Episode 15: AL East B-Sides

Not five miles an hour. Riding to his head. He hoped down first with the lumpbonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with gretest me. He wasn't born, he had bad yes uniform all right. Welcome to episode fifteen of the Prospect B Sides Podcast. I am Nate joining me as always is the man of many monikers, many labels, the rookie Matt with the rookie who is not a bad and mutter in

his own right. If you are joining us for the first time, Matt and I have been perusing every organization, going very deep, looking for prospects that might be rostered in zero two, maybe not even created in fan tracks, looking for someone who may be worth rostering or keeping an eye on. Been going down division by division, one division an episode, and tonight we're going to talk about the al East. Matt, How are you though?

You doing all right? I'm doing great. Got to play some tennis earlier tonight and we're recording a little bit later, so I'm ready to dive in. You're not doing quite as well as me, though, I have to say, oh tell more. The last twenty four hours Man the White Sox have locked down their ace for this year, and Eric Spetti they have locked down the back end of their rotation, plucking Shange Rohan from the Red Sox and the Rule five draft after shoring up our middle infield with the young and

nicky Lopez. Who thank you, Jerry, thank you. I really really am looking forward to this. Did you also hear the rumor that Jerry Reinstorf

met with the mayor of Nashville at the winter meetings? Dude? That yeah, I mean, of course, I mean that I don't know saw that come in a while ago, just being sarcastic and playing the parts of what I imagine Jerry wants us peons and moronic dumb people in the room to think it's unfortunate, because it's like, damned if you do, damned if you don't as a White Sox fan, because you know, he had the biggest drop in attendance rate, not of anyone in baseball last year. I do

believe. So hey, we'll just stop giving you our money and then he'll just pivot to look at my poor attendance. Who's going to help me buy a new stadium? So the John Fisher away, right, I fell for it last time. I really did think he wanted to win another championship. Maybe he really did. I don't know, but uh yeah, I'm just I'm I'm I'm kind of just over this. This is pretty hopeful, hopeless. I don't even like any other players really, like, I don't know

what what I'm gonna watch, what's gonna get me going? I mean Luis Robert, I mean, fantastic talent. I do like watching him, but like I don't really like him, like he's not like a fan favorite or something. Andrew Vaughn. I hope nothing about the best for Vaughn and think he puts in the work and is talented. It's always fun in a way

to watch eloy him and has play the outfield. So yeah, yeah, yeah, there's like not even like a picture that I there's always the white sex have always my whole life, had at least like one picture that I was like, oh, he's one of my favorite pictures in the league. And it's like, not even that now. So maybe that'll be Mike Soroka. I'm just gonna I'm gonna progress in my life and just move on and

let's go Rockies, you know, big upgrade huge. Yeah, yeah, yeah, AnyWho Rule five draft was today, Matt Adam was, Yeah. I don't, I don't know. Probably not the most exciting Rule five drafts. I don't know how exciting Rule five drafts ever really truly get, but I enjoy them. It's always fun. There's a intersection of B siding and Rule five drafts. Dale Santos probably the headline. If there was a headline, right that doesn't that doesn't bote. Maybe it doesn't bode too well for

Noel. Maybe it doesn't matter Noel. They at least play in the outfield a little bit. I still think they might want to see him see if he can stick in the outfield, whereas DBLs that's first base DH you know. So, yeah, I did see. I don't want to. I don't want to like give out their content, but I don't know. If you saw Dylan White and Jeff put out a little robo scout twenty bats, no, I didn't see that one available in the Rule five And I won't

name the names. There were three of your B side selections that were that were there, Oh nice, one of mine and then one of mine from last year. None of those guys got selected. I will talk about one of them tonight. Though I was sort of interested that Johnston didn't get picked

from Miami. You know, I thought he had a chance to be this year's Ryan, nota just he's like a well rounded hitter and he's yeah, he's probably first base only, but he played a little bit of left field, and yeah, I thought maybe one of the outfield starved teams might try, especially if they're bad Cleveland or something, they don't have a very good outfield. I think, just for me personally, the most interesting part of the Rule five draft was Dariel Lopez was not protected by the Pirates in the

minor league portion and the Giants picked him up. I'd be lying if I said I completely understand how the minor league portion works. I know there is a list here, man, I know there's a list of players that has kept secret or maybe a few writers get access to and then they can like pick minor leaguers that aren't protected. And I don't know what the ras I

