yeah, you
9:38
Speaker 2: might be looking to move them. He's just Lozardo. Like again,
9:42
Speaker 2: there's a number of guys here that contending teams would want,
9:44
Speaker 2: and the Phillies are pretty thin in the young talent
9:48
Speaker 2: and the system. So if they're not doing anything to
9:51
Speaker 2: do this seems not get any younger, So I'm more
9:54
Speaker 2: interested from a pure baseball perspective than a fantasy and
9:57
Speaker 2: a santasy side with this move.
9:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think that's all fair. Uh Okay, Well
10:01
Speaker 1: with those kind of blood bass in both Boston and Philadelphia.
10:05
Speaker 1: Let's move on to some promotions now, because we did
10:08
Speaker 1: see some pre significant ones, including the call up of
10:11
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four number one overall pick Travis Bizana. He's
10:15
Speaker 1: a second baseman for the Cleveland Guardians. Was off to
10:18
Speaker 1: a fantastic start at Triple A in Columbus two eighty
10:21
Speaker 1: seven four twenty two, five eleven slash line a one
10:24
Speaker 1: to fifty one WRC plus that came with a seventeen
10:28
Speaker 1: point nine percent walk rate, a twenty one percent k rate,
10:33
Speaker 1: and in overall two twenty three ISO with two homers,
10:37
Speaker 1: eight stolen bases in twenty four games. He was mashing
10:40
Speaker 1: at Triple A, so certainly earned this call up.
10:43
Speaker 2: Uh.
10:43
Speaker 1: It is gonna be interesting to see how he performs
10:46
Speaker 1: because I think what his calling card is that he's
10:48
Speaker 1: been coming through the minor leagues, has been a better
10:51
Speaker 1: in real life player in terms of letting the defense,
10:55
Speaker 1: play at second base, walking a lot, getting on base swiping.
11:00
Speaker 1: But when you kind of look at the five y
11:02
Speaker 1: five rodostats, there may be a little bit lacking, I think,
11:05
Speaker 1: compared to what the actual hype and pedigree is here.
11:08
Speaker 1: So I'm still expecting a usable second basement m I
11:12
Speaker 1: for most fantasy leagues out there, but I think it's
11:15
Speaker 1: more of a caveat because you look at the projections.
11:18
Speaker 1: The projections all, I mean most of them also only
11:20
Speaker 1: have him for like ninety games the rest of the season,
11:22
Speaker 1: which is going to be low if he sticks, but
11:25
Speaker 1: most of them are putting them him right below one
11:28
Speaker 1: hundred WRC plus right in like the two to twenty
11:31
Speaker 1: batting average range, with like ten homers and five stolen bases.
11:36
Speaker 1: I'll take the over, but it kind of shows you
11:39
Speaker 1: that there's not exactly like the juice and the projections
11:42
Speaker 1: sometimes that you get from some of these big time
11:44
Speaker 1: call ups, even though the numbers have been gaudy down
11:47
Speaker 1: in Triple A for Bazana. So what's your take, What
11:50
Speaker 1: do you think he can do for the rest of
11:51
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six and what sort of level of league
11:55
Speaker 1: are you looking to pick him up in.
11:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's probably borderline twelve teamer. You should
12:02
Speaker 2: at least kick the tires if you need to. If
12:04
Speaker 2: it's an OBP league. On base percent this league, I
12:07
Speaker 2: think you absolutely have to be in here because he
12:10
Speaker 2: that's his really one issue in five by five is
12:13
Speaker 2: he's his just doesn't seem like he's gonna hit for
12:15
Speaker 2: a high average out the gate, but he does take
12:17
Speaker 2: a lot of walks, and I think that's really going
12:20
Speaker 2: to play. I think on a full season basis, he's like,
12:24
Speaker 2: he's a guy that you like squint and hope for
12:26
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, but you might settle for fifteen to fifteen
12:30
Speaker 2: type of type of production. Like if we're comping guys
12:34
Speaker 2: here this high end results like Chase Utley, low end
12:37
Speaker 2: results like Jeff McNeil with maybe a worse batting average.
12:41
Speaker 2: So I feel like at second base you get like
12:45
Speaker 2: this hype because you're not having your best hitters there generally.
12:49
Speaker 2: So I think he's got a little extra hype because
12:52
Speaker 2: that he was a number one pick. But you remember
12:53
Speaker 2: in that draft, he was not the one number one
12:55
Speaker 2: prospect by any means. Cleveland did want to save some
12:58
Speaker 2: money with that with that pick, so I think twelve teamer,
13:01
Speaker 2: he's kind of a situational dependent OBP. You definitely have
13:04
Speaker 2: to jump in anything deeper than twelve. I definitely think
13:07
Speaker 2: he's a pickup and run with because I didn't think
13:10
Speaker 2: he's gonna give you some kind of stats, but I
13:11
Speaker 2: think he's going to hurt your average this year. But
13:14
Speaker 2: I still think he has a very very bright future.
13:16
Speaker 2: So I lean a little bit more towards that Chase
13:18
Speaker 2: Utley upside than the Jeff McNeil side of things. And
13:22
Speaker 2: when I look at his profile, Okay, yeah, I think.
13:24
Speaker 1: That's all very fair. Next call up that we have
13:28
Speaker 1: is Peyton Totally making his twenty twenty six debut, and
13:31
Speaker 1: I mean the debut was fantastic. It was eleven k's
13:34
Speaker 1: against the Yankees. The second outing was a little more
13:37
Speaker 1: shaky against the Blue Jays, where the walk rate that
13:40
Speaker 1: he really struggled with last year reared its head. And
13:44
Speaker 1: it's something that hasn't reared its head in the minor
13:47
Speaker 1: league track record, but I think as you get into
13:50
Speaker 1: sharper leagues and having the cream of the crop, Batters
13:54
Speaker 1: totally has struggled to kind of stay in the zone,
13:57
Speaker 1: and we saw that last year. When he put up
13:59
Speaker 1: a ten point eight percent walk rate through his first
14:03
Speaker 1: sixteen and third innings this year, it's at just about
14:07
Speaker 1: the same level of eleven point nine percent over his
14:09
Speaker 1: first two outings. And so it is a high velocity fastball,
14:14
Speaker 1: it's a high spin fastball. It's nasty, nasty stuff out
14:18
Speaker 1: of Peyton Toley as well as just the very unique
14:21
Speaker 1: kind of approach from arm angle and armslot, and I
14:25
Speaker 1: think it really does fool a lot of players when
14:29
Speaker 1: they're in the batter's box. So the strikeout upside is
14:34
Speaker 1: immense here with Peyton Toley, who is a twenty three
14:36
Speaker 1: year old, and it could be that way for a
14:39
Speaker 1: long time, but the walks are always going to be
14:42
Speaker 1: in question. It almost kind of reminds me a little
14:43
Speaker 1: bit of like a young Robbie Ray situation here, where
14:46
Speaker 1: like you're trying to balance the level of like the
14:49
Speaker 1: stuff with the strikeout abilities and being able to hone
14:54
Speaker 1: in the control. So I think he's still a pickup
14:57
Speaker 1: everywhere you can get him because of the just the
15:00
Speaker 1: volume of the strikeouts, but the actual results might be
15:04
Speaker 1: a little lacking compared to what you were expecting, because,
15:07
Speaker 1: like I said, it's also a case where you watch
15:09
Speaker 1: totly pitch, it looks electric too, like it looks really good,
15:13
Speaker 1: and so it's gonna be I think a little bit
15:16
Speaker 1: of a gap seeing how he can look on the
15:20
Speaker 1: mound produce with the actual stuff and what the walk
15:23
Speaker 1: rate can be. I will also throw out the caveat
15:25
Speaker 1: that those outings were against the Yankees and the Blue Jays,
15:28
Speaker 1: so they were certainly stiff competition. And you know he'll
15:31
Speaker 1: be able to dial totally. We'll be able to dial
15:34
Speaker 1: that back a little bit as he faces non Ale
15:37
Speaker 1: East opponents. But what's your take on Peyton Toley in Boston?
15:40
Speaker 1: Is he another guy who's twelve teamers even shallow like
15:44
Speaker 1: all league pickups for you? Or is it somebody where
15:47
Speaker 1: you are frightened by the walk rate you've seen in
15:50
Speaker 1: the limited action in Major league baseball?
15:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I honestly not too terribly terrified with
15:56
Speaker 2: the walk rate. I think this is learning to pitch
15:58
Speaker 2: to the major league level. He did really show a
16:01
Speaker 2: lot of that in the minors, and I think it's
16:04
Speaker 2: just a matter of with such an impressive arsenal, trying
16:07
Speaker 2: to figure out how to pitch more when he hasn't
16:10
Speaker 2: had to pitch as much in the minor league as
16:11
Speaker 2: the stuff just blew everybody away, and so I think
16:14
Speaker 2: he's gonna figure that out. I think he's gonna come around,
16:16
Speaker 2: and like the game he had the Yankees was just unbelievable,
16:20
Speaker 2: and then you know, he struggled with some compand a
16:22
Speaker 2: little against the Blue Jays, and I think he's gonna
16:24
Speaker 2: kind of go in and out of that. But even
16:26
Speaker 2: when he struggled with his command that the line wasn't
16:28
Speaker 2: too terribly bad. And you take that combine with what
16:31
Speaker 2: he did against the Yankees, you're talking about a high
16:34
Speaker 2: strikeout guy, a guy that can go deep into games.
16:37
Speaker 2: He I don't think he's gonna be too terribly susceptible
16:39
Speaker 2: to the home run ball, and so I do think
16:43
Speaker 2: he's an absolute must own and twelve teamers. I'd even
16:47
Speaker 2: consider him in ten teamers and maybe go play a
16:50
Speaker 2: little bit matchup dependent in that scenario. But I think
16:54
Speaker 2: he's the kind of guy that we look next year
16:56
Speaker 2: and we're talking about him, like we talked about Treya Savage,
16:59
Speaker 2: Jacob miss Rowse Skill McClane, those kind of guys. I
17:03
Speaker 2: think totally has a chance to be that kind of
17:05
Speaker 2: guy next year, like a sophomore version where you're like, yeah,
17:10
Speaker 2: let's let's let's see if he can repeat, and then
17:12
Speaker 2: he could really launch off. But I think he's gonna
17:14
Speaker 2: be very valuable this whole year.
17:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's all very fair. I mean, and
17:18
Speaker 1: if anything, it also shows like mostly he was probably
17:22
Speaker 1: just stashed away on Ben.
17:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, he probably was not too terribly available because this
17:29
Speaker 2: isn't high prospect pitching that's already made their debut. They
17:32
Speaker 2: just need an opportunity, and the Red Sox gave him
17:35
Speaker 2: ample opportunity by injuring their entire rotation.
17:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Well, next picture we had called up in
17:41
Speaker 1: the past week was JR. Richie from the Atlanta Braves,
17:44
Speaker 1: and the debut was fantastic. Outside of the first pitch
17:47
Speaker 1: of the game, which James Wood smashed for a tater
17:51
Speaker 1: in his matchup against the Nationals, it was a fantastic
17:55
Speaker 1: seven innings tour and run seven k's under the hood
17:59
Speaker 1: was a little bit more concerning in terms of like
18:02
Speaker 1: it was a two fifty seven era off that outing,
18:04
Speaker 1: but then the FIP was a five seventy and you
18:07
Speaker 1: also had a ground ball rate that was at thirty
18:09
Speaker 1: five percent in that outing compared to you know, he
18:13
Speaker 1: was usually running ground ball rates in the high forties,
18:16
Speaker 1: right around fifty percent that we like to see. And
18:21
Speaker 1: what's been strange about Richie this year is that walks
18:25
Speaker 1: have kind of crept up into his game again, where
18:27
Speaker 1: it wasn't something that he had battled since like really
18:30
Speaker 1: way back early in his career with the Miners, but
18:33
Speaker 1: it was. It was a relatively higher walk rate at
18:38
Speaker 1: TRIPLEA to start the season. Actually, I mean it kind
18:42
Speaker 1: of started kicking in twenty twenty five as well, where
18:44
Speaker 1: it started eclipsing that double digit mark again. Tonight he
18:48
Speaker 1: pitched against the Tigers. Looked okay, I would say, four walks.
18:53
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit like what happened to Peyton Toley,
18:55
Speaker 1: where the first outing was pretty solid, the second outing
18:59
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit less. So second outing though against
19:02
Speaker 1: the Detroit Tigers, so a little bit harder matchup. This
19:05
Speaker 1: is a guy who it's below average stuff across the board,
19:10
Speaker 1: close cran of stuff plus, but it is a five
19:13
Speaker 1: pitch mix and it looks pretty good. He's got good
19:15
Speaker 1: mount confidence. I know we've both kind of been in
19:19
Speaker 1: on Jr. Richie from time to time and have slotted
19:23
Speaker 1: him in is slotted him in as projecting as like
19:26
Speaker 1: a fantasy mid rotation starter, which is where he'll probably
19:29
Speaker 1: settle for the Braves. You were also kind of hoping
19:33
Speaker 1: with this outing against the Tigers if he really shelled out,
19:36
Speaker 1: really could earn himself some extended runway, which I think
19:39
Speaker 1: is still there on the table for Atlanta, but because
19:43
Speaker 1: they have moved right all the Lopez of the bullpen there.
19:47
Speaker 1: But what's your take on Jr.
19:48
Speaker 2: Richie?
19:49
Speaker 1: What do you like from him going forward? And do
19:51
Speaker 1: you think he can overcome these walks just the way
19:54
Speaker 1: that Totally has.
19:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I'm gonna be a little bit lower
19:58
Speaker 2: on Richie than I am on Totally. I think I
20:00
Speaker 2: think Richie doesn't have the same stuff that a guy
20:03
Speaker 2: like Totally does. He uses a more pitch ability with
20:07
Speaker 2: a deeper pitch mix. He's more of a mid nineties
20:12
Speaker 2: or low nineties velocity type of guy, And so you're
20:15
Speaker 2: looking at the guy whos gonna be more crafty trying
20:17
Speaker 2: to get the most out of the stuff. If the
20:19
Speaker 2: walks do creep up, which they really kind of have
20:22
Speaker 2: the last few years compared to early in the minors,
20:25
Speaker 2: that's gonna be a problem. He does a great job
20:28
Speaker 2: of keeping the ball down, that's always positive, but he
20:32
Speaker 2: also doesn't fit the Braves prototype, which is really interesting
20:35
Speaker 2: if you think about all the guys they've kind of
20:37
Speaker 2: brought through, which are these kind of power pitchers, they
20:41
Speaker 2: can you know, really have a nasty breaking stuff. Richie
20:44
Speaker 2: is just not quite the same. But I think I
20:48
Speaker 2: had to say he's more than the Brice Elder mold,
20:50
Speaker 2: but that's probably a disservice to Richie the way that
20:53
Speaker 2: we've talked about Elder on this podcast before. But I
20:56
Speaker 2: do think, you know, you're upside with Richie long term
21:00
Speaker 2: is maybe like a sunny Gray type, which is, you know,
21:03
Speaker 2: a compliment on this podcast because I think he can
21:08
Speaker 2: outperform his his FIP and things like that, just because
21:11
Speaker 2: he can be crafty. But he's gonna settle in more
21:14
Speaker 2: as that like three or four type of guy than
21:17
Speaker 2: a you know, one or two. And that's where Gray's
21:20
Speaker 2: always been like, hey, if he can get a little
21:21
Speaker 2: more of strikeouts, do a little bit more, he can
21:24
Speaker 2: sneak into that conversation with that two three, and I
21:26
Speaker 2: think Richie is probably gonna start that three four is
21:29
Speaker 2: what I'm projecting from. So nothing not bad, but it's
21:31
Speaker 2: not like a guy that I'm like running out gonna
21:34
Speaker 2: gonna shove in my lineup. I'm not probably adding him
21:36
Speaker 2: on twelve teamers at this point. I also I'm not
21:39
Speaker 2: certain what the rest of the year is gonna look
21:41
Speaker 2: like that Braves rotation. They've got so many different options,
21:43
Speaker 2: so many guys trying to get bath and be healthy.
21:46
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of been watched and see with with
21:48
Speaker 2: Richie here.
21:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I might be a tick higher than
21:52
Speaker 1: you that. Like, I think I would pick him up
21:53
Speaker 1: in twelve teamers just to get the upside here, because
21:58
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no reason why they can't move Grant
22:01
Speaker 1: Holmes to the bullpen, and certainly, like Bryce Elder, the
22:05
Speaker 1: runs starting to already on one wine there. So even
22:09
Speaker 1: with Spencer Strider coming back, I'm not terribly concerned because
22:12
Speaker 1: you could also see them going to a six man
22:14
Speaker 1: rotation as they want to keep Chris Sale healthy, and
22:18
Speaker 1: you know they're already running away with this division. They
22:21
Speaker 1: can already start like making plans for October and starting
22:25
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're getting everybody in the best
22:29
Speaker 1: set of health as they can down the stretch. So
22:32
Speaker 1: I think I like Richie for like a volume play
22:36
Speaker 1: a little bit more too, Like I think what you
22:38
Speaker 1: saw on the first seven innings firm the first outing
22:41
Speaker 1: is really encouraging better in quality start leagues as well too.
22:45
Speaker 1: But I mean the wins will be there in five
22:46
Speaker 1: by five Rodo certainly. I think you're probably looking at
22:51
Speaker 1: a little bit more middling rates. But like, if you
22:54
Speaker 1: just need a guy who you know you can post,
22:57
Speaker 1: Richie can go out and do that. Even if the
22:59
Speaker 1: stuff isn't dazzling, what actually kind of helps is it's
23:02
Speaker 1: a it's an interesting rotation Atlanta. There's a lot of
23:06
Speaker 1: different arms thrown from a lot of different slots, throwing
23:09
Speaker 1: a lot of different stuff at teams that like it's
23:13
Speaker 1: a little bit more of like it's a you hear
23:15
Speaker 1: about this when you're watching baseball a lot more from
23:19
Speaker 1: like the announcers and especially like guys that used to
23:22
Speaker 1: play in or work in the color. Is that when
23:24
Speaker 1: you see a rotation or a pitching staff that's coming
23:27
Speaker 1: at you from a Medusa's like like just like all
23:32
Speaker 1: sorts of arms all over the place, it really can
23:37
Speaker 1: be unsettling and not allow you to get into a rhythm,
23:40
Speaker 1: and you wonder if maybe that could play up here
23:42
Speaker 1: for Atlanta going forward, where the arms might actually outstrip
23:46
Speaker 1: some of what their periphials say they could do because
23:48
Speaker 1: as a staff they just execute all together very well.
23:53
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think still with that, like be a
23:56
Speaker 1: little bit more cautious than these other arms we're talking about,
23:59
Speaker 1: just because it could disappear pretty quickly on Richie given
24:03
Speaker 1: the lack of stuff there. I mean, I just realized
24:07
Speaker 1: all these guys were going to talk about have walk
24:09
Speaker 1: great issues, which is kind of funny considering they all
24:11
Speaker 1: got called up because the next one's in that same
24:13
Speaker 1: boat too. Connor pre Lept from the Minnesota Twins. He
24:16
Speaker 1: is a twenty five year old Southpaw that had put
24:19
Speaker 1: up a two thirty ERA over fifteen and two thirds
24:22
Speaker 1: innings at Saint Paul before his promotion. But just like
24:26
Speaker 1: these other guys, a double digit walk rate. And this
24:29
Speaker 1: is a funky profile because it's like all sliders, it's
24:33
Speaker 1: forty seven percent sliders is ways thrown so far in
24:35
Speaker 1: the big leagues over nine innings put up a four ERA,
24:38
Speaker 1: but the fifth is fantastic at a one sixty eight
24:42
Speaker 1: It's also kind of strange because, like you'd think the
24:45
Speaker 1: guys would be able to time up this slider and
24:48
Speaker 1: read it eventually, but it is nasty, nasty, nasty when
24:52
Speaker 1: it's coming out of that slot that he's got on
24:54
Speaker 1: the left hand side. So he's never kind of gone
24:58
Speaker 1: terribly deep into innings, but it's a lot of strikeouts
25:00
Speaker 1: every stop that he's made. So what's your take here
25:03
Speaker 1: on Connor Prelip of the Minnesota Twins.
25:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, he probably couldn't be further from JR. Ritchie as
25:08
Speaker 2: far as like the type of pitcher he is. Like,
25:10
Speaker 2: he's got some nasty stuff. We talked about some walk
25:13
Speaker 2: crates with issues with Richie, but I think Prelips is
25:15
Speaker 2: definitely more legitimate. And I think, you know, he's kind
25:21
Speaker 2: of the kind of guy that, like, if you can
25:22
Speaker 2: figure it all out, it could be really really exciting.
25:25
Speaker 2: But I'm I'm just I'm not too treble and drink here,
25:28
Speaker 2: because you're gonna have whip issues, you have walk issues.
25:31
Speaker 2: He's not gonna go deep into game. I was looking
25:34
Speaker 2: at his minor league track record and I didn't total up.
25:37
Speaker 2: He's probably about like thirty forty minor league games in
25:41
Speaker 2: his career. Do you know how many times he's gone
25:43
Speaker 2: past five innings in his minor league career? Maybe twice once? Okay,
25:49
Speaker 2: so it was the last game of last year, and
25:53
Speaker 2: so like I'm sitting here, and you know, he's a
25:56
Speaker 2: guy that is is gonna use a lot of pitches
25:59
Speaker 2: workaround guys. So like, if you're in a wins league,
26:02
Speaker 2: even a quality starts league, like he just doesn't have
26:04
Speaker 2: the value there because you look at the rates of
26:07
Speaker 2: the strikeouts and so it's gonna be a little bit
26:09
Speaker 2: of a minus there. And plus the Twins is not
26:12
Speaker 2: necessarily the most like stable team for those types of wins.
26:17
Speaker 2: So I think he's an interesting guy to watch. The
26:19
Speaker 2: strikeout upside is real, but I think there's enough other
26:22
Speaker 2: concerns here that I'm just like, yeah, he's gonna give
26:26
Speaker 2: you a Blake Snell vibes type thing, and that's the
26:29
Speaker 2: like the high end. Hope they all works out, but
26:31
Speaker 2: you might be looking more like, you know, low end
26:35
Speaker 2: kind of guys of like an AJ Puck or something
26:38
Speaker 2: like that. The strikes out a lot and it's just
26:39
Speaker 2: all kind of all over the place. So like, I
26:41
Speaker 2: think I'm not too intrigue here, but it could be
26:44
Speaker 2: fun to watch. Like the stuff's pretty nasty. He's a
26:46
Speaker 2: high leverage reliever at some point.
26:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, honestly, he's also like the type
26:51
Speaker 1: of arm where like the Tampa Bay Rays are absolutely
26:54
Speaker 1: jealous that like the Twins have him, because he's like
26:58
Speaker 1: a guy that can go through your four innings and
27:00
Speaker 1: like an opener or follower kind of like role or
27:04
Speaker 1: as like a bridge to the closer. So I think
27:09
Speaker 1: if the Twins can get creative with him, he can
27:11
Speaker 1: be a nasty real life player from fantasy. I think
27:15
Speaker 1: there's still there's still usability because the rates will be good.
27:18
Speaker 1: It's just that you've got to be prepared for it
27:21
Speaker 1: to be kind of relievery and kind of you know,
27:24
Speaker 1: he might get to one hundred issh innings with one
27:27
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty k's and that'll play in a lot
27:29
Speaker 1: of leagues. Just kind of know what you're getting into
27:32
Speaker 1: that you're not getting a traditional starter out of prelip. Yeah,
27:36
Speaker 1: last one we have just made his debut this afternoon.
27:39
Speaker 1: Yankees right hander Elmer Rodriguez, who I mean, the rates
27:44
Speaker 1: of the walks have been a little more muted over
27:46
Speaker 1: the past couple of years in the miners where he
27:49
Speaker 1: got finally below double digits. But today against the Rangers
27:53
Speaker 1: he went four innings, allowed two runs, four walks in
27:56
Speaker 1: three k's. So this is also a situation where Elmer
27:59
Speaker 1: Rodrie Guess has probably only got two more starts because
28:03
Speaker 1: both Garrett Cole and Carlos Rodon are at double a rehabbing.
28:07
Speaker 1: I think Carlos or Cole's like window for rehabbing is
28:12
Speaker 1: up in a couple of weeks. It's gonna be pretty
28:15
Speaker 1: quick because he got down in the miners right away
28:18
Speaker 1: when the season kicked off, which started a little bit
28:22
Speaker 1: after the MLB season. So also I mean something to
28:25
Speaker 1: throw out there because I did the Elmer Cruz piece
28:28
Speaker 1: or the Elmer Rodriguez piece for baseball perspectives today. And
28:33
Speaker 1: the other thing to call out is if you've got
28:35
Speaker 1: Ryan Weathers or Will Warren, even though they're pitching very well,
28:39
Speaker 1: be careful because the Yankees have too many pitchers and
28:42
Speaker 1: so when Cole and Rodin come back, that will either
28:47
Speaker 1: bump or push somebody to a six minute or push
28:51
Speaker 1: them to a six man rotation. In terms of Weather's
28:53
Speaker 1: and Warren. You know, I don't know if they're gonna
28:56
Speaker 1: bump either of them out of the actual rotation. I
28:58
Speaker 1: think they'll probably go to it six man just to
29:01
Speaker 1: protect Schlitzler's arm and protect Weather's or arm Cole's arm. Honestly,
29:06
Speaker 1: all the arms, they're all kind of banged up. But
29:09
Speaker 1: let's get back to Rodriguez here where the focus was coming.
29:12
Speaker 1: It's a pretty solid profile in terms of a six
29:15
Speaker 1: foot four frame, nice little one to twenty seven era
29:19
Speaker 1: over twenty one and a third innings down at Triple
29:22
Speaker 1: A before the call up, great ground ball rate. I
29:26
Speaker 1: like this arm a lot. This is a development win
29:28
Speaker 1: for the Yankees as he came over in the narvaas trade.
29:31
Speaker 1: I like him long term. Maybe it's someone though I
29:37
Speaker 1: think that, like, even if he looks okay in these
29:39
Speaker 1: couple of starts, you could probably still leave him to
29:42
Speaker 1: the waiver wire and then just kind of keep track
29:44
Speaker 1: of like how the rest of the season's trending. Certainly
29:47
Speaker 1: love him as a big upside play for fantasy dynasty
29:51
Speaker 1: leagues out there, keeper leagues where there's an element of
29:55
Speaker 1: I think twenty twenty seven is really the year for
29:58
Speaker 1: Elmer Rodriguez. But what's your takeout with him joining the
30:01
Speaker 1: Bronx Bombers.
30:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think you're right that I don't
30:05
Speaker 2: have a lot in this year for him. I just
30:08
Speaker 2: there's too much, too many arms there. This is a
30:11
Speaker 2: team that wants to be in the playoffs. You know,
30:13
Speaker 2: he's just kind of getting a spot start here. See
30:15
Speaker 2: kind of how things go. I mean, maybe he'll get
30:18
Speaker 2: one or two more more goes at it. We'll see.
30:21
Speaker 2: The walk rate is concerning. That's probably the biggest concern here.
30:25
Speaker 2: His stuff's not like incredibly overpowering, but it's strong. He
30:29
Speaker 2: has a really good pitch mix. So I think he's
30:31
Speaker 2: a really projectable kind of guy. I don't think he's
30:34
Speaker 2: got high end upside. I think that's the thing is
30:36
Speaker 2: on a high end upside by any means, this is
30:38
Speaker 2: kind of a mid level guy. And the question is
30:42
Speaker 2: how well does that play in Yankee Stadium with the
30:47
Speaker 2: ground balls. It should should play well. He's never never
30:51
Speaker 2: had home er issues throughout the Miners. You don't look
30:54
Speaker 2: too close. There was one seven games stretch where he
30:57
Speaker 2: had a little bit of a blip, but besides that,
31:00
Speaker 2: it's been pretty pretty gush aarn good. So I like
31:03
Speaker 2: the profile but I do definitely think this is the
31:06
Speaker 2: kind of guy that like he can establish himself and
31:08
Speaker 2: just be like a fantasy like four consistently, consistently, consistently,
31:13
Speaker 2: and you're not gonna you're gonna set them forget about him,
31:15
Speaker 2: and you're never gonna actually target him, but then you're
31:17
Speaker 2: gonna end up with them on your team all the time.
31:19
Speaker 2: Like That's that's why I think you can see long term,
31:21
Speaker 2: but for twenty six, it's just to have of a
31:23
Speaker 2: kind of stash him watch him. I just don't think
31:26
Speaker 2: he's gonna make a big enough impact because the Yankees
31:29
Speaker 2: have enough arms. Maybe he'll get a bullpen play later
31:32
Speaker 2: in the season.
31:33
Speaker 1: Is a long, long arm, Oh yeah yeah, And I
31:36
Speaker 1: mean I think he'll probably rise to prominence in the
31:38
Speaker 1: playoffs two in terms of getting some run in the bullpen,
31:41
Speaker 1: where his stuff can especially play up. Because I think
31:45
Speaker 1: the other factor here too is that if there were
31:47
Speaker 1: enough long term injuries to actually open up a spot
31:51
Speaker 1: and like sixty day il Stince where necessary, you see
31:55
Speaker 1: Carlos lagron Hey take over. And that's the more exciting
31:59
Speaker 1: arm and the only reason legron Hay didn't get promoted
32:01
Speaker 1: over Rodriguez here is that legron Hay doesn't have that
32:05
Speaker 1: forty man spot, and so once legron Hay's on the
32:09
Speaker 1: forty man, I think he moves ahead of Rodriguez in
32:12
Speaker 1: terms of the Yankees' future plans as well. So some
32:14
Speaker 1: of them to keep in mind there, well, let's stay
32:17
Speaker 1: in the Bronx because we're gonna start our injuries and
32:22
Speaker 1: if you had Giancarlo Stanton making it to May on
32:25
Speaker 1: your bingo board, you missed. So he's down with a
32:29
Speaker 1: calf strain. Doesn't seem like anything major, honestly, at this point,
32:33
Speaker 1: it seems a little bit like where the Yankees are
32:36
Speaker 1: kind of massaging him because I mean they're only a
32:39
Speaker 1: game and a half up on the Rays right now,
32:40
Speaker 1: but they're in pretty good position for a good playoff
32:45
Speaker 1: Berth run down the stretch. So in Stanton instead, the
32:49
Speaker 1: Yankees have brought up Jason Dominguez, the enigmatic martian who
32:56
Speaker 1: over one hundred and he already had one hundred and
32:59
Speaker 1: six plate appearances and triple A. Wow, the month is
33:02
Speaker 1: flying by. So before that, before he was call up,
33:05
Speaker 1: he actually like, this is one of the better performances
33:08
Speaker 1: we've seen off him in the minors. It was a
33:10
Speaker 1: three twenty six four fifteen four seventy eight slash line.
33:14
Speaker 1: This' a one forty WRC plus with three homers and
33:17
Speaker 1: eight stolen bases down at Scranton Wilksparre. You're the hitter guy.
33:23
Speaker 1: What do we doing here with Jayson Diminguez? Because I mean,
33:27
Speaker 1: he looked pretty good in Triple A and if he
33:29
Speaker 1: can play well, there's the ability for him to stick around.