don't know. I don't know how it all works, but just kind of surprised the Pirates didn't have him as one of their top X number of prospects in their system as all see how that goes, I guess, But shall we get into it? Shall we get into the Al East? Let's do it? Where are you wanna start? Let's just let's start with the Yanks. They've been in the news today. But have they a lot of tweets out there in the in the birdland that kind of lacked the don't really quite

bring it home, you know. I guess. I guess we'll see Soto be a Yankee soon. I don't know. Yeah, it seems like but yeah, okay, the Yankees Yankees last year, I selected Taylor Aguar, who was a Colorado prep who went to I think Grand Canyon if I remember correctly. Yeah, he struck out like all the time I did see. He did hit seven home runs. He does have some some juice in the bat, but I don't I don't want to waste any more time talking about

him. And then I chose as the Yankees pitcher last season, Joshuaye panic Wall. I don't know if you've ever seen him, Matt, I didn't. I have not. I did do a little video review of him, I think a couple of seasons ago. Kind of smaller Panamanian picture, right, hander just kind of throws a lot of junk and had some like really impressive outings in the lowers. But he didn't pitch it all last year. I think he had Tommy John So that much to report there. Chaparo was

a selection a couple of seasons ago. I don't know. Maybe he still has a chance. There's a lot of power in that bat. Yeah, and he's with Arizona now, so they lose Dal Santos and add added Chaparo. That's interesting, But this season the bat I'm gonna go with. This is another other pretty small sample size by me, but a young infielder by the name of Jose Kloman Airis. I don't know if you watched him at

all, Matt, there wasn't much to see. I did, but he Yeah, but he's a well he played second base, third base, a little bit of shortstop. Rostered in zero percent of leagues. He was not a big signee. In the July of twenty eighteen class out of Venezuela, the Yankees brought him stateside his first pro season after only six DSL games. He didn't do much production wise in rookie ball that year and twenty twenty happened,

and then I don't know the story. Twenty twenty one, he only logged eleven rookie ball games, and then he didn't play at all in twenty twenty two, So I don't know if that's injury, if he's just a practice cloud guy, if you will, or what. But then this season he got activated from the sixty day IL in the beginning of July. He played one game and then doesn't play for a few weeks, and then he hit two home runs in that first game, and then Matt he just kind

of explodes onto the FSL For the last twenty five games. He hit two forty four with a four to ten on base a five to sixty four slug and hit seven and hit seven home runs. Hit seven home runs in his first twenty five FSL games. Like seven home runs in a month down there just doesn't really happen. So that is what kind of got me interested. Just from a just looking at a player page stat sheet. Eleven of his nineteen hits went for extra bases. He did strike out twenty five percent of

the time, but he also walked twenty percent of the time. Again, this is one hundred plate appearance sample, so very small. But you know, being down there you do get some stack cast data. Yeah, how did the stack cast stay? To? Look? He had a fifteen point four percent barrel percentage on a forty one point six percent swing rate, a max VILO of one hundred and six something, and an average of ninety four. Now, the stack cast sample was only seventy one of his one hundred

plate appearances, so again really small. So I had to watch him, right, but there just wasn't many games to view. Two in fact, both of them he played second base and hit ninth the two games broadcast for August first and August third at Bradenton, of course, so I watched all the at bats. See what's up here? Four pitch walk? Then he got picked off. He had a fairly well struck ball fly out to center

field on a first pitch fastball ninety nine mile per hour exit velocity. Then he hit a double to left center field on a three to one fastball one hundred and five miles per hour, went off the top of the wall F nine on a well struck ball on a three to two fastball ninety eight miles per hour, and then he lined out to center field on a three to one fastball. The second game, he had a good six pitch battle to earn a walk against so I think as a decent pitching prospect Owen Collington.

Then he had a five pitch walk and he had a pitch clock violation walk on a three to two count. Then he struck out swinging on a two two slider. Those were the nine viewable play appearances. He's listed at five to eleven one seventy three. I don't know if that if that's his weight, it's a very strong one seventy three, some strong forums. I feel like i'd really have to bring it if I was going to like shake this guy's hand. I don't know if I mentioned his age. He's twenty one

years old. But he's got a bit of a leg lift, a bit of an effort in the swing, if that's a good way to say it, you know, not like the calmest, easiest looking swing. I mean, he seems to have a good eye. I did peruse like some other game logs and look at, you know, the little little pitch charts and count some things. I do think he spit on a couple of good pitches. He only hit the ball on the ground twenty one percent with a flyball rate of over fifty uh. The swing though, I did like dig the