33:35
Speaker 1: I think that there is a glimmer of hope to
33:38
Speaker 1: be able to find some platoon opportunities and give Aaron
33:44
Speaker 1: Judge some rest here and there, Stanton some rest here
33:47
Speaker 1: and there. What do you do with Jayson Diminguez?
33:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Dimingos is absolutely pick up. He's a
33:53
Speaker 2: guy you should have on your radar. The reason he
33:56
Speaker 2: wasn't with the team is they want him to have
33:57
Speaker 2: full playing time and that's what they want. They wanted
33:59
Speaker 2: to develop he is a platoon bat right now. I
34:02
Speaker 2: think that that's the biggest issue is he does not
34:06
Speaker 2: hit lefties, and at least in the majors he has not,
34:10
Speaker 2: and I think that's what they really wanted him to
34:11
Speaker 2: work on. So I think when he's up, he's gonna
34:14
Speaker 2: play the majority of the time, he's probably gonna, you know,
34:16
Speaker 2: get pin hit for here and there. But I think
34:20
Speaker 2: we're seeing this more and more in the major league
34:21
Speaker 2: game today, of really picking the matchups, really playing the splits,
34:25
Speaker 2: things like that. I don't know if you felt it,
34:27
Speaker 2: but I felt it with my fantasy teams this year
34:29
Speaker 2: a little bit more, where like, Man, I've got these
34:31
Speaker 2: really good hitters, but they are just not starting every day.
34:34
Speaker 2: My lineups are not full all the time for whatever reason.
34:37
Speaker 2: I feel like it's only outfielders. But that's maybe a
34:40
Speaker 2: different discussion. But I think that's the question, is that
34:44
Speaker 2: he's a He's definitely an own in twelve teamers. He
34:46
Speaker 2: can put up a lot of good numbers. I really
34:48
Speaker 2: want to see if he can hit lefties. And if
34:50
Speaker 2: he can hit lefties and he gets a run at them,
34:53
Speaker 2: then I think we're in for a treat. I'm a
34:56
Speaker 2: little worried that that's not gonna quite happen. He hasn't
35:00
Speaker 2: He hasn't shown me enough to show that he's gonna happen.
35:02
Speaker 2: But for now, you gotta gotta get him, gotta pick
35:04
Speaker 2: him up. Uh, there's too much potential there to not
35:07
Speaker 2: to not buy in and have him on your roster
35:09
Speaker 2: and find out because if you don't, somebody else will.
35:12
Speaker 2: And this is one of those bat that has a
35:14
Speaker 2: huge upside if it all clicks.
35:16
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's all very fair. And the other
35:19
Speaker 1: thing is, I mean health is a fleeting thing for
35:22
Speaker 1: gian Carlos Stanton and so the Yankees in general. Yeah.
35:26
Speaker 1: So I mean, even if Stanton gets back, it could
35:30
Speaker 1: be pretty quick that he goes back down or you know,
35:33
Speaker 1: tweak something in this rehab process on the calf. So
35:36
Speaker 1: something to keep in mind that, like, even if you're
35:40
Speaker 1: a little unsure of where Domingez might get the long
35:42
Speaker 1: term playing time, it can open up relatively quickie quickly there.
35:46
Speaker 1: And it's encouraging to see that he started really well
35:49
Speaker 1: at Triple A. That like shows me a guy that's motivated,
35:52
Speaker 1: shows me a guy that isn't discouraged by what's going on.
35:55
Speaker 1: And you know, he's still only twenty three, even though
35:58
Speaker 1: he's been around forever, so there's still plenty of runway
36:01
Speaker 1: for him to develop and find his game in New York.
36:04
Speaker 1: So I'm with you, all right, next injury we have,
36:07
Speaker 1: we're going back to Boston, Garrett Crochet. This afternoon was
36:10
Speaker 1: placed on the IL with left shoulder inflammation. It sounds
36:15
Speaker 1: like everybody's being very mum about this in terms of
36:18
Speaker 1: the actual severity that it sounds like it's going to
36:22
Speaker 1: be a pretty short stay on the IL, just the
36:25
Speaker 1: standard fifteen days a two week little vacation here for
36:28
Speaker 1: Garrett Crochet, which is I mean, it's also surprising because
36:32
Speaker 1: within his you know, the tumultuous ten era outing on
36:37
Speaker 1: the thirteenth and the five era outing against the Tigers
36:42
Speaker 1: on the nineteenth, bounced back against Baltimore in his latest outing,
36:46
Speaker 1: put up seven k's over six innings to pick up
36:48
Speaker 1: a win. So obviously you're not cutting Garrett Crochet. But
36:53
Speaker 1: what do you make of Garrett Crochet going forward? Because
36:56
Speaker 1: I mean, there's some places he won as a first
36:57
Speaker 1: round pick, he certainly was an anchor for all the
37:01
Speaker 1: rotations that people drafted him into for fantasy purposes. Are
37:08
Speaker 1: you counting on him being in that number one when
37:10
Speaker 1: he returns or is all of the stuff between the
37:12
Speaker 1: Boston turnover and his less than sellar performance got you
37:18
Speaker 1: knocking him down a couple of pegs in terms of
37:21
Speaker 1: relevance for fantasy.
37:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you speak out both sides of my
37:24
Speaker 2: mouth here. If you own him, you have to treat
37:26
Speaker 2: them like a number one, because if you don't, you're
37:29
Speaker 2: already lost because you vested on a draft capital in him.
37:32
Speaker 2: But if you're looking from more of an objective perspective,
37:36
Speaker 2: you do have to bring him down a level. That
37:39
Speaker 2: Minnesota game, his velocity was noticeably down. And that's that's concerning. Now.
37:47
Speaker 2: Is this a dead arm, a tired arm, or something
37:50
Speaker 2: like that. Cruchet has never really had issues there, and
37:53
Speaker 2: so that's what has me a little bit more concerned.
37:55
Speaker 2: He does have that kind of whip arm action going on.
37:59
Speaker 2: So I'm like, I'm a little leery here. You just
38:03
Speaker 2: you're stuck. You're absolutely stuck here. But this, even for
38:06
Speaker 2: a guy like me, who like sometimes loves these by opportunities,
38:09
Speaker 2: I don't I don't want to. I'm not buying Crochet
38:11
Speaker 2: here because he's also not the kind of guy that
38:14
Speaker 2: when I worry that if his stuff is not the
38:17
Speaker 2: with the velocity that he needs it to be, I
38:19
Speaker 2: think he becomes a lot more hittable. That's what the
38:22
Speaker 2: worry I have for a guy like Crochet, And with
38:24
Speaker 2: the Red Sox not playing so well and having a
38:27
Speaker 2: number of other options. They're gonna baby him. They're gonna
38:30
Speaker 2: need to make sure this guy is gonna be healthy
38:33
Speaker 2: when he gets back, so whatever it takes UH for
38:36
Speaker 2: him to get healthy. So I'm concerned. I'm Nick knocking
38:39
Speaker 2: him down a few ticks. Maybe it's just a blip
38:41
Speaker 2: and maybe he just has a little uh tassio in
38:44
Speaker 2: my dead arm thing going on. But I don't I
38:48
Speaker 2: don't feel great about this one.
38:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you want to talk about not feeling great.
38:52
Speaker 1: Let's get to our next injury. We're going back to
38:55
Speaker 1: New York, but we're going to Queens to talk about
38:58
Speaker 1: shortstop Francisco and Door going down with a calf strain,
39:02
Speaker 1: just the way Juan Soto did the other week. But
39:04
Speaker 1: this one sounds like a doozy. This one sounds like
39:07
Speaker 1: one of the Mike Trout tier of calf strains, where
39:11
Speaker 1: like that one calf strain that knocked Mike Tread out
39:15
Speaker 1: for like half of the season a couple of seasons ago.
39:18
Speaker 1: That seems like what Lindor is dealing with. This is
39:20
Speaker 1: coming on the heels of dealing with a hamdmate injury.
39:24
Speaker 1: And I will say that although my teams are struggling.
39:28
Speaker 1: I don't have Lindor anywhere because we called it out
39:31
Speaker 1: when the first injury happened with the hamdmate, like stay
39:34
Speaker 1: far far away, because the met's had every reason to
39:37
Speaker 1: get Lindor back on the field quickly, because you can
39:40
Speaker 1: actually see it, like the defense played like he was
39:43
Speaker 1: incredible in the field while he was on the field
39:45
Speaker 1: before this calf injury, even if the hitting stats were
39:50
Speaker 1: very weak in terms of like he was clearly not
39:53
Speaker 1: impacting the ball the way that he typically has. Thirty
39:57
Speaker 1: thirty is certainly not happening this year because of the
40:00
Speaker 1: half injury, but it wasn't gonna happen because of that
40:01
Speaker 1: handmade injury anyway. So you can also see like he
40:06
Speaker 1: was more passive at the plate too. His walk rate
40:08
Speaker 1: went up because I think Lindor knew he didn't have
40:10
Speaker 1: the same sort of strength. So honestly, if you're in
40:15
Speaker 1: a dire situation, you might be up a creek to
40:18
Speaker 1: where you might be cutting Francisco Lindor right.
40:21
Speaker 2: It's it's kind of the Christian Yellich discussion that we
40:24
Speaker 2: have of like, yeah, like there's some other warning signs here.
40:29
Speaker 2: I think Lindor has a better performance overall, but the
40:32
Speaker 2: handmate was always a concern, and this one just feels
40:35
Speaker 2: like it's gonna be like three months. I don't know
40:37
Speaker 2: why that's the number, this possible head just feels that way.
40:39
Speaker 2: Like you read enough injury reports that just feels questionable.
40:44
Speaker 2: And again, if the like at that point, if the
40:46
Speaker 2: Mets aren't in it, they are not rushing him back
40:49
Speaker 2: like they're they're not messing around with with Lindor. So
40:54
Speaker 2: I'm I'm concerned. You you got to bear him on
40:57
Speaker 2: your eye. L You shouldn't be just releasing him, but
41:01
Speaker 2: you got to be planning around around him. At this point.
41:04
Speaker 2: You can't can't expect to have him a long time.
41:06
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll see Bobachette short stuff at this point, I
41:08
Speaker 2: don't I don't know. Maybe that's gonna knock a shed
41:12
Speaker 2: out of some of the things he needs to get
41:14
Speaker 2: figured out. Early indicators are we're gonna gt Ronny Mauritio
41:18
Speaker 2: quad a all Star, so we'll see if maybe he
41:22
Speaker 2: can finally break out of things. But more or less,
41:24
Speaker 2: this is just more of subtraction in Queen's.
41:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I mean, I think you just also
41:28
Speaker 1: layer in the this Met's team is not going to
41:31
Speaker 1: the playoffs. I can I'm feel confident about saying that.
41:34
Speaker 1: On April twenty ninth, they're ten and nineteen, they had
41:37
Speaker 1: that twelve game losing streak. Things are falling apart. The
41:41
Speaker 1: rotation is a mass behind McLean and Holmes and it's
41:45
Speaker 1: just not coming together this year. And so that's gonna
41:49
Speaker 1: be a factor, I think, because they still have how
41:52
Speaker 1: many years of Lindor do they still have left?
41:54
Speaker 2: They have two four five.
41:57
Speaker 1: Years of Lindor left, and so they need to start
42:00
Speaker 1: almost rounding the corner to twenty twenty seven now to
42:04
Speaker 1: see what they can bring back in terms of building
42:08
Speaker 1: the squad up and getting the right guys in place,
42:10
Speaker 1: and if that requires a lengthy absence from Francisco Lindor,
42:16
Speaker 1: that might be where the Mets go. The other kind
42:18
Speaker 1: of side of that coin is Lindor is on a
42:21
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame track, so he might really also push
42:24
Speaker 1: to get himself back on the field, knowing that like
42:26
Speaker 1: accumulating numbers is going to be huge for him and
42:29
Speaker 1: especially for war totals, the defense will play because because
42:33
Speaker 1: he's so amazing with the glove, So it could become
42:35
Speaker 1: an interesting diconomy during the rest of the season, as
42:39
Speaker 1: we see what the Mets and Lindor do with his
42:42
Speaker 1: health going forward. Speaking of health or the lack thereof,
42:46
Speaker 1: let's talk Texas Rangers outfielder White Lengthfort. Because he hit
42:49
Speaker 1: the il now with a flexer strain in his right arm,
42:54
Speaker 1: I believe. Let me make sure I get that right.
42:59
Speaker 2: Yes, I believe.
43:01
Speaker 1: So, I'm reading this report and it's not exactly telling
43:04
Speaker 1: me off the bat. If you find it, you can
43:07
Speaker 1: tell me. But he also already dealt with a quad strain,
43:10
Speaker 1: He's dealt with oblique strains, He's dealt with hamstring strains.
43:14
Speaker 1: All the talent in the world is there. I love
43:16
Speaker 1: White Langford from a talent like perspective, but we're now
43:20
Speaker 1: looking at a situation where actually he played back to
43:24
Speaker 1: back one hundred and thirty four games in twenty twenty
43:27
Speaker 1: four and twenty twenty five. Honestly, right about on that
43:30
Speaker 1: pace that if you take the zips rest of the
43:32
Speaker 1: season projection on Fangrass, that would put him at one
43:35
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five games right now, which would be
43:37
Speaker 1: kind of funny if you just like one hundred and
43:39
Speaker 1: thirty four games every season but at this point, like
43:44
Speaker 1: I've loved Langford, but I've got to start ratcheting back
43:49
Speaker 1: his projection going into every season, because I mean, this
43:52
Speaker 1: is starting to shape up to be like Byron Buxton
43:55
Speaker 1: two point zero, where I don't know if you can
43:57
Speaker 1: count on more than one hundred and forty games out
43:59
Speaker 1: of Langford just between his build and especially because it's
44:04
Speaker 1: been soft tissue, soft tissue, soft tissue that like, I
44:07
Speaker 1: don't know if it's just like you've run into guys
44:10
Speaker 1: every once in a while where the soft tissue is
44:13
Speaker 1: made out of paper tissue or tissue paper, and so
44:17
Speaker 1: is Lankford one of those guys? Or is he somebody
44:19
Speaker 1: who you just see a lot of strange fluke injuries.
44:23
Speaker 1: You still are counting on him putting it all together
44:25
Speaker 1: because he is only twenty four, doesn't turn twenty five
44:28
Speaker 1: until November, very young player, lots of career left in
44:32
Speaker 1: front of him. So which way are you leaning here
44:36
Speaker 1: on White Langford?
44:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm probably leaving in the pessimistic way just a
44:41
Speaker 2: little bit, because You're right, these don't feel like freak injuries.
44:46
Speaker 2: These aren't like hit by pitch, broken bone type of things.
44:50
Speaker 2: They it's not I got to fight with the telephone
44:53
Speaker 2: and the dugout like it's these are all like odd
44:56
Speaker 2: like this is an odd ball, this is like a
44:57
Speaker 2: pitcher injury like this, this is not a nor type
45:00
Speaker 2: of thing. And so it gets concerning to the degrees,
45:03
Speaker 2: like can he play on the field, stay on the
45:05
Speaker 2: field if you could guarantee me one hundred and thirty
45:07
Speaker 2: four games kind of Chris Chris Davis style here with
45:11
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty five games, one hundred and thirty
45:13
Speaker 2: four games every year. I'm fine with that for whyat Langford,
45:16
Speaker 2: at the way he produces, because he could be a
45:19
Speaker 2: twenty twenty guy. He was a twenty twenty eight guy
45:21
Speaker 2: last year in that profile. The thing is, it seems
45:24
Speaker 2: like the skills are starting to back up a little too.
45:26
Speaker 2: The plate approach dropped off, Like I worry that he's
45:31
Speaker 2: already kind of peaked, and then the injuries are going
45:33
Speaker 2: to start to add up and he's going to struggle
45:34
Speaker 2: to kind of keep up. And so I'm a little
45:37
Speaker 2: pessimistic at this time because it just feels like he
45:40
Speaker 2: can never be healthy enough to get a full run,
45:43
Speaker 2: and so I'm I'm kind of fading and if somebody
45:46
Speaker 2: else wants to jump on for the long term dynasty play,
45:51
Speaker 2: I'll probably let them and for a single season. Let's
45:55
Speaker 2: hope that this resolves himself and he can still deliver.
46:02
Speaker 2: At some point we're gonna get we will probably have
46:03
Speaker 2: a Buckston scenario where he is cheap and it becomes
46:06
Speaker 2: a deal again, but it's probably gonna be a few
46:08
Speaker 2: years before that takes place. YEP.
46:10
Speaker 1: I think that's all very fair. Next injer we have
46:13
Speaker 1: where we are headed to Cincinnati to talk about Aoheneo
46:16
Speaker 1: Suarez who's been placed on the IL with an oblique strain.
46:20
Speaker 1: And here the latest update also on Rodeo Wire for
46:25
Speaker 1: Aohinia Suarez is Terry Francone said Wednesday that his left
46:30
Speaker 1: oblique remains tender. Well, I mean, he just went on
46:33
Speaker 1: the ile like five days ago with those oblique strains,
46:36
Speaker 1: so I'm not terribly surprised considering these The oblique strains
46:39
Speaker 1: usually take four to six weeks before people finally make
46:44
Speaker 1: their way back to the actual diamond. It has been
46:49
Speaker 1: a tough start though for Aohineo Suarez. Slash line of
46:52
Speaker 1: two thirty one three hundred three sixty three with three homers,
46:57
Speaker 1: the savant page is grody, it's ice cold, and so
47:03
Speaker 1: you add into that an oblique strain. You add into
47:07
Speaker 1: that he's thirty four years old. I was actually trying
47:10
Speaker 1: to look to see if he's a historically slow starter.
47:12
Speaker 1: He's actually not. He's just out and out streaky.
47:16
Speaker 2: So are we Yeah, he's a streaky guy.
47:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, So is this does this strike you as an
47:22
Speaker 1: ao Henriet suarez patented streakiness that like hit before he
47:27
Speaker 1: went down with this oblik strain, or is this actually
47:30
Speaker 1: maybe the beginning of the end because he's thirty four
47:33
Speaker 1: years old, There's a lot going on, and especially like
47:37
Speaker 1: the Reds are fantastic right now, They've also got like
47:41
Speaker 1: a lot of players that they've already had struggles kind
47:43
Speaker 1: of finding playing time for, so they're going to take
47:46
Speaker 1: it easy, I think with Suarez considering it's not like
47:49
Speaker 1: he was carrying their team before he went down. So
47:52
Speaker 1: what's your concern level on Suarez here for the rest
47:55
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty six?
47:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not overly concerned. Like once he gets back,
48:00
Speaker 2: it does just feel like the streakiness of you Heneo Soros, Like, yeah,
48:03
Speaker 2: I get last seasons A forty nine Homer season, and
48:07
Speaker 2: I feel like we just ended up on the like
48:08
Speaker 2: a hot streak almost all season. But like historically this
48:11
Speaker 2: is gonna guy that just goes ice cold for a
48:14
Speaker 2: month and then gets red hot for two months and
48:16
Speaker 2: ice cold for a month, like is end of season
48:19
Speaker 2: lines the only thing you have to look at, And
48:20
Speaker 2: it's a thirty homer guy that hits two thirty. That's
48:24
Speaker 2: pretty much who he is. And I think that's probably
48:28
Speaker 2: what we should have expected. You know, he's not a
48:30
Speaker 2: big injury risk. I think the guy's basically played five
48:32
Speaker 2: straight seasons without an injury, and if I go, I
48:35
Speaker 2: guess even twenty twenty, it's probably like more like seven
48:37
Speaker 2: or or eight seasons straight. Like this guy is a
48:41
Speaker 2: you know, model of health. So I'm not terribly concerned.
48:45
Speaker 2: I will put him on the eyel I'll wait, he'll
48:48
Speaker 2: get back, he'll get healthy, he'll go on a insane tear,
48:52
Speaker 2: he'll finally be very comfortable, then get cold again. That's
48:55
Speaker 2: that's that's the roller coaster of you Heneo.
48:57
Speaker 1: Sores buying opportunity. Would you even though he's injured with
49:01
Speaker 1: noblique you you would you approach the Aheneos Warz owner
49:05
Speaker 1: in your.
49:05
Speaker 2: League, I I probably would if I need the third
49:10
Speaker 2: base help, I'm probably throwing tossing low ball offer out
49:12
Speaker 2: there and seeing I'm not like overly pain here, because
49:15
Speaker 2: it is like you have to know what you're signing
49:17
Speaker 2: up for and if you didn't build your team for
49:21
Speaker 2: that chaos, Uh, you gotta be a little careful there.
49:23
Speaker 2: But if I'm if I'm throwing, like, you know, fifty
49:26
Speaker 2: cents on the dollar and I'm getting a good deal here,
49:29
Speaker 2: sure I'll absolutely take him, stash him, and then when
49:32
Speaker 2: I need some power, yeah, let's let's go.
49:36
Speaker 1: Okay, next injury, we have J. T. Rail Muto, catcher
49:39
Speaker 1: for the Philadelphia Phillies, on the IL with backspasms, which
49:44
Speaker 1: I mean you don't like to hear as a thirty
49:46
Speaker 1: five year old person, and you know he just turned
49:49
Speaker 1: thirty five back in March, so it is certainly getting
49:52
Speaker 1: to the twilight of J. T. Rail Muto's career. But
49:55
Speaker 1: I mean he was a serviceable fantasy catcher as like
49:58
Speaker 1: a especially like a second thatcher before he went down
50:02
Speaker 1: a two fifty nine three forty four, three fifty two
50:04
Speaker 1: slash line with a homer in seventeen games. So the
50:09
Speaker 1: other nice thing here is that we actually saw a
50:11
Speaker 1: little bit of bounce back in terms of his k
50:14
Speaker 1: rate and his walk rate to where like they had
50:17
Speaker 1: been before. He kind of has started the slow and
50:20
Speaker 1: steady downslide with the Phillies. What are you doing here
50:24
Speaker 1: with JT. Real Muto and anything you think usable for
50:28
Speaker 1: the rest of twenty twenty six and even going forward, because,
50:32
Speaker 1: like I said, thirty five back injury. He's kind of
50:34
Speaker 1: also been nursing injuries on and off for the past
50:37
Speaker 1: few years, so it's starting to get pretty worrisome here
50:41
Speaker 1: for real Muto.
50:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've I've pretty much moved on, even into two
50:46
Speaker 2: catcher leagues. He's kind of gone one way and the
50:49
Speaker 2: rest of the league, like catcher talent from a hitting perspective,
50:52
Speaker 2: has continued to grow the last few years, and he's
50:55
Speaker 2: just slowly sunsetting down down the path and in the
50:58
Speaker 2: Phillies lineup. This not looked good, Like some of the
51:00
Speaker 2: counting staffs aren't gonna be what they need to be.
51:02
Speaker 2: So I'm fine letting him go. And if he comes
51:06
Speaker 2: back and he's fully healthy, he's probably still gonna be
51:08
Speaker 2: on the waiver wire and I can pick him up.
51:09
Speaker 2: But I'm not really excited to dedicate any roster space
51:14
Speaker 2: to real Mouto at this point, which is sad to
51:16
Speaker 2: say for what was once a fantasy stallwart. But everybody
51:20
Speaker 2: has to move on to some point, and I've I
51:22
Speaker 2: think it's fair to move on from JT at this point.
51:25
Speaker 1: Yep, I think that is fair. Okay, Well let's get
51:28
Speaker 1: into I mean, this could almost be a regular segment
51:31
Speaker 1: every week of what's happening with the Angels bullpen and again,
51:34
Speaker 1: I mean, this is starting to go so far south
51:37
Speaker 1: where it's starting to get like White Sox Rockies far
51:41
Speaker 1: south in terms of the quality of this team and
51:44
Speaker 1: where it's headed, because they're doing they're awful twelve and
51:50
Speaker 1: twenty and that's coming with the best pitcher in the
51:52
Speaker 1: league on their staff and Mike Trout like playing like
51:55
Speaker 1: Mike Peak Mike Trout and those things aren't gonna keep going.
51:59
Speaker 1: So as soon as those pieces fall off for the Angels,
52:03
Speaker 1: this team's gonna be an absolute disaster. But to add
52:06
Speaker 1: to that disaster, they cut Jordan Romano this week, who
52:10
Speaker 1: I mean had nothing, just absolute nothing. I don't know
52:13
Speaker 1: if we'll actually see him settle anywhere, because if you
52:16
Speaker 1: can't hack it with the Angels. Probably aren't really a
52:19
Speaker 1: viable mariajor leaguer until you go to driveline or forgive
52:22
Speaker 1: something else out. This opens up a totally wide open
52:26
Speaker 1: race on the back end of that bullpen. We have
52:29
Speaker 1: lost your boy Robert Stevenson to season ending, career ending
52:33
Speaker 1: probably elbow surgery. Kirby Yates has looked like hot garbage
52:38
Speaker 1: on his rehab stint as he's been working his way
52:42
Speaker 1: back from an early season hem string issue, knee issue.
52:47
Speaker 1: And we've also got Ben Joyce who has not gotten
52:51
Speaker 1: back onto the mound in his rehab, although actually I
52:55
Speaker 1: think tonight he's gonna pitch for Rachel Kukumungo, so there's
52:59
Speaker 1: a possibility we could see him soon. Kind of leaves
53:01
Speaker 1: us with Sam Bachmann, Chase Silseth. We've been seeing some
53:07
Speaker 1: high leverage Brent Suitor, some high leverage Drew Pomerans, any
53:11
Speaker 1: interest at all? I mean, these Angels pictures trying to
53:14
Speaker 1: find gold and mind some saves out of this terrible squad.
53:20
Speaker 2: The only spot I will invest at this point is
53:23
Speaker 2: Ben Joyce. That's the only guy I'm willing to give
53:25
Speaker 2: it to and get He's coming off of laboram surgery.
53:28
Speaker 2: So like we've got to get healthy. But if I
53:31
Speaker 2: look across this, it's just a hot mess. It's a
53:34
Speaker 2: hot mess. Every single guy's got warts concerns. Like some
53:37
Speaker 2: of these guys, I'm like, are you sure you're not
53:40
Speaker 2: just a position player in the bullpen? Like I think
53:42
Speaker 2: that's kind of the quality we're at. I think Joyce
53:45
Speaker 2: is the only one that could true like he's supposed
53:48
Speaker 2: to be. He's been the closure of the future in
53:49
Speaker 2: the scene for a while. Injuries have held him back.
53:52
Speaker 2: If he can get healthy, I mean, there's no reason
53:55
Speaker 2: they don't give him a run to do it. So
53:57
Speaker 2: that's the only guy I have any interest in. I'm stashed,
54:00
Speaker 2: you know, I've done in a few places that might
54:03
Speaker 2: pay off like one to two months, So that's the
54:05
Speaker 2: only thing that I'm interested at this point.
54:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we might have to have like some
54:10
Speaker 1: sort of debrief on closers this year, because I mean,
54:13
Speaker 1: hot mess has been closers in saves in general this
54:17
Speaker 1: season that aforementioned, like CBS team that I always talk
54:21
Speaker 1: about that's in last place. I'm bleeding saves. Like that's
54:24
Speaker 1: how hot of a mess it is. Where it's like
54:26
Speaker 1: everything else has gone wrong on that team, but like
54:29
Speaker 1: I'm leading saves in that league because you just go
54:33
Speaker 1: to like roster resource and look at the closer depth chart.
54:36
Speaker 1: It is crazy the situations that are out there in
54:40
Speaker 1: terms of how far are they breaking down on top
54:43
Speaker 1: of it, Like we've also had you know, Phillies, Astros
54:48
Speaker 1: Mets Red Sox that were expected to be good teams
54:52
Speaker 1: that have been terrible and just not offered off any saves.
54:55
Speaker 1: Then you got all these other squads that have were
54:58
Speaker 1: expected to be terrible have been better, and the save
55:01
Speaker 1: situations are just a total cluster of a committee. And
55:05
Speaker 1: so how are you navigating this? Is it just like
55:09
Speaker 1: peer chaos and throwing darts or do you actually have
55:12
Speaker 1: you been finding a strategy that's worked at all?
55:16
Speaker 2: I think it's peer strategy throwing darts. Like I think
55:19
Speaker 2: the strategy was in the preseason draft, two guys that
55:23
Speaker 2: you were pretty gusto and confident will be closers and
55:26
Speaker 2: then just throw darts constantly and hopefully you run into
55:29
Speaker 2: something else and you can't be shy. So Duran goes down,
55:36
Speaker 2: get Killer, if Fairbanks goes down, I don't know who's
55:39
Speaker 2: next really to be honest for the Marlins. But like
55:45
Speaker 2: I think you have to, like, if you see a
55:47
Speaker 2: guy that you think might be the closer, you have
55:50
Speaker 2: to go after him, because there's gonna be a number
55:53
Speaker 2: of guys that just back into the roles and then
55:55
Speaker 2: figured it out and ended up getting twenty saved seasons.
55:57
Speaker 2: But it is just a big mess right now. And
56:01
Speaker 2: yet you can chase this, and you can chase yourself
56:04
Speaker 2: out of the league real quickly because your eer, your
56:08
Speaker 2: whip can just completely implode on you. So be careful
56:12
Speaker 2: if if you've got a few guys, just be happy
56:15
Speaker 2: and don't get too fancy. But I think you do
56:17
Speaker 2: have to be kind of grabbing guys that same league
56:20
Speaker 2: that you were talking about. I've got Lucas Ersig, I've
56:23
Speaker 2: got Tanner Scott. I've got some of these guys that
56:27
Speaker 2: like should should be getting some saves, and so I'm
56:29
Speaker 2: trying to throw them on benches and just make sure
56:33
Speaker 2: before I fully insert them into lineups that they are
56:36
Speaker 2: going to get that run, so that you're confident in it.
56:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was gonna say, I think that's maybe
56:41
Speaker 1: the one thing that I've found a little of success,
56:44
Speaker 1: and that's how I've accumulated some of the saves, although
56:46
Speaker 1: mine ratios are hot garbage in that lead. But it's
56:50
Speaker 1: also not their fault. That's mostly Meryl Kelly and Aaron
56:53
Speaker 1: Philla's fault. And but like the way that, like I
56:57
Speaker 1: think most fantasy players have approached benches is that, especially
57:03
Speaker 1: like from the pitching side, you dedicate it to guys
57:07
Speaker 1: that are starters that you hope can kind of develop
57:09
Speaker 1: into that next level. I think you're gott to start
57:12
Speaker 1: doing that with relievers now where you're taking you're looking
57:16
Speaker 1: across the league. You're seeing kind of what guys that
57:19
Speaker 1: are in committees or in eighth inning situations and stashing
57:25
Speaker 1: one or two of them on your bench and just
57:27
Speaker 1: letting them marinate. And it's no fun, but it's the
57:31
Speaker 1: only way to navigate this without having to spend all
57:34
Speaker 1: of your fab on closers, and one save for twenty
57:38
Speaker 1: percent of your fab is not going to win you
57:40
Speaker 1: a league.
57:41
Speaker 2: If you see a closer that you think may be
57:44
Speaker 2: injured or losing a job in the next few weeks,
57:46
Speaker 2: grab them and guys, I'll call out right now, Luke Weavers,
57:49
Speaker 2: Matt Brash, guys like that, where you can.