look of his swing again that we're just getting it from the front. So I don't know, but very much the guy who I think a swing that can you know, put the ball in the air at a good rate. And I did see him hit that one fly out to the opposite field. I felt it was like good spin, the right kind of spin going opposite field. I don't think speed is part of the equation, but you know,

beats me. He was two for three on stolen bases on this month, but that isn't saying much in a ball I didn't get any real looks of him running so in this system that is popular, and I wasn't really jazzed about and any other bats kind of down at this uh restor rate. Coleman airas is just kind of a very curious story to me. Minuscule look with some of these numbers. I don't know, Matt, let's put it on the B side board and let's see how crazy I am. Super interesting.

I'm definitely gonna watch those Bradenton games and check him out because that is an interesting story and no word on what caused him to miss a year and a half. Basically, I don't know. My Google, my Google, my Google searches came up empty. Interesting. I know he wasn't like a big eyebrow signing that year, So yeah, I don't know. Well, my hitter, we've already talked about in diminutive short king Caleb Durban. Oh,

yeah, that's right, he of the refusal to strike out. I did have I did have Durban on my list, but I but I will admit that I I was gonna go with Coleman Arris before Durban, uh, even before you got into him. Now today would I would I make that same choice? No, but I wasn't gonna jump ship on my guy here. And did Johnny come lately? Fair? Fair? Yeah? I mean, looking at the rest of the organization, it's not great. Like I'd say that there isn't a lot of competition for for me, for for Durban.

One other guy to note was a guy got traded into the organization late this year in Jay Savina, who I think you've talked about before from Milwaukee, have I I thought I thought you might have talked about him. But anyway, Jason Vina is like yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe a right handed hitting guy that outfielder a ton of power, like kind of absurd amount of power for his size and everything. He strikes out a bit too much, but he's still had success now for kind of two full years, back

to back years of showing pop as a younger than level hitter. So he's someone that I think might be interesting to follow next year. But the strikeouts, you know, he almost thirty percent of the time last year, and his power wasn't quite as prodigious it was the year before. So anyway, I mean, it's just a guy to follow. I've I've picked him up in a couple of super deep leagues. But yeah, I like killed Durbin

here. I did my Yankees process here several months ago. Now that we're in December, I have a little list of names here, but some of them I don't think I even I can't really even get a picture in my head of at this point. But Aaron Polenski, Anthony Hall, Christopher Familia, Dinson, Duran, Jeus Rodriguez, Juan crisp Omar Martinez were some guys that I had watched. I don't know if you watched any of those guys.

Yeah, I watched I watched Polenzki because his numbers looked decent, but he's someone that after watching him, I was like, I'm not I'm not into it. Like I he had good numbers this year, but I after watching him, I was like, I think this is just a below average across the board kind of guy who's had it, who had a good year. I also watched Jeus Rodriguez, and I did like some parts of his swing. He's got a little bit of one Soto to him, like the

way that he sets up and then the way he takes pitches. He's got a little bit of that Sodo shuffle in there, and he's pretty fast. He's pretty athletic for a catcher. But I thought I think he was in the Port of State League two and his eggy deals were kind of pretty bad. I do recall getting my short list here together and looking at some of the stack cast stuff from the ABE guys and not being super impressed with what I saw there. To put it, just very vaguely, yep, all

right, should we go on the pitchers? Then let's do it? All right, I'm gonna go. I was actually thinking about tyrone Yuli during our

draft, maybe just missed it. It might have been a bit of a reckless pick on my part, but he is. He's now twenty two years old, right hand pitcher, listed at six four one point eighty from the Dominican. He spent all of twenty twenty three in High A. Sixteen starts, sixteen games, all starts, seventy nine innings. He ran a four fifty six ERA one point three whip. He struck out ninety, which was ten point twenty five per nine. He did walk four point nine per nine,

gave up some home runs one point four to eight per nine. Threw strikes at sixty four percent eighty one pitches a game. The first game of his that I threw on, I probably watched. I probably watched about five or six of his starts. The first one that I threw on was July fourth. I'm going to digress here for a second, man, and I

might just delete this, but there's something really odd that happens. And maybe I'm just being too much of a weird out here, but there's always a date that becomes very prevalent, especially when I was doing like video stuff, doing a lot of gifts and stuff like that. A picture had a really interesting outing, a really good outing, really bad outing, or some sort of video that I wanted to take out of an outing. There's always a date that is like, for some reason, lots of guys have these things