57:52
Speaker 1: See down today.
57:55
Speaker 2: There goes that one. That's what I get for not
57:58
Speaker 2: checking the news before I make my comments. But like,
58:00
Speaker 2: those are the kind of guys you have to invest
58:02
Speaker 2: in because otherwise you're fighting the masses. And so grab
58:07
Speaker 2: two or three of those guys, and yes, it's gonna
58:09
Speaker 2: make you thin on your hitting, like some of the
58:12
Speaker 2: if you a lot of leagues have like what six
58:13
Speaker 2: bench spots. I'm running leagues where I have one bench
58:17
Speaker 2: hitter and I've got two or three relievers and two
58:20
Speaker 2: starters like that. That's and I don't see a way
58:22
Speaker 2: around that, because if you, especially in five by five,
58:25
Speaker 2: if you get stuck with one close, you might as
58:27
Speaker 2: well have zero, right, And so you gotta be constantly
58:31
Speaker 2: playing playing that game.
58:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially if you want it on like a
58:36
Speaker 1: good team, you've got to be doing that. Otherwise you're
58:39
Speaker 1: gonna end up in that Rocky situation or in this
58:42
Speaker 1: Angel situation where there is no winning.
58:44
Speaker 2: So there's there's no there's no win there, you might
58:47
Speaker 2: as well punk the category, which is not something I
58:49
Speaker 2: generally recommend, but you as well chase the k's and
58:54
Speaker 2: wins and something like that and try to make up
58:56
Speaker 2: for it rather than just try to play with the
58:58
Speaker 2: Angels bullpen.
58:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just caps you so much, like it's really
59:03
Speaker 1: it's really impossible. But I mean the nice thing is,
59:05
Speaker 1: because so many other teams are hard up for saves,
59:09
Speaker 1: it might not take that many to actually get to
59:12
Speaker 1: like three, four, five points, And if you can get there,
59:16
Speaker 1: that can actually make it a lot more viable, where
59:18
Speaker 1: it's like a semi punt, you know what I mean.
59:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did that last year in a few leagues,
59:23
Speaker 2: where I got myself far enough up that I could
59:27
Speaker 2: just watch the teams behind me and plug in like
59:29
Speaker 2: the one closure I had every so often just to
59:32
Speaker 2: make sure I stayed ahead of them. But like everybody
59:35
Speaker 2: in front of me, I was like thirty saves away.
59:36
Speaker 2: So I'm like, I want to be the best of
59:38
Speaker 2: the worst.
59:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, that's not a bad way to approach it. Okay, Well,
59:42
Speaker 1: go into those show notes. Check out the baseball card
59:45
Speaker 1: release calendar, because as we're speaking here on the twenty ninth,
59:47
Speaker 1: we did have a couple of sets drop in terms
59:49
Speaker 1: of top Scrume Black and tops of fandive. We're not
59:52
Speaker 1: going to cover them just because they're much more minor sets,
59:55
Speaker 1: much more high end sets both pretty cool, but it
59:58
Speaker 1: just doesn't necessarily have like the viability to warrant a
1:00:02
Speaker 1: full deep dive discussion the way that we normally do.
1:00:05
Speaker 1: We will be returning pretty soon to do that for Bowman,
1:00:08
Speaker 1: which comes out on May thirteenth. And then I've also
1:00:11
Speaker 1: started adding in some of the TBD preorders just because
1:00:15
Speaker 1: if you're trying to get into that game, certainly. One
1:00:18
Speaker 1: of the big ones coming up will be TOPS Chrome
1:00:20
Speaker 1: Platinum fifty five, which will cover twenty twenty five product
1:00:23
Speaker 1: there that comes out in just about a week. And
1:00:27
Speaker 1: then well, we're going to have Series two pre orders
1:00:29
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks, so that is right on
1:00:31
Speaker 1: schedule to be coming out around the June ish timeframe
1:00:34
Speaker 1: that it usually does. So lots of stuff starting to
1:00:38
Speaker 1: really get revved up again on the baseball card side,
1:00:41
Speaker 1: as we are seeing the printing presses work again for
1:00:46
Speaker 1: Tops after they got Series one at the door along
1:00:48
Speaker 1: with Heritage. Okay, well, with that, we're going to take
1:00:51
Speaker 1: a short break. We'll be back on the other side
1:00:52
Speaker 1: to talk about prospects that have been flying underneath the radar,
1:00:56
Speaker 1: well flying underneath the radar before the season because they
1:00:59
Speaker 1: weren't an inches one hundred. But now they're gonna be
1:01:02
Speaker 1: on lots of radars because they're performing pretty well. So
1:01:04
Speaker 1: stick around see what we think about those guys. All right,
1:01:25
Speaker 1: welcome back everybody. We're gonna get right into our discussion
1:01:28
Speaker 1: on some of these under the radar prospects, or, like
1:01:31
Speaker 1: I said before the break, maybe previously underneath the radar prospects,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: because lots of these guys, I mean, in our autno
1:01:39
Speaker 1: leagues and in some of our keeper leagues. I'm seeing
1:01:41
Speaker 1: some of these guys already start to get snatched up
1:01:43
Speaker 1: because they've you know, we're a month into the season
1:01:47
Speaker 1: and we've got a pretty good sample. As you know,
1:01:49
Speaker 1: I was just shocked in the first half that Jason
1:01:52
Speaker 1: Dominguez had put up one hundred plate appearances at Triple A.
1:01:55
Speaker 1: We're starting to get to a pretty good sample size
1:01:57
Speaker 1: on a lot of these guys seeing some good performances.
1:02:00
Speaker 1: The other good thing that I like about early season
1:02:02
Speaker 1: performances from the minor leagues is it hasn't turned into
1:02:06
Speaker 1: an absolute like shuffle like exercise down in the minor leagues,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: where sometimes a'll happen late in the season where like
1:02:13
Speaker 1: a guy will get moved up to double A late,
1:02:15
Speaker 1: but then you realize, like, oh, everybody that was in
1:02:18
Speaker 1: double A has cleared out of Double A, and double
1:02:20
Speaker 1: A is actually playing a little bit more like Single
1:02:22
Speaker 1: A now. And so you've got situations here where the
1:02:26
Speaker 1: guys that are in Triple A are playing against some
1:02:28
Speaker 1: of the best competition in the league outside of Major
1:02:32
Speaker 1: League Baseball and cascades down from there. So it allows
1:02:36
Speaker 1: you to believe a little bit more in these performances
1:02:38
Speaker 1: Off the bat, I would say, when you're looking at
1:02:41
Speaker 1: this brew, like, is there any sort of like threshold
1:02:44
Speaker 1: that you're looking for or any sort of certain hallmarks
1:02:47
Speaker 1: in terms of performance that you want to see early
1:02:51
Speaker 1: in the season before you start saying, Okay, this guy
1:02:54
Speaker 1: has turned from somebody who has been off of my
1:02:57
Speaker 1: radar to somebody who is very clearly and squarely on
1:03:01
Speaker 1: my radar and moving up my prospect lists and might
1:03:04
Speaker 1: warrant being added in my keeper in dynasty leagues.
1:03:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean a few things that I'm always looking
1:03:10
Speaker 2: for in these types of guys. I'm looking at the
1:03:12
Speaker 2: age for the level. I want guys that are younger
1:03:16
Speaker 2: for the level they're in. For the miners, i want
1:03:18
Speaker 2: guys that have on the hitting side, really strong plate
1:03:21
Speaker 2: discipline and kind of what i'd say developing power or
1:03:27
Speaker 2: effective speed. I don't want the guy that's stealing ten
1:03:31
Speaker 2: bases and getting caught ten times. I really want the
1:03:35
Speaker 2: guy that has a solid plate approach and then when
1:03:37
Speaker 2: he gets on base, if he's if he's gonna run,
1:03:39
Speaker 2: he knows what he's doing. On the pitching side of things,
1:03:43
Speaker 2: it's it's that profile. I want to see a good
1:03:44
Speaker 2: pitch mix, ability to go deep into games. I want
1:03:47
Speaker 2: a sturdy body profile. I want to I want a big,
1:03:50
Speaker 2: big picture that's going to hold up in games and
1:03:54
Speaker 2: is gonna keep the ball on the ground like Those
1:03:55
Speaker 2: are the kind of things I'm looking for. That's to
1:03:59
Speaker 2: be very clear, I'm going to miss a few guys
1:04:00
Speaker 2: with that type of thing. You're going to miss the
1:04:02
Speaker 2: guys that have really out on the outer bounds profiles,
1:04:06
Speaker 2: the guys that strike out a thousand guys but have
1:04:08
Speaker 2: crazy control issues and a big fly ball profile like
1:04:12
Speaker 2: those those the Blake Snells are going to hit right
1:04:15
Speaker 2: and they're Tyler glassnews are going to hit. But that's
1:04:19
Speaker 2: not what you should be searching for, because those are
1:04:22
Speaker 2: more unicorns for me. So I'm looking at the guys
1:04:24
Speaker 2: that are younger, kind of starting to perform well, but
1:04:27
Speaker 2: have really really good core basics that are going to
1:04:31
Speaker 2: hold them when they get to the major league level
1:04:32
Speaker 2: and they're not going to be overwhelmed because they have
1:04:35
Speaker 2: huge strikeout profiles things like that.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that that's all really good takes, And
1:04:41
Speaker 1: then I think maybe the only other thing I'd add
1:04:43
Speaker 1: is I like to try to see like how the
1:04:45
Speaker 1: player was performing in spring training too, just because, like
1:04:49
Speaker 1: I know, spring training stats are kind of not exactly
1:04:53
Speaker 1: fully believable because you've also got lots of dudes working
1:04:56
Speaker 1: on things. But what I like to see is like, hey,
1:04:59
Speaker 1: did this guy who's now performing in the minor leagues
1:05:01
Speaker 1: did he show up to spring training and also show
1:05:05
Speaker 1: a lot of these different traits that we're looking for
1:05:07
Speaker 1: and kind of show some of the development milestones that
1:05:10
Speaker 1: we've been wanting. So that I think that's maybe like
1:05:13
Speaker 1: the other kind of layer that I add in, which
1:05:15
Speaker 1: has actually been made a lot easier because Fangrafts allows
1:05:19
Speaker 1: for that toggle. They only recently added that this season,
1:05:22
Speaker 1: where you can look at the spring training stats real quickly,
1:05:25
Speaker 1: so if you just click on that, then it can
1:05:27
Speaker 1: give you a little bit bigger sample size where not
1:05:29
Speaker 1: only are you looking at April, but you're looking at
1:05:31
Speaker 1: that month of performance in spring. And especially most of
1:05:34
Speaker 1: these guys that I think, especially these ones that we're
1:05:37
Speaker 1: going to highlight because we're going to focus on the
1:05:39
Speaker 1: ones that we have a little more belief in what
1:05:41
Speaker 1: they're doing, they were already doing some of these things
1:05:44
Speaker 1: in spring, and so with that, I think that walks
1:05:48
Speaker 1: me right into my first guy I was going to
1:05:50
Speaker 1: talk about, we've got four hitters, We've got three arms.
1:05:53
Speaker 1: The first one. I mean, this dude is on fire
1:05:56
Speaker 1: at Triple A. Pedro Amirez second basement slash third basement
1:05:59
Speaker 1: for the Cago Cubs is off to a just fantabulous
1:06:03
Speaker 1: start at Triple A for the Iowa Cubs. Three eleven
1:06:07
Speaker 1: three eighty three six oh two slash line. That's one
1:06:10
Speaker 1: forty seven WRC plus, seven homers, eight stolen bases in
1:06:14
Speaker 1: twenty six games. He also was slashing like crazy three
1:06:20
Speaker 1: sixty seven four thirty two six thirty three slash line
1:06:24
Speaker 1: in the spring that was a one sixty two WRC
1:06:27
Speaker 1: plus with two more homers, five stolen bases in fifteen games. Uh,
1:06:31
Speaker 1: this guy can kind of come out of nowhere because
1:06:34
Speaker 1: the ISOs that he's posted at Triple A is a
1:06:37
Speaker 1: two ninety one ISO so far. It's the best that
1:06:39
Speaker 1: he's ever posted at any stop. The home runs, he's
1:06:43
Speaker 1: only ever posted eight home runs overall full season at
1:06:46
Speaker 1: any stop. He's already at seven at Triple AH. The
1:06:50
Speaker 1: prospect savont page looks great. He is small, he's five
1:06:55
Speaker 1: foot nine, He's a switch hitter, one sixty five. You
1:07:00
Speaker 1: know who this. I can't believe I'm saying this because
1:07:03
Speaker 1: it's so absurd. This is what Jose Ramirez looked like
1:07:07
Speaker 1: before he came up. Pedro Mrez is only twenty two.
1:07:10
Speaker 1: Not really a great spot for him on the Cubs
1:07:12
Speaker 1: at the major league level. Slash like, we haven't seen
1:07:16
Speaker 1: this out of him, but like the power looks a
1:07:19
Speaker 1: lot more legit in game than ever has. And that
1:07:22
Speaker 1: is kind of what the knock on him was from
1:07:24
Speaker 1: the Fangrafts scouting page is that they said this is
1:07:28
Speaker 1: more of a utility infielder. They projected him him as
1:07:32
Speaker 1: good back to ball skills, solid defender, but no power. Uh,
1:07:37
Speaker 1: he fixed the power aspect. It looks like, so is
1:07:39
Speaker 1: this real from Pedro Ramirez here on the Cubs, Like
1:07:42
Speaker 1: I said twenty two years old, there's a lot of
1:07:46
Speaker 1: great things happen in this profile. Or is this just
1:07:48
Speaker 1: like the hot streak of all hot streaks that we're
1:07:50
Speaker 1: seeing him.
1:07:51
Speaker 2: On if I'm gonna live First of all, I like
1:07:55
Speaker 2: the Hosely Ramirez like from a build swing type of approach,
1:08:00
Speaker 2: Like it's actually a very understandable comp I'm not gonna
1:08:03
Speaker 2: say a reasonable Comp'm gonna say understandable comp. Which funny.
1:08:06
Speaker 1: It's like even the swing rates and stuff too, like
1:08:08
Speaker 1: it's it's eerie.
1:08:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, but like maybe it was back down to like
1:08:12
Speaker 2: an under a Hymnez type thing or the Iowa strata,
1:08:16
Speaker 2: like give me a little more. The power is not real,
1:08:20
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's the issue here, And I
1:08:22
Speaker 2: could be wrong, but I as you look at a
1:08:25
Speaker 2: guy that has four x his home run for flyball
1:08:28
Speaker 2: rate from last season this season last season was like
1:08:31
Speaker 2: average for him. He more than one out of every
1:08:34
Speaker 2: four fly balls is leaving the ballpark for him. He's
1:08:36
Speaker 2: more of a ground ball hitter, more of a line
1:08:38
Speaker 2: drive hitter. He does. The power is a little bit
1:08:41
Speaker 2: of a mirage right now. He's hitting the ball much
1:08:44
Speaker 2: harder than he has historically, So I think he's he's
1:08:46
Speaker 2: kind of on that heater, but I don't think that
1:08:49
Speaker 2: that can last. From a pure power perspective, I think
1:08:52
Speaker 2: this is more of a doubles guy, a line drive guy,
1:08:55
Speaker 2: and so you're looking at a good average, some good speed.
1:08:59
Speaker 2: He's a fishing on the bay paths and hoping for
1:09:02
Speaker 2: double digit homers like and so I think that's where
1:09:05
Speaker 2: I like. That kind of am unders hymnis is kind
1:09:07
Speaker 2: of the ceiling i'd be looking at here versus the
1:09:10
Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez and so I like it. It's intriguing, but
1:09:14
Speaker 2: it's not a guy that I like, Yes, I have
1:09:15
Speaker 2: to have because I think this it's like if Chandler
1:09:21
Speaker 2: Simpson ran Lesson had a little more power type of thing.
1:09:25
Speaker 2: So I'm I'm intrigued, but I'm not buying the power.
1:09:29
Speaker 2: And that's that's probably what's gonna keep me off from
1:09:31
Speaker 2: really jumping deep into Ramirez. I could eat my words
1:09:34
Speaker 2: on this one, but I just don't feel like the
1:09:37
Speaker 2: Aaron Judge home run for fly ball rate's gonna stick around.
1:09:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the other factor here too, is like
1:09:43
Speaker 1: we don't necessarily get like great data from Triple A
1:09:47
Speaker 1: in terms of the way we do from Savant where
1:09:50
Speaker 1: you can see like the ballpark home run sort of thing,
1:09:54
Speaker 1: and especially in Iowa, I'm seeing some of like where
1:09:57
Speaker 1: the actual homers have showed up. It has been wendy
1:10:01
Speaker 1: is all get out in the in the Midwest this spring,
1:10:04
Speaker 1: and I'm guessing that that ballpark in Iowa has been
1:10:08
Speaker 1: subject to some pretty gusty days, and so you wonder
1:10:11
Speaker 1: if that's playing a factor. I will say though, that
1:10:14
Speaker 1: like Jose Ramirez was not Jose Ramirez like in his
1:10:17
Speaker 1: final stages of the minor leagues, and he developed power
1:10:22
Speaker 1: honestly right around the time that Pedro Ramirez is right
1:10:25
Speaker 1: now that the power didn't show up in Jose Ramirez's
1:10:29
Speaker 1: game until he was twenty four in twenty seventeen. So
1:10:34
Speaker 1: I don't think this is Jose Ramirez, but this is
1:10:37
Speaker 1: how Jose Ramirez two point zero happens, is what I'm
1:10:39
Speaker 1: saying that, like, this is going to be a guy
1:10:42
Speaker 1: where I'm certainly willing to pick him up wherever I can,
1:10:45
Speaker 1: where it's free. Right now, that like, yeah, because there
1:10:48
Speaker 1: is such a huge upside in terms of what he's
1:10:50
Speaker 1: shown us. And even if this is of one month heater,
1:10:53
Speaker 1: it's a pretty dang good one month heater. And so
1:10:56
Speaker 1: if you get more, I want to see more data
1:10:59
Speaker 1: out of it to see if he can sustain the power.
1:11:01
Speaker 1: But like the Savant, the prospect Savont page is good
1:11:05
Speaker 1: right now, Like this is the ninety eight percent EV
1:11:08
Speaker 1: is one hundred and five point nine, he's got max
1:11:10
Speaker 1: EV of one hundred and ten point eight. Those will play,
1:11:13
Speaker 1: and that's like legit power where the grades have changed.
1:11:17
Speaker 1: And so I want to get it another month or
1:11:21
Speaker 1: two under my belt before I start actually moving him
1:11:23
Speaker 1: up into elite prospecteers. But I think he's so intriguing
1:11:28
Speaker 1: you've got to take a stash shot wherever he's available
1:11:32
Speaker 1: in dynasty and keeper situations right now. And then the
1:11:36
Speaker 1: other factor, like I said, is there's nowhere to play
1:11:40
Speaker 1: in Chicago right now. Yeah, and they've also got Matt
1:11:44
Speaker 1: Shaw and Nicky Lopez. Nicky Lopez showed up this week,
1:11:47
Speaker 1: so that'll be a little bit of Like the tell
1:11:50
Speaker 1: as well is that if you see the Cubs actually
1:11:54
Speaker 1: promote him and give him playing time, that tells you
1:11:59
Speaker 1: that the internal that they're getting back is much better
1:12:03
Speaker 1: than what we've seen in the past from Pedro Mires.
1:12:05
Speaker 1: So he's already on the forty man roster, but he's
1:12:08
Speaker 1: technically behind like James Torontos in the in the pecking
1:12:11
Speaker 1: order of like who's been around. Actually, Pedro Meres was
1:12:15
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty one signee in January, while Treantos was
1:12:19
Speaker 1: a draft pick. But yeah, I'm torn because, like it
1:12:24
Speaker 1: could be really good, but everything tells you guys like
1:12:28
Speaker 1: this just don't crop about out of nowhere nowadays.
1:12:31
Speaker 2: Yeah they don't, but you're you're right, Like maybe it's
1:12:34
Speaker 2: just the Cleveland side of things. So I feel like
1:12:35
Speaker 2: Lindor did a little this too. So I think your
1:12:41
Speaker 2: assessment of this is a good gamble to take. And
1:12:44
Speaker 2: that's what's true with minor league talent is and if
1:12:48
Speaker 2: you are trying to catch them, like you're not gonna
1:12:50
Speaker 2: catch the remote Roman Anthony's just sitting out there. And
1:12:54
Speaker 2: so this is the kind of guy that you take
1:12:56
Speaker 2: a gamble on. If you're wrong, you didn't pay much
1:12:58
Speaker 2: more price. And even if if you're right, like if
1:13:02
Speaker 2: I'm right, with a kind of profile, he could go
1:13:05
Speaker 2: ten thirty and hit two eighty. There's nothing wrong with that. Like,
1:13:08
Speaker 2: it's just I think if you're hoping for Jose Ramirez,
1:13:12
Speaker 2: you're gonna be disappointed. You're hoping for like a Willia Donnas,
1:13:16
Speaker 2: like you should be. I don't think you're gonna be
1:13:18
Speaker 2: too terribly disappointed here. And then if if something happens
1:13:21
Speaker 2: with all this clicks and like he figured something different out,
1:13:25
Speaker 2: great take take it. So yeah, that's the hard part
1:13:28
Speaker 2: with it with projecting these types of guys. But yeah,
1:13:31
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot to like here that you
1:13:36
Speaker 2: should be willing to to take a gamble on.
1:13:39
Speaker 1: I mean, not to drag my point home again, but
1:13:42
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, twenty three year old Jose Ramirez eleven homers,
1:13:45
Speaker 1: twenty two stone bases.
1:13:47
Speaker 2: So it's he was just he was just playing it
1:13:50
Speaker 2: slow though.
1:13:51
Speaker 1: That's it's the exact same body though. That's what's like
1:13:54
Speaker 1: so nuts. It's a it's a switch hitting five foot eight,
1:13:59
Speaker 1: little bit of a chunk dude who can play second
1:14:01
Speaker 1: and third.
1:14:02
Speaker 2: It's really eerie.
1:14:04
Speaker 1: I will say, it's really eerie. Okay, well, let's get
1:14:07
Speaker 1: into our next guy, because I mean, honestly, we're looking
1:14:10
Speaker 1: at the same body.
1:14:12
Speaker 2: This next guy is like the same, we don't do
1:14:14
Speaker 2: maybe we should together.
1:14:17
Speaker 1: And but uh, he's so Lara is Venezuela. The way
1:14:21
Speaker 1: that h Pedro E mirrors is too. So uh that's
1:14:24
Speaker 1: also kind of strange, but same sort of setup. It's
1:14:29
Speaker 1: just in the outfield at least. Laara from the Milwaukee
1:14:32
Speaker 1: Brewers switch hitter five foot seven, one sixty nine, twenty
1:14:35
Speaker 1: one years old, off to a fantastic start at Triple
1:14:39
Speaker 1: A with a three forty seven four thirty nine five
1:14:43
Speaker 1: sixty one slash line on one sixty nine WRC plus
1:14:47
Speaker 1: only five homers, So that's pretty weak sauce in twelve
1:14:49
Speaker 1: stone bases in his twenty six games. Uh, the same
1:14:53
Speaker 1: amount of strikeouts as he has walks, which has always
1:14:56
Speaker 1: been a hallmark calling card of Lara. So this is
1:15:00
Speaker 1: actually pretty much the same setup as Pedro Ramirez, where
1:15:04
Speaker 1: the tools hit wise, speed wise, field wise, we're all
1:15:09
Speaker 1: major league level. It was whether or not he could
1:15:11
Speaker 1: get to enough power and access it, and he has
1:15:14
Speaker 1: so far didn't show it in the spring though, so
1:15:17
Speaker 1: that's a little bit more of like a hey, I
1:15:19
Speaker 1: think we're seeing a little bit of an extra lucky
1:15:22
Speaker 1: run as well as the prospect savant page is certainly
1:15:26
Speaker 1: not as glowing as it was for Pedro Ramirez, but
1:15:29
Speaker 1: everything indicates here. I mean, this is going to be
1:15:32
Speaker 1: a serviceable outfielder, I think in the future, especially looking
1:15:36
Speaker 1: at the switch hitting abilities and just the way that
1:15:40
Speaker 1: the Brewers get the most out of this profile, it
1:15:42
Speaker 1: seems every single time. So what are you looking at
1:15:45
Speaker 1: for Luis Laura going forward?
1:15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think you kind of hit it
1:15:52
Speaker 2: right here, like this is Pairo Ramirez, but like a
1:15:55
Speaker 2: little less interesting, and all the little concerns I have
1:15:59
Speaker 2: were like more amped up. Like I'm just gonna go
1:16:02
Speaker 2: back to the home run for fly ball rates. In
1:16:04
Speaker 2: twenty five across one hundred and thirty six games home
1:16:07
Speaker 2: run for fly ball right one point eight percent twenty
1:16:11
Speaker 2: twenty six, twenty percent. His career high was in twenty four,
1:16:14
Speaker 2: which is four point three percent. We're talking to basically
1:16:18
Speaker 2: a five to ten x on that, so that there's
1:16:21
Speaker 2: definitely some sub luck to that. He's actually hit more
1:16:24
Speaker 2: ground balls this year than he has in his entire career.
1:16:28
Speaker 2: The power's real, not real, the powers not real, and
1:16:32
Speaker 2: so we're looking at a guy that's best single digit
1:16:35
Speaker 2: power at worst loose rias because I kind of bring
1:16:39
Speaker 2: loose rias up at every podcast we have. But I
1:16:42
Speaker 2: do think he's a solid hitter. He's gonna hit for
1:16:45
Speaker 2: a decent average. I think he's gonna run a lot
1:16:48
Speaker 2: more than a lot of folks, And so I think
1:16:50
Speaker 2: he could be a guy that, yeah, maybe he gets
1:16:53
Speaker 2: eight homers, but he might steal thirty bases across the
1:16:56
Speaker 2: full season and hit to sixty like there's still some
1:17:00
Speaker 2: value there and be a pretty good defender. And so
1:17:02
Speaker 2: I'm not I would be a little lower a Laura
1:17:05
Speaker 2: than I would be on paid Ramiras, where I think
1:17:07
Speaker 2: I could see the more of that projection, a few
1:17:09
Speaker 2: more things click than I do here, even though from
1:17:13
Speaker 2: a body perspective he's just slightly bigger, maybe a few pounds.
1:17:20
Speaker 2: But yeah, these guys are like almost identical, and those
1:17:24
Speaker 2: off the hot starts, I even less of the track
1:17:27
Speaker 2: record for Laura even a little bit further to reach.
1:17:29
Speaker 2: So I'm not quite as excited here, But I again,
1:17:32
Speaker 2: the Brewers do You're right, Brewers get a lot out
1:17:35
Speaker 2: of their guys, So I don't want to. I don't
1:17:38
Speaker 2: want to be overreactive here because this is the kind
1:17:42
Speaker 2: of guy that they just seem to They'll call him
1:17:45
Speaker 2: up and he's just gonna hit from day one and
1:17:47
Speaker 2: be all over the base paths and be exciting to watch.
1:17:50
Speaker 2: It's just the power is probably nothing to write home about,
1:17:53
Speaker 2: or is nothing to write home about.
1:17:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, where it's almost like it's self freylicky, where
1:18:00
Speaker 1: it's a switch hitter self Rey, like I think, is
1:18:02
Speaker 1: a little bit of where it's at. And I mean
1:18:05
Speaker 1: there are there's possibilities in the outfield. I mean, certainly
1:18:09
Speaker 1: you do have Churio and Yelich on the IL right now.
1:18:13
Speaker 1: Laura is not on the forty man roster for the Brewers,
1:18:16
Speaker 1: so that's another consideration. But Brandon Lockridge has really been
1:18:20
Speaker 1: starting to show his warts in a full time role.
1:18:24
Speaker 1: They have Greg Jones on this roster, so there is
1:18:27
Speaker 1: daylight for Laura to debut, I think in twenty twenty six. Certainly,
1:18:31
Speaker 1: I think we're a stash, but it is more of
1:18:33
Speaker 1: like a like I said, it's Soufrey like, it's a
1:18:35
Speaker 1: little bit of batting average, it's a decent amount of
1:18:38
Speaker 1: speed and then you get the counting stats from playing
1:18:40
Speaker 1: in a pretty solid Brewers lineup. But that's usable and
1:18:43
Speaker 1: it was free all day long and might still be
1:18:47
Speaker 1: free if your league mates haven't really focused on kind
1:18:50
Speaker 1: of players outside the top one hundred fantasy prospects the
1:18:54
Speaker 1: way that we're focusing now. All right, next one, this
1:18:57
Speaker 1: guy has also really taken off on us. We are
1:18:59
Speaker 1: talking and James Tibbs, the third, after bouncing around from
1:19:04
Speaker 1: San Francisco to Boston, was traded then over to Los
1:19:09
Speaker 1: Angeles as a part of.
1:19:14
Speaker 2: Shoot.
1:19:15
Speaker 1: I forget what deal. I noticed the Raphael to Ever
1:19:17
Speaker 1: steal when he went to Boston, but uh, it's just
1:19:20
Speaker 1: not coming to me off the top of my head.
1:19:22
Speaker 1: Let me pull it up in my Internet. Of course,
1:19:24
Speaker 1: it's always running slow when you always want to like
1:19:27
Speaker 1: pull something up immediately, and you know what it is.
1:19:30
Speaker 1: It was the Dustin May deal last year. So there
1:19:33
Speaker 1: you go, an absolute steal for the Dodgers that looks
1:19:37
Speaker 1: like been fantastic down at triple A three h eight
1:19:40
Speaker 1: four twenty three seven twenty slash line. Eleven homers in
1:19:45
Speaker 1: twenty eight games. That's a one eighty two WRC plus
1:19:49
Speaker 1: uh sixteen point two percent walk rate, a little bit
1:19:51
Speaker 1: of an LVAk rate at twenty nine point two percent.
1:19:54
Speaker 1: But you'll take that when you're smacking the absolute living
1:19:59
Speaker 1: daily out of the ball to a four to eleven ISO.
1:20:03
Speaker 1: He's been playing first base as well. He's traditionally been
1:20:07
Speaker 1: a corner outfielder, but has been developing at first base because, honestly,
1:20:11
Speaker 1: I think what the Dodgers are team this up for
1:20:13
Speaker 1: is I don't know if we see much of James
1:20:16
Speaker 1: Tibbs the third in twenty twenty six, but next year,
1:20:21
Speaker 1: I think he's getting lined up for a full time role.
1:20:23
Speaker 1: They're going to start kind of shuttling him around the field,
1:20:26
Speaker 1: getting Freddy Freeman off of his feet every once in
1:20:28
Speaker 1: a while, putting him in the corner outfield. The Dodgers
1:20:33
Speaker 1: are kind of living in a land of luxury where
1:20:35
Speaker 1: they're able to do this now, and like just have
1:20:38
Speaker 1: a guy like James Tibbs, who, I mean, all Steamer
1:20:42
Speaker 1: right now is projecting him to be a league average bat,
1:20:45
Speaker 1: and I think he's outstripped that already. He's probably a
1:20:50
Speaker 1: pretty solid bat, a power bat right now if he
1:20:53
Speaker 1: were to debut, but it might be more of a
1:20:55
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven items. So the first two guys that
1:20:58
Speaker 1: we talked about, I think you could almost stack them
1:21:00
Speaker 1: in like fifteen teamers at this point, sixteen teamers just
1:21:04
Speaker 1: to see if they debut over the next month. Tibbs,
1:21:06
Speaker 1: I think is a much more longer term thing, just
1:21:09
Speaker 1: because of the stuffed roster in lay ahead of him.