on the same day. Like this year it was July fourth, for some reason. There's a ton of July fourth outings that I have highlighted and pulled stuff from. Year before it was September eleventh. The year before that, it was like April twenty ninth or something like that. But I don't know, just this weird thing. So like when I I had like my video gifts, like all on spreadsheet and stuff whatever, and you sort by date, there'd just be like a huge amount a video from those days from all

sorts of different pictures. Anyways, Yeah, it's just like this weird thing. But anyway, so July fourth start, I kind of felt like it was a good microcosm of what I saw from Yuli here that game. He starts off with some wildness in and out of the zone, leaving a few balls over the heart that get hit hard. One is a solo home run, one is a hard hit double, one is a flyout. He strikes out two guys, and he like goes on a run whereabon he strikes out

six in a row swinging. He's looking super locked in executing some nasty looking stuff and mixing it up. Well. His fastball slider combination kind of leads the way, but there are other offerings that are mixed in there and earning some cold strikes and some swinging strikes. Kind of strikes out a few more the rest of the way, maybe got squared up once. The rest of the time didn't give anything up except for like one more walk. He's got

a fastball and I think gets up there about ninety six ninety seven. I think he throws two varietals, a four seamer and a two steamer, a slider that's probably his best secondary change up. You know, just an uncommon primarily against lefties. Is pretty dominant the splits. He's pretty dominant versus righties. Okay, against lefties, I guess. And I don't know what the

story was. He was shut down early August. I tend tofying especially well, you don't get to watch a lot of Yankees and a ball, but you do get to see them in high A and over the years put it generically tantalizing looking guys, wicked sliders, good velocities, good fastballs. I think it's fair to question, how do I put it, the legitimacy of some of the nasty system there. But Uly strikes me as a guy who

I know the walks are probably a bit alarming. But like I said, but I liked in the looks that the walks usually came in bunches together. He was able to prolong multiple innings of being pretty pretty dialed in. You got a right hander here who's dominating at high a at times like we're really

dominating, really cruising through a few innings at a time. So you know, outlook, I'm not going to make any any strong bets on Yuli here, but I think he's definitely got some electric stuff, perhaps enough of the polish to stick as a starter. Interesting. I mean, I think a lot of it kind of reeks like potential, really good reliever. Yeah, well, you know, maybe that's fine too. You know, I've got no problem finding good potential relief pictures b siding here. Well, I'm glad

you said that, because that's who I picked in the system. And to the point that you made a couple of weeks ago about there being perhaps a bit of East Coast bias in the prospecting world. With that in mind, I was like, oh, yeah, anybody that has any success in the Yankee system, they just get talked about ad nauseum and their roster kind of just goes way up. I mean at the top of the system and Thorpe and Hampton and Salvage and Warren, all those guys are way over the thresholds

that we usually caroused. And then even the sort of mid tier guys like a Justin Lang or something like, they're still pretty pretty well owned. And again that's not even a guy that gets me that excited with a sixteen percent walk, right. But anyway, I'm just saying, like, when I was going through this, I was like, boy, I'm pretty deep in this system and I'm not seeing a starting pitcher that I I'm really into. But I did see a couple relievers that are pretty nasty. And the guy

that I'm gonna pick is Jack Neely. This dude is huge. He's six

eight two fifty easy, but he like just looks like a huge lumberjack. You know. He's not tubster like some of my other dudes that I've but his stuff is wicked, you know, runs it up to ninety eight. You know, I saw most of his fastballs in like the ninety six to seven range, and has a gyro slider that seemed like especially when he located it down, guys were whiffing over it all the time he did and I went back. I mean, he had a great year, you know,

two seventeen ERA over sixty six innings again all in relief. Struck out one hundred in sixty six innings, so thirty eight point six percent strikeout rate and seven point seven percent walk rate on the year. He did give up a few more homers when he was in double A again shorter sample just seventeen point two innings and double A, but gave up two homers per nine and a lot of them were on the slider when he left it up. So while

he has good control, does it walk many guys he does? I think need to tighten up the slider command a little bit because when he keeps it down it nobody was hitting it. But he did seem to have a tendency to leave it up, and he gave up an absolute mammoth. I think like extraining home run to Jase Young or late in the season that I saw as it was an uphanging slider that just crushed. But overall, this is just a power, you know, middle to late believer that the Yankees seemed