1:21:12
Speaker 1: But what do you see in Tibbs, Like, do you
1:21:15
Speaker 1: see the upside being really significant here or is this
1:21:18
Speaker 1: a guy who you see almost like in later stage
1:21:23
Speaker 1: Michael Conforto vibes, it's a little bit of what I
1:21:26
Speaker 1: get to where like the power is immense, but whether
1:21:29
Speaker 1: or not he can access that in the majors is
1:21:31
Speaker 1: another question.
1:21:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's more the Conforto side, or like
1:21:35
Speaker 2: a ironically like a Max Mount see that's on the Dodgers,
1:21:39
Speaker 2: or Anthony's Santander. Like, it's a guy that has really good,
1:21:43
Speaker 2: really strong power. I mean it's it's it's not what
1:21:47
Speaker 2: it is right now. It's not eleven homers and twenty
1:21:49
Speaker 2: eight games power, but it is. This is twenty five
1:21:53
Speaker 2: thirty homer power. He's got an incredibly patient, played approach
1:21:57
Speaker 2: that like OBP League monster potentially here because he walks
1:22:02
Speaker 2: a lot. You know his OBP this year's four twenty
1:22:05
Speaker 2: three All twenty five was three seventy three like he
1:22:09
Speaker 2: and that was with some rough going when when he
1:22:12
Speaker 2: was Boston briefly. But he looks to be a really,
1:22:15
Speaker 2: really solid hitter. He's going to fit in in the lineups.
1:22:19
Speaker 2: It's just you know, we're not going to have much speed.
1:22:22
Speaker 2: I think there's some some platoon risk here, but as
1:22:25
Speaker 2: we talked earlier, like that's kind of the name of
1:22:27
Speaker 2: the game anymore, and so you could easily see him
1:22:30
Speaker 2: back into a season where the average MP two fifty,
1:22:35
Speaker 2: anybody might get on base at a forearm clip and
1:22:38
Speaker 2: hit twenty five thirty homers. I think there's a lot
1:22:41
Speaker 2: to like here with Tibbs. The issue is he's a
1:22:44
Speaker 2: Dodgers prospect, kind of been in that outfield position, and
1:22:48
Speaker 2: we know how many outfield prospects they have. I think
1:22:52
Speaker 2: the question is where's he going to find the playing time?
1:22:54
Speaker 2: And to your point, first base seems to be the
1:22:56
Speaker 2: spot where he's going to try to kind of get
1:22:59
Speaker 2: some flexibility. There's not a whole lot of reason for
1:23:02
Speaker 2: him to stay down in the minors really pass the
1:23:05
Speaker 2: season once he kind of proves out that this is
1:23:07
Speaker 2: all real. So I would even not be surprised he
1:23:09
Speaker 2: can get a call up and kind of, you know,
1:23:12
Speaker 2: late in the season because he could be really a
1:23:15
Speaker 2: playoff disaster as a pinch hitter.
1:23:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's very there, it's very fair. But
1:23:20
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you can also see what they've
1:23:22
Speaker 1: done with Adulton rushing. It's gonna be I think a
1:23:24
Speaker 1: similar path here for Tibbs that you would almost think
1:23:27
Speaker 1: that he's trade bait for the Dodgers, but I actually
1:23:30
Speaker 1: don't think so. I think that they really were thankful
1:23:34
Speaker 1: that he was a first rounder, Like, yeah, out of
1:23:37
Speaker 1: it he was thirteenth overall. Yeah, Like this is not
1:23:41
Speaker 1: like some sort of scrub that I think the Dodgers
1:23:43
Speaker 1: were like, we never even get a draft a guy
1:23:45
Speaker 1: like this. We're not letting him out of our reaches.
1:23:48
Speaker 1: So I think what their plan is. Taoskar Hernandez and
1:23:52
Speaker 1: Freddie Freeman are free agents after twenty twenty seven. James
1:23:55
Speaker 1: Tibbs is probably a full time player for the Dodgers
1:23:57
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty eight and in some sort of like
1:24:00
Speaker 1: part timish role in twenty twenty seven. So I think
1:24:03
Speaker 1: in dynasty situations he's a mus roster. But knowing that
1:24:06
Speaker 1: it's a marinating situation.
1:24:08
Speaker 2: I fully agree he's a muss roster.
1:24:11
Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into the last year that we've got.
1:24:13
Speaker 1: We're talking Theo Gillen of the Tampa Bay Rays, currently
1:24:17
Speaker 1: down in High A, which he was a first round
1:24:21
Speaker 1: pick in twenty twenty four, eighteenth overall out of high school,
1:24:24
Speaker 1: signed for four point three million dollars. I was honestly
1:24:28
Speaker 1: surprised that he wasn't in the itches top one hundred
1:24:31
Speaker 1: that I'm guessing if there was like another like just
1:24:35
Speaker 1: missed the cut twenty or twenty five, Gillen might have
1:24:38
Speaker 1: been in that mix because last year twenty twenty five
1:24:42
Speaker 1: at Single A, he put up a two sixty seven
1:24:45
Speaker 1: four to thirty three three eighty seven slash line that's
1:24:48
Speaker 1: a one to eighty five WRC plus as a nineteen
1:24:51
Speaker 1: year old, came with thirty six dolen bases and some
1:24:55
Speaker 1: pretty solid outfield defense. From what I've been reading, gonna
1:24:59
Speaker 1: be a center fielder possibly coming up. Currently, Fingerress has
1:25:04
Speaker 1: a thirty current forty future, But in terms of where
1:25:09
Speaker 1: he's been playing for the Rays down in the miners,
1:25:12
Speaker 1: it's been just about exclusively center field. This year at
1:25:16
Speaker 1: Hi A off to a great start three twenty one
1:25:18
Speaker 1: four hundred seven seventy four slug with four fifty three
1:25:24
Speaker 1: ISO six homers five stolen bases. Has also racked up
1:25:28
Speaker 1: four doubles in triple, which is driving a little bit
1:25:31
Speaker 1: of that because the wheels are tremendous here that like
1:25:34
Speaker 1: the speed has always been there, now we're actually seeing
1:25:38
Speaker 1: THEO Gillen has already outstripped the number of homers it
1:25:42
Speaker 1: hit last year in seventy three homers at a lower
1:25:45
Speaker 1: level in just fifteen games at High A. So all
1:25:49
Speaker 1: the things are kind of coming together for the Rays
1:25:52
Speaker 1: to find another sort of superstar out of the first
1:25:55
Speaker 1: round that they need to be able to build upon
1:25:58
Speaker 1: all their role players. What do you like about THEO
1:26:01
Speaker 1: Gillen's game and what sort of like priority are you
1:26:05
Speaker 1: giving to him in terms of picking up in dynasty
1:26:07
Speaker 1: and keeper situations. Because he is in High A, he's
1:26:10
Speaker 1: a little bit further away than what these other guys
1:26:12
Speaker 1: we've talked about.
1:26:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, he definitely is further away, But I think this
1:26:16
Speaker 2: is the kind of guy that, like, right now, people
1:26:18
Speaker 2: aren't really thinking about, not really talking about, but a
1:26:21
Speaker 2: year from now, he's towards the top of some prospect rankings.
1:26:24
Speaker 2: This is a very good plate approach. It's kind of
1:26:29
Speaker 2: he's kind of been more free swing this year, is
1:26:30
Speaker 2: not taking as many walks, but very very small sample
1:26:32
Speaker 2: size last year though, twenty percent walk rate, twenty three
1:26:35
Speaker 2: percent k raids hit two sixty seven, very very strong.
1:26:39
Speaker 2: The power. I mean, he's nineteen last year, he's now
1:26:42
Speaker 2: a twenty year old at at high A but a
1:26:46
Speaker 2: pretty sizable guy like he a frame is gonna add
1:26:50
Speaker 2: on at six two one ninety five. He's going to
1:26:52
Speaker 2: add on to that frame, so I think the power
1:26:54
Speaker 2: is going to come. It's actually hilarious. Look at the
1:26:57
Speaker 2: home run fly ball right right now, it's seventy five percent,
1:26:59
Speaker 2: so kind of just leave that one off the side.
1:27:02
Speaker 2: But like this is the profile of like a young
1:27:06
Speaker 2: Christian Yelich or maybe even like a Corbyn Carroll. Like
1:27:10
Speaker 2: both of them the power did develop, and they were
1:27:13
Speaker 2: young for the age, but they had a lot of
1:27:15
Speaker 2: good speed. They could hit for a high average, and
1:27:18
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of where this profile is pointing
1:27:21
Speaker 2: at this point in time. So I think this could
1:27:25
Speaker 2: be a really well rounded guy that's going to have
1:27:27
Speaker 2: that kind of Rodo impact in probably not a better
1:27:32
Speaker 2: system to be in in Tampa Bay. So I like
1:27:37
Speaker 2: this guy. Again, it is deeper, it's off the radar,
1:27:40
Speaker 2: but I think he's going to kind of start to
1:27:41
Speaker 2: rise up rankings throughout this year, assuming he's able to
1:27:45
Speaker 2: kind of keep the learnings that he did, and you know,
1:27:48
Speaker 2: he does this, he could be easily in Double A
1:27:51
Speaker 2: the second half of the year, which starts to beg
1:27:54
Speaker 2: some questions of a guy. That's because he'll probably be
1:27:57
Speaker 2: what twenty one later this year, no September birthday, so
1:28:02
Speaker 2: he'll be going, you know, twenty twenty one year old
1:28:05
Speaker 2: making this Double A for the Rays with some pretty
1:28:08
Speaker 2: nice stats. Yeah, that's gonna play.
1:28:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean there's there's openings in that outfield
1:28:15
Speaker 1: right now. Cedric Mullins has been awful, Jake Frayley has
1:28:20
Speaker 1: been a platoon bat, Johnny DeLuca has looked a little
1:28:24
Speaker 1: bit better. But like there, the outfield is a mess
1:28:27
Speaker 1: in Tampa. And so it also is at Triple A.
1:28:30
Speaker 1: Where Victor Mason Junior is hanging around in this system still,
1:28:35
Speaker 1: Well he was in.
1:28:36
Speaker 2: Miami, so he I mean, but he's always been hanging around. Yeah,
1:28:39
Speaker 2: it's been forever in Florida's always been hanging around in Florida.
1:28:42
Speaker 1: Yes, he loves Florida. So yeah, if they want to
1:28:46
Speaker 1: be aggressive, I mean and sit in a playoff position,
1:28:50
Speaker 1: you've got to think if they they'll think about it.
1:28:53
Speaker 1: Even though it's pretty aggressive. We've seen the Rays be
1:28:56
Speaker 1: aggressive in the past, which he shall not be named
1:29:00
Speaker 1: wander Franco, like, they pushed him fast. Once they get
1:29:04
Speaker 1: like a star, they will push him. I mean, just
1:29:06
Speaker 1: look at what they did with Junior Camen Arrow. They
1:29:07
Speaker 1: pushed Caman Arrow fast because when they spot the talent,
1:29:10
Speaker 1: they know that they need the high end upside as
1:29:13
Speaker 1: much as they can get it. And the o'gillan might
1:29:16
Speaker 1: be that for the Rais. Also, I like him as
1:29:18
Speaker 1: a in a keeper dynasty situation. You had him. Now
1:29:22
Speaker 1: he's gonna make a huge rise of rankings. You could
1:29:25
Speaker 1: maybe cash him in at that point to be able
1:29:27
Speaker 1: to make some fantasy trade deadline acquisitions. So another consideration
1:29:31
Speaker 1: where you just kind of like playing the value game
1:29:34
Speaker 1: and cashing in your chips there. So either we'll work
1:29:38
Speaker 1: all right, let's get to some arms. So we got
1:29:40
Speaker 1: three of them. First one. It's kind of hard to
1:29:43
Speaker 1: ignore what he's doing because it's number one on the
1:29:46
Speaker 1: like roster resource minor league rinkers right now in general
1:29:50
Speaker 1: for the power rankings. Anthony Anson from the Boston Red Sox,
1:29:55
Speaker 1: he was their third round pick last year out of LSU,
1:29:58
Speaker 1: was a pretty solid pitcher at elis you after he
1:30:02
Speaker 1: transferred there from University of California, San Diego. He's been
1:30:07
Speaker 1: absolutely untouchable in High A so far, which I mean,
1:30:11
Speaker 1: he's probably a little too good to have started there,
1:30:14
Speaker 1: but like you like to see a guy like this,
1:30:16
Speaker 1: a college arm who you know, he was at LSU,
1:30:21
Speaker 1: which means he probably could have started off at double A.
1:30:23
Speaker 1: But if he's going to absolutely dominate Hi A like this,
1:30:26
Speaker 1: it gives you a lot more hope. And it is
1:30:29
Speaker 1: sixteen and two thirds innings with a point five to
1:30:32
Speaker 1: four ERA, fourteen point six K nine and he hasn't
1:30:37
Speaker 1: walked anybody. It's also coming with a sixty three percent
1:30:40
Speaker 1: ground out rate. It's a nasty slider curveball fastball combo
1:30:46
Speaker 1: where the slider is actually the future pitcher. The fastball
1:30:51
Speaker 1: is still developing, but he can still pump it up
1:30:53
Speaker 1: there pretty well. He's gonna be on every top one
1:30:57
Speaker 1: hundred list when it comes to mid season updates. You
1:31:00
Speaker 1: can actually see it on fangrass right now. Like his
1:31:02
Speaker 1: number one article is picks to Click who we expect
1:31:05
Speaker 1: to make the twenty twenty seven Top one hundred. Anthony
1:31:08
Speaker 1: Iison is making the top one hundred for twenty twenty seven.
1:31:11
Speaker 1: He's going to make every publication's update list for twenty
1:31:16
Speaker 1: twenty six because all of the reports are fantastic, all
1:31:20
Speaker 1: of them are glowing. Honestly, if he produces anything close
1:31:25
Speaker 1: to this over his first like fifteen to twenty innings
1:31:27
Speaker 1: at Double A, because the promotion's got to be coming
1:31:30
Speaker 1: at this point, Boston can't keep iinsen high in high
1:31:33
Speaker 1: A and let him just keep mowing down the competition.
1:31:36
Speaker 1: They need to start challenging him. And if he can
1:31:40
Speaker 1: be solid over his first fifteen to twenty innings at
1:31:43
Speaker 1: Double A, honestly, we might be talking about a dude
1:31:46
Speaker 1: who's going to push the precipice of making it to
1:31:49
Speaker 1: the majors this season. So what is your take here
1:31:52
Speaker 1: on Anthony Iison And are you as bullish on him
1:31:55
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty six as I am right now?
1:31:58
Speaker 2: I mean, does this not do you like Peyton Toley
1:32:01
Speaker 2: last year? I mean it is from the right side. Yeah, yeah,
1:32:04
Speaker 2: I mean it's it's as far as like the progression.
1:32:07
Speaker 2: I a little younger maybe, but like blowing the competition away.