to grow on trees and nearly. I think of the guys that I looked at had I thought both proximity and stuff wise, like that guy looks like he's going to be in a big league pen in potentially a higher leverage role. Too nice. I'd like that You've you've plucked some relievers. It's give some reliever love. It's not an area that I that I dig around in too much, but I wish I did. Just Yeah, you know, a lot of and a lot of the best relievers were guys that were starters

and then get converted. So it's it really is like this is you know, I'm not advocating for picking him up anytime soon, but if you see the name as he progresses to double A and triple A next year and the Yankees need a middle world lever like they might pick Nealy. Yeah. The Boston Red probably one of the better B side success stories here. When Saddani Raphaela, nobody was rostering him that was actually that was actually I can't take

the credit for that though. That was that was Shelley V who turned me on to that and suggested that last season, wouldn't say wear the greatest. I went with a young bat that was in a ball at the time, Miguel Ugueto, who really was on and off injured most of this season, only got two hundred and five played appearances in. But I wouldn't say he was producing quite well. I'm gud that I'll probably still pay some attention to.

Maybe it was just health that held him back more or less. When I selected him, I saw a little bit of him and I I just liked the look of him from the left side of the plate, thought he had nice mechanics and a potential power stroke. Pitching wise, I went with Wan Daniel and Karnassion, who I don't know. I wouldn't say had awful production. There was some stuff that was okay maybe, but he pitched ninety

nine innings. Those were all at all at Hia as well. But I think he was just kind of a young arm with some arsenal that I thought had some interesting qualities. Struck out nine per nine, walked under four per nine, the era and whip were not very pretty, and I admit I didn't really watch a whole lot of Wan Daniel in Karnassion this year. Yeah, So then this season I'm gonna go. I wrote a little bit about

him already and shared a little bit with you, but another extremely small sample size look pitcher, I'm gonna go with left handed hidden Mullins. Mullens was a twelfth round pick out of Auburn in the twenty twenty two draft. But if you follow amateurs, you follow a perfect game. This is probably a familiar name to you, as he was like the third ranked left hand pitcher in the twenty nineteen class. But his Auburn his college career was really decimated

by injuries. I don't know, forget how many innings he had logged in total there but not many. I think Tommy John was part of it, but I think there was also some other injuries involved. But he finally made his way back this season at the end for two Rookie ball and two A

ball appearances. In total, there was three point two viewable innings. I'd say at least the first outing, I wouldn't even say Mullens was really pitching trying to knock off some rust, trying to throw some strikes with his fastball, change up, slider, arsenal. But in those capern I was nineteen point six y four. He did walk some guys, but out of all the guys roster this rate, in this system, I'm just going to take a put him as a kind of a priority. Watch see if some of

the talent from yesteryear kind of maybe shows back up. Maybe he can stay healthy. Just a flash of some pretty dominant innings. We did get a good angle in Augusta that I have shared. Hard to tell, but fastball I think was ninety three ninety four. I know he could get it up there when he was a teenager. A few clicks more than that September second, he's at Augusta if you want to take a look at him. So you shared that date with me, and I went and watched after we had

first talked about him, and I did come away pretty impressed. You know, it looks the stuff looks legit, and he did look pretty rusty, which is to be expected coming off such a significant injury and long layoff. But yeah, this one, I was like that at any level, over any stretch, when you can do strike out half the batters that you face, like, that's worth paying attention to you. And yeah, I mean

I think so he got nineteen outs and fifteen of those were strikeouts. It's a I don't think that rate's sustainable in that but I do not think so. No, no, even if he keeps walking seven per nine, if he's also averaging twenty strikeouts per nine, he I think is the best picture of all time. I'll break my rule against guys with bad command if he can keep punching out twenty for nine. Yeah, I'm watching. I'm watching the some of his sliders right now, and I've got some lags, so

the video is going slow. I wonder what stuff plus measurements will kind of say about that pitch. I wonder I remember it moving quite a bit, like, Yeah, it had a lot of movement, So Hydden mullins, let's uh a little blast from the past maybe and see what happens. I like that pick. I like it better than my here. I really struggled

with the rest of this organization, especially on the pitching side. It's another popular system, so it's tough, right, and the arms that I like in this system are way too popular for us to b side and made it tough for me. I watched a bunch of guys that are just like a bunch of Dalton Rogers, and I was just like, the command doesn't look there, even though he was getting a lot of whiffs. Hunter Dobbins, who I sort of liked but ultimately said, doesn't have the stuff and isn't

quite gonna make that transition to being a reliever useful. You know, we had a solid season at double A, but I just, yeah, I thought on balance the stuff was going to tick down as he went up and couldn't tuck myself into it. So I kind of cheated here, and I

did take a three percenter, So I'm taking Isaac Coffee, and I so three percent owned in fan tracks when we pulled this in September. I think a lot of that is from just scouting the stat line, because most publications look at his be low and say this isn't sustainable. He's not gonna He's not gonna keep it. But one thing that gives me some hope about Coffee.

Unlike some of the other guys in this velocity range, like eighty eight to ninety one, he has a huge outlier trait in where he releases the ball, so he's a very very like drop and drive, low release, low arm slot righty that I think it's so unusual that the velocity plays way up. I mean, the guy got thirty one and a half strikeouts this year end of the year in double A, had really good command at high A, and then the command ticked down a little bit for the second half

of the year when he was in double A. Thought that arsenal. You know, it's this really low slot, fastball change up from the same spot that he throws to right he's throws to lefties, gets a lot of outs on and then his slider and cutter, which I think we're new for him. I think I read an article about that that he added certainly the cutter this year and was leaning on the slider more. But he uses that four pitch mix in any count and can command all of those pitches and really had

a phenomenal year. The one knock other than the velocity and sort of the kind of traditional scouting of his stuff, the one knock on him is homers and he gave up on the year like one point six five six' eight something like that. Homers per nine, so he gave up his fair share of homers and then some. And I don't think that's an accident really either. You know, the fastball all not missing a ton of bats. You know it doesn't have that missing at the top of the zone even from its

odd low angle. And then the change up I think is still his best secondary pitch. And again, if you miss with that change up, it's a little more likely to go for a home run. So I unbalance, I think Coffee had a great year. He's got a lot of unusual traits that I like, and the sort of b siding archetypes that we like to talk about at least and highlight. So even though he's a little bit more owned than normally I would go for in this exercise, like three percent is

my absolute outer limit. I just wanted to talk and give some credit to Coffee's unique traits that he brings to the table and say, I think there's something here even if the velocity doesn't tick up, as it hasn't really yet, but he's got a chance to continue to be successful with this kind of profile, and I think that's more than most folks are giving him credit for. And then the last thing. You know, Steamer just read his stat line and gave him a projected him for a four to nine er dropped in

the matrix this year, which by itself is really good. But I think that Zips was even more bullish and projected like a four to six something era. So both of those projection systems really liked what they saw from Coffee this year. So I think again, just another thing to note. You know that he's going to get dinged for his whole career based on the velocity, but the command, the mix, the odd angle, the art arm angle, I think are going to give him a shot. So Isaac Coffee is

my big here. They they took him fairly high in the draft, did they? At No, he was a tenth rounder. Was okay? Arms wise, like you said, I was pretty tough. The I was like, gonna very reluctantly go with Grant Gambrel, the another yeah, last from the past, if you will. I think has battled some injuries in his career. I don't know, but I think I don't really remember the reason why I was going to go with him. But then I came across Moons and I was like, oh, yeah, this is this is far more

exciting. Gambrell had a decent, decent year. I mean, he was guys that I looked too. He was in a right yeah, okay, all right, bats, what do you got for Red Sox bats? Mat.

Yeah. I picked a guy who was Rule five eligible and didn't get picked and wasn't on any of the sort of Rule five guys to know boards that I saw out there, and so I'm going with Alan Castro. You know, you know that's my pick. Nice nice, all right, all right. Well I was a little validated by that, even though I was kind of bumming that nobody even was talking about him as the Rule five selection.

He was on that robo scout list like that, Oh he was, Oh he was okay, okay, yeah, I didn't and read that one, but yeah, no Castro. I watched him ranked him for our draft, and I think he was maybe like eleventh or twelfth, So it was unlikely I was going to take him unless we were just like picking the exact same guys. But I liked him. I really liked what I saw. He had a level of athleticism that I think a lot of the guys that