1:32:12
Speaker 2: Totally was at high A and got forty nine innings
1:32:16
Speaker 2: in and the major's double and got twenty seven, made
1:32:18
Speaker 2: a triple A, get fifteen and then got a cup
1:32:19
Speaker 2: of coffee. And he at single A he was striking
1:32:24
Speaker 2: out fourteen point three to two guys Ianson's fourteen point
1:32:28
Speaker 2: five to eight. Like, yeah, the whole control thing to
1:32:31
Speaker 2: Totally's was good. I'm not buying into a zero percent
1:32:35
Speaker 2: walk rate for anybody, but like it looks pretty gosh
1:32:39
Speaker 2: starn similar beyond the fact that Ainsen's more of a
1:32:42
Speaker 2: ground ball proft profile than Totally. He's got a little
1:32:44
Speaker 2: bit more of a flyball profile. But it just feels
1:32:47
Speaker 2: like this is a like the Red Sox have now
1:32:49
Speaker 2: done this with like the earlies the Totaley's like pushing
1:32:52
Speaker 2: guys through that have that like high upside but a
1:32:55
Speaker 2: little bit maturity and just say like, as long as
1:32:58
Speaker 2: you're successful, we're gonna we're gonna push you to go through.
1:33:01
Speaker 2: So I think he's gonna fly up rankings and it's
1:33:04
Speaker 2: hard to like judge him because of the limited sample
1:33:07
Speaker 2: and uh at the kind of a true minor league level,
1:33:10
Speaker 2: but he was stand out at LSU. Why like, why
1:33:14
Speaker 2: shouldn't he be here? And it's just like it's clicked immediately.
1:33:18
Speaker 2: I don't think they expect him to be this good,
1:33:20
Speaker 2: and so they're probably regretting and putting in a high A.
1:33:22
Speaker 2: But yeah, I think he'll be there for another four
1:33:25
Speaker 2: or five starts, and if he keeps doing this, they're
1:33:27
Speaker 2: gonna bump him. And I think it's gonna be we're
1:33:30
Speaker 2: getting towards the end of the season here. I wouldn't
1:33:32
Speaker 2: be shocked to see him in conversation. Now if the
1:33:34
Speaker 2: Red Sox are completely out of it, they're probably gonna
1:33:37
Speaker 2: not gonna be playing that game by any means. But yeah, there,
1:33:41
Speaker 2: when we started talking about this episode and what we're
1:33:43
Speaker 2: gonna this was like the first guy was out of
1:33:46
Speaker 2: the list and you already started the list before I did,
1:33:48
Speaker 2: and so I'm like, well, okay, but like this was
1:33:50
Speaker 2: like the NOE brainer right now?
1:33:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Okay. Next player that we
1:33:55
Speaker 1: have is right hand er Patrick Copin for the Los
1:33:58
Speaker 1: Angeles Dodgers, who at double A has been absolutely man
1:34:04
Speaker 1: handling the level the way that Ironsen has at high
1:34:08
Speaker 1: a we are at twenty two innings of a K
1:34:11
Speaker 1: minus BB of twenty one point eight percent for Copin.
1:34:15
Speaker 1: The I mean the walks are a little bit high
1:34:16
Speaker 1: at thirteen point eight percent, but the k rate is
1:34:19
Speaker 1: thirty five point six percent because it's another really nasty profile.
1:34:23
Speaker 1: It's actually fastball slider cutter with maybe a sweeper to
1:34:29
Speaker 1: sweeper and curveball is what Baseball America says, but Vangress says,
1:34:33
Speaker 1: just slider cutter. So the command is a little bit lacking,
1:34:37
Speaker 1: but certainly if you're going to be throwing it as
1:34:40
Speaker 1: hard as he is, where it's mid nineties touching ninety nine,
1:34:43
Speaker 1: and on top of it is just like really nasty secondaries.
1:34:48
Speaker 1: This is a development win for the Dodgers twenty twenty
1:34:52
Speaker 1: three seventh round pick out of Marshall, and everything is
1:34:56
Speaker 1: pointing up here for Copin, who's probably barely dynasty and
1:35:01
Speaker 1: keeper situations, and it's kind of this reminds me a
1:35:04
Speaker 1: little bit of like an MT. She Handsler situation where
1:35:07
Speaker 1: the Dodgers just like the Red Sox and if not
1:35:10
Speaker 1: even actually more to a bigger degree they do put
1:35:14
Speaker 1: together these guys kind of out of nowhere. Got they
1:35:18
Speaker 1: find I think the traits they're looking for in terms
1:35:20
Speaker 1: of guys from college that they'd like to see that
1:35:23
Speaker 1: can spin the ball, and then they teach them a
1:35:25
Speaker 1: few tricks and then boom, they hit the ground running.
1:35:27
Speaker 1: So I wouldn't be surprised if we see Patrick Copen
1:35:31
Speaker 1: make it to the majors this year. Whether or not
1:35:33
Speaker 1: it's in the in the rotation is a bigger question,
1:35:35
Speaker 1: but a live arm for the bullpen for sure then
1:35:39
Speaker 1: kind of enters that exactly what we saw from she
1:35:42
Speaker 1: hand sort of last year, where you know, maybe was
1:35:45
Speaker 1: a little bit more in the bullpen, especially down the playoffs,
1:35:48
Speaker 1: but comes back the next season and is firmly planted
1:35:52
Speaker 1: in the rotation. Reminds me a little bit of Tony
1:35:54
Speaker 1: Gonsolin too. Gonsolin was a little bit more sinker forward,
1:35:57
Speaker 1: but same sort of like profile to be will develop
1:36:01
Speaker 1: just a arm out of nowhere. So what do you
1:36:04
Speaker 1: think about Patrick Copen here in the Dodger system.
1:36:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of what you
1:36:09
Speaker 2: say applies. I'm having trouble seeing him as a starter.
1:36:13
Speaker 2: I think that that control like he has some nasty stuff.
1:36:17
Speaker 2: I just don't know he knows where it's going. And
1:36:20
Speaker 2: that's that's really a guy meant really for the bullpen,
1:36:24
Speaker 2: who can end up relying on one or two really
1:36:27
Speaker 2: really strong pitches and not having to worry as much
1:36:29
Speaker 2: about the control and pitchability, which from a starter perspective,
1:36:34
Speaker 2: it's gonna be really hard with his profile to go
1:36:36
Speaker 2: deep into games. It's really gonna be hard the second
1:36:38
Speaker 2: round of a lineup, and so I think he ends
1:36:41
Speaker 2: up more of a late ending reliever than a true starter.
1:36:46
Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean it's not valuable. Like we've already
1:36:48
Speaker 2: talked about, especially the Dodgers, you can't seem to find
1:36:50
Speaker 2: a closer to save their life at this point, or
1:36:52
Speaker 2: at least one they can stay healthy. So I think,
1:36:56
Speaker 2: and I'm not saying that Copen's gonna be the Dodgers
1:36:58
Speaker 2: closer by any mean, but I I think that unless
1:37:02
Speaker 2: the walk rate really really continues to drop even where
1:37:07
Speaker 2: it is right now, I think it's too high. But
1:37:09
Speaker 2: he's kind of like that guy that will walk just
1:37:11
Speaker 2: as many as he strikes out type of guy. And so,
1:37:14
Speaker 2: like I said, I like the stuff. I think the
1:37:16
Speaker 2: potential is there. I just think he's probably gonna be
1:37:19
Speaker 2: a bullpen guy that really leans into that fastball, slider
1:37:23
Speaker 2: maybe cuver combination.
1:37:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair, but also could be pre
1:37:29
Speaker 1: lights out and we've seen these guys kind of go
1:37:31
Speaker 1: different directions for the Dodgers. I think it's a name,
1:37:34
Speaker 1: probably more so for a watch list, but the way
1:37:37
Speaker 1: that he's been producing in the outings that he's getting
1:37:40
Speaker 1: that like, if they can turn him into a usable starter,
1:37:44
Speaker 1: also becomes just a viable piece trade chip as they
1:37:48
Speaker 1: get deeper and deeper into the summer, where you could
1:37:50
Speaker 1: see Copin end up in another system and immediately like
1:37:55
Speaker 1: rise quickly enough to be able to hit the majors
1:37:57
Speaker 1: and if you're hard up for strikeouts late year, you
1:38:00
Speaker 1: might be able to capture. Like it's kind of like
1:38:03
Speaker 1: a Spencer arraghetti profile I think too, where yeah, like
1:38:07
Speaker 1: the controls a little lacking, but you might pop a
1:38:09
Speaker 1: couple of double just hit performances.
1:38:12
Speaker 2: In terms of the k rate, I feel like there's
1:38:14
Speaker 2: no no better like opener prospect. Yeah, out there is
1:38:18
Speaker 2: like a guy that you don't want to give them
1:38:20
Speaker 2: there too long, but like he could just really make
1:38:23
Speaker 2: things interesting or a guy that in a tight game
1:38:27
Speaker 2: you want to get three innings as your starter couldn't
1:38:29
Speaker 2: stay out there, Like this is the kind of guy
1:38:30
Speaker 2: you throw in there.
1:38:32
Speaker 1: Okay. Last arm we have is way In Lynn, a
1:38:35
Speaker 1: twenty year old left hander in the Athletics system. So
1:38:39
Speaker 1: far over twenty one innings at double A, he's put
1:38:42
Speaker 1: up a two to one four ERA, a three forty
1:38:45
Speaker 1: nine FIP along with just around eleven and a half
1:38:49
Speaker 1: k per nine and just under four walks per nine,
1:38:53
Speaker 1: A little bit less of the ground ball rate we're
1:38:55
Speaker 1: looking for, but it is much more high end stuff
1:38:58
Speaker 1: in terms of a fastball, slider, curveball, change up, which
1:39:02
Speaker 1: all pretty much on fangrass right now rate as like
1:39:07
Speaker 1: league viable pitches. And Linn is coming off of a
1:39:11
Speaker 1: performance with Chinese Taipei in the WBC in which I
1:39:15
Speaker 1: was impressed with that outing when he pitched against Japan,
1:39:18
Speaker 1: that he held his own, He looked pretty solid when
1:39:20
Speaker 1: he was in there, and like he had that level
1:39:23
Speaker 1: of mound presence that I'm especially looking for in terms
1:39:26
Speaker 1: of a young player to be able to push forward
1:39:28
Speaker 1: and kind of be a top end arm in the majors.
1:39:31
Speaker 1: Like I said, only twenty years old already at Double A,
1:39:34
Speaker 1: came over from Taiwan in twenty twenty four. Lots of
1:39:38
Speaker 1: strikeout potential, maybe a little bit of control issue, but
1:39:41
Speaker 1: like nothing where we're talking even anything like Copin where
1:39:45
Speaker 1: like this is all seems harnessable as well as like
1:39:48
Speaker 1: when you watch Linn pitch too, it's kind of a
1:39:52
Speaker 1: part and parcel for being a little bit more of
1:39:55
Speaker 1: a guy with some higher octane stuff where it's just
1:39:59
Speaker 1: gonna bend out of the zone every once in a while.
1:40:01
Speaker 1: But everything that I've seen from Lynn so far has
1:40:04
Speaker 1: been really encouraging. Like I said, at Double A now
1:40:07
Speaker 1: hit Double A last year. So if you're looking at
1:40:10
Speaker 1: somebody who could actually for sure make the matrix this
1:40:13
Speaker 1: year out of the pack of this trio of pictures
1:40:18
Speaker 1: we're talking, I think Lynn is right there. What do
1:40:20
Speaker 1: you think?
1:40:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hate to use the word I feel like
1:40:23
Speaker 2: a scout, but it feels like a very projectable arm
1:40:26
Speaker 2: here and there's a lot to like. Yeah, the ground
1:40:29
Speaker 2: ball rate's a little scared, but again guys have been
1:40:32
Speaker 2: successful with that. He looks like he's really improved, like
1:40:36
Speaker 2: a little bit of time at Double A last year,
1:40:38
Speaker 2: getting better with double A this year. He's very young
1:40:41
Speaker 2: for the role, and you know, he's got a pretty
1:40:46
Speaker 2: nasty change up, which minor league hiders are struggling with.
1:40:50
Speaker 2: So I think you're right. He's the kind of guy
1:40:53
Speaker 2: that's going to kind of sneak through radars. I don't
1:40:54
Speaker 2: think he's going to be like overly dominant, but I
1:40:57
Speaker 2: think he's like a mid rotation arm with like a
1:41:00
Speaker 2: hope for more if he continues to develop, because he's
1:41:03
Speaker 2: he doesn't have that much under his belt for innings
1:41:07
Speaker 2: like in the miners. We're talking a guy with like
1:41:09
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten total minor league gintings and so
1:41:12
Speaker 2: they're still definitely developing as a pitcher here. So I
1:41:17
Speaker 2: like it. I think it's'na be fun to watch to see,
1:41:19
Speaker 2: and I think you're right. I think of all these guys,
1:41:21
Speaker 2: I would bet on Len getting the most innings this
1:41:25
Speaker 2: year if one does make it. I'm not sure any
1:41:27
Speaker 2: of these guys truly make it this year, but if
1:41:29
Speaker 2: I had to pick one, it would probably be Lyn.
1:41:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's fair. And I think of these
1:41:34
Speaker 1: seven dudes we talked, all of them will be on
1:41:36
Speaker 1: top one hundred lists when the updates come out in
1:41:39
Speaker 1: mid season, so that's something to keep in mind. I
1:41:41
Speaker 1: think with all these guys, you're kind of in the
1:41:44
Speaker 1: sweet spot right now where public publications on websites haven't
1:41:48
Speaker 1: put them into top one hundreds, but they're gonna be
1:41:51
Speaker 1: all in top one hundreds here pretty soon. So that's
1:41:55
Speaker 1: just a factor here from the fantasy landscape. No matter
1:41:58
Speaker 1: what is that. Hey, maybe you can capitalize on that
1:42:03
Speaker 1: moment where people haven't fully caught up to the updated
1:42:06
Speaker 1: prospect lists and now is the time to strike on
1:42:09
Speaker 1: all seven of them. All right, Well, this was the
1:42:12
Speaker 1: fun segment. I like talking about these guys and looking
1:42:15
Speaker 1: at these these brief glimpses of data that we get
1:42:19
Speaker 1: to be able to parse apart what we're seeing. And
1:42:21
Speaker 1: I'm also glad to see that you were in pretty
1:42:24
Speaker 1: good agreement with some of these guys and that we're
1:42:27
Speaker 1: viewing them the same. So that's always good to see,
1:42:30
Speaker 1: especially because your fantasy seasons are going slightly better than mine. Okay,
1:42:37
Speaker 1: well let's wrap it up for this week. Brew. Let
1:42:39
Speaker 1: everybody know where they can find you on socials and
1:42:42
Speaker 1: read your work.
1:42:43
Speaker 2: Yep, find me on Twitter ex Blue sky Jabrewer one
1:42:46
Speaker 2: seven find me on weekends and rass ball Top one
1:42:48
Speaker 2: hundred hitter rankings and hitter profiles. Cooler. Where can f
1:42:52
Speaker 2: folks find you?
1:42:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on blue Sky at m
1:42:55
Speaker 1: cool seven spelled co O U I L L like
1:42:59
Speaker 1: my last name. Can read all of my work on
1:43:01
Speaker 1: Baseball Prospectus, where I'm doing starting pitching coverage from the
1:43:04
Speaker 1: fantasy side over there. And then obviously you can if
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Speaker 1: you're listening to this on rasball dot com you've already
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Speaker 1: the price. Hitter Tron and Streaminator have been on fire recently,
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Speaker 1: except for Meryl Kelly, do not trust and the Meryl
1:44:00
Speaker 1: Kelly projections. I got burnt by that one this week.
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Speaker 1: Do not do the Meryl Kelly's. They're still reading out
1:44:07
Speaker 1: his old stuff and it's a little bit of a
1:44:09
Speaker 1: strange situation. I'll actually cover it this week on Baseball Perspectives,
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1:44:23
Speaker 1: With that, we're going to wrap it up for this
1:44:25
Speaker 1: week and we'll be back the same time, same place
1:44:27
Speaker 1: next week. Thanks everybody.