I ended up taking in the b sides they don't really have. And I say this not just that he gets some steals, although he does, but he seems very athletic in the box, the way he swings, the way he plays defense. Even I caught a couple of glimpses of him for a switch hitter. I really liked both of his swings, which I think is unusual. Usually there's one that I like a lot more than the other. I thought that the lefty swing was really smooth, but the righty swing was

just as smooth and maybe even a little bit more polished. I don't know. I just my notes on both were like, Wow, I really liked how he sets up, and why is nobody on this guy? And I guess a couple of people do have him ranked. I think BA had him like down low twenty or high twenties in there or green. I think he's Yeah, I think he's currently thirty on thirty line. Okay, he is one percent rostered, so yeah, yeah, he's got some guys invested in

the owners and he does. But I really thought that he had a good year, and really he's been a consistently solid performer. Other than a small cup of coffee to end, the year at low A. Last year, he's been sort of a twenty percent better than the league average hitter at every stop. He's been fairly young for level. I mean, he was an international guy. That's why he was Rule five eligible this year. Yeah,

Alan Castro, I'm kind of into it. I was like, this is this is sort of an under the radar athletic guy who can do a little bit of everything. That was kind of my notes here. It was just like it might seem kind of boring on the surface, but after watching him, it was I thought a bit more interesting. I've read some reports that I felt like kind of even like speed and athleticism, I thought was maybe

a little bit under sold in some of those. But like one thing that I thought maybe most interesting about at least his numbers, was but he got three hundred and six single A plate appearances in and then finished with one hundred and eighty six high A plate appearances, and the walk percentage dipped from six point seven percent to nine point two, and then the k's jumped from seventeen point six to nineteen point four, but the ISO, the batting average,

and the slug all increased. He hit four home runs in that short high a stint after hitting three in the longer a ball stint, he was pulling the ball a little more at five percent, while the line drives kind of stayed the same. His home run to fly ball rate jumped, obviously, But I don't know, wondering if this guy is deciding to be a hitter instead of a lame walker, Matt, I think he's got a little bit

of both in him. And yeah, you know, I I do like the plate decisions, and I love that he dropped his k rate as he climbs the levels this year. Yeah, you don't see that a whole lot. No, and he did it while continuing to walk. I mean, I do think there's a potential plus approach here. And yeah, that sample at Hya looked really good. Yeah, and he's stole nineteen bases. I mean, I don't Sometimes you gotta be careful with stolen bases and the lowers

and thinking about the future. But yeah, like you said, was really sold me was. I really like the look of him at the plate. It's an easy, well balanced head, very still swing. He's not drifting and that coming forward. You know, the kind of guy that, if you like, stuck a pole down the back of his jersey. He would

just kind of like stay right there on the same spot. Despite not being like a power guy right now, the kind of swing where I do think a lot of times you will just hear people generically, in my opinion, generically just kind of say, well, you know, if you add some

muscle to his frame, you'll hit more home runs. Like this looks to me like mechanics the guy that that holds true that if he does get stronger, I think there is some more power potential in there without having to change a bunch of mechanics or what have you, or approach, or at least his approach in high A. Now, the splits were he was much better

from the left side, hit for more power, hit more racial. Yeah, he was like two seventy three seventy six four to twenty five as a lefty and two ten three nineteen two ninety only one home run from the right side. Interesting because I did like his righty swing quite a bit. He had doubles at a higher clip than anyone in low Ah, even more than Basalo. But yeah, and Basala had fourteen more games, but then he

also hit twelve home runs. I don't really know what that's saying, but uh, maybe kind of a guy that does nothing real great, but a lot of things really well. Kind of like you said, and I don't know, maybe a little bit juicier than than maybe the reputation is right now.

I don't know, I agree with that. And you know, just on the doubles point, he reminds me a little bit of will you or or bray you in that way like that was sort of a brain who's calling card during the minors was he didn't hit a ton of homers until what like four or five years into his career, but he was just racking up doubles. Yeah, and Castro is only he's only twenty years old. I don't know if we mentioned his name his age. I think he was nineteen for

part of this season. Yeah, he is a little bit like more wiry. I think they got him listed at six foot one seventy the way he just kind of like catch the ball with the bat and I and the swing decisions and stuff like. Yeah, I thought he was pretty good looking. Hit her. That's it then, right? Were there any other bats from the Red Sox that run your short list? Matt? I don't know, Uh, I think what I kind of feel like, there's the Red Sox

are kind of chuck full of interesting bats at kind of all times. Even though they were a popular organization. There there are bats that aren't rostered very much that still interests me, like Brooks Brandon catcher, Corey Rozier, who's yeah, yeah, it was that. I liked Johann from Garcia, who I think did he did he get plucked in the minor league portion? Or did John Frank Salazar one of those two? Okay, one of the Valas. Salazar is on my list too, Yeah, Nathaniel u Ten, Tyler

Dearden, Tyler Esplin, Tyler Miller, this kid you Roberto Mahicano. Now, but those are awesome guys that I had watched and considered. None of them with like alarming strikeout strikeout rates. I don't think they all that kind of slugged a little bit, But I honestly don't remember watching a lot of them right now. I think watching I always would like to watch Salem in Greenville. There's it seems like there's always some interesting both sides of the ball

pitchers and and hitters. One thing just to keep in mind and looking at the Red Sox minor league system is that Salem is a pretty good hitters park, Like it's it's fairly significantly above average, and then Greenville is plays a little bit closer to average, and then Portland is well below average one of the you know, it's not not like quite near the bottom, but it's

definitely the worst park to hit in in in the Red Sex system. So when you see a guy that has success in double A and that's it's something sort of to take notice, especially the hitters. And it's also I think why you look at someone like Coffee who did so well at high A and you might round up on that a little bit just because the park is a little bit more friendly to hitters. All right, Matt, the Toronto Blue

Jays, dude, this system sucks. Ooh, I strong disagree, even even like top and I know that we're we're digging around in the in the mud in the system depth wondering if anyone might have a major league chance. But the Blue Jays, even in even the top of the at least at least that wise, who's who's an MLB every day or in this system,

I still think is okay, that's fair? Now him completely flapping in the bigs, I think is on the table still, like I don't have the utmost Yeah maybe, I mean, I get what you're saying, like he's a pretty divisive prospect. I mean I was total, I was totally done. But Jeff Pance right rightfully, so turn turned me around with his opinions

on that. I think. But yeah, and I'm on it. I like, I have no shares because either whoever I play in the league's with a bunch of huge Blue Jays fans, and any Blue Jays prospect of any kind is just gone like that. So I've I've acquired a number of times when Orelvos was on like the downturn, It's just been rebuffed every time, like, yeah, you can send me your ace starting pitcher and I'll consider

selling or Elvis Martinez and Michael Hell that's too rich for me. But I think the power is legit, and I think that just gives him such a floor that I kind of don't care the knocks on his defense and I'm willing to kind of live with the ups and downs of that because I think the power is really okay. So I'll give I'll give him Martinez Hortz you don't.

You don't like Spencer Horwitz. I mean he's not exciting. I mean it's like not a plus guy like as in Barger is still sort of interesting, but I know what you mean, like it drops down after him, I mean the guy. You know, I know they drafted Namala, but even even him is kind of I mean, I'm no amateur high school especially like expert or file. But here's some people talk about his ability to stay up the middle and some questions about that, like point being he's still a

developmental you know guy, dude. Honestly, perhaps other than Martinez, my favorite bat might be Leo. Him and az former B side selection from a few years ago. Now, I don't have any huge expectations, but I think could potentially be a solid utility type in the bigs. David Schneider. I don't think he's an everyday player start to his career. I mean, yeah, so hot, right, But and you know, you look at

their past drafts the bat. I know that they have gone pitcher heavy, but a lot of the higher round bats that they've taken like not not looking super great. I mean, if you're doing if you're doing a fantasy list, a Dynasty list for the Blue Jays or Elvis Titaman. I love Ricky, but a lot of people, I know a lot of people worried about shoulder and injury and all that stuff. I'm I don't know. I try

not to just even worry about that stuff, so I get that. But like, okay, so maybe those two And like, honestly, the third guy that I would put is Connor Cook, who I think could very much be a closer. I do think there's some some relief picture prospects that are are kind of exciting, and they do have some exciting arms. But for the amount of draft capital, high draft capital capital they've spent on pictures, man, just I don't know this. This this organization felt felt rough to

me. When you get into you get into our mud in our area, and I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm not picking a bat. I can't. I can't. I'm just gonna take yours. I'm gonna take your bat where. I'll just I'll just I'll just piggyback that. I mean, what they get. I know, like Jace Bohofrian Boho, I don't know how to say it. He sounds interesting. Who else was gonna take Nick Nick Goodwin seventh round pick, did whatever for a little bit and a ball.

I was actually gonna go with Peyton Williams, my guy from Iowa. Have you ever seen Peyton Williams. I don't think so. Peyton Williams is a giant, large, not in a great way, lefty who has a powerful bat and just beats the ball into the ground. I think I might know who you're gonna pick because he's kind of the stature that you like. Some Arius guy that was like two high games that I watched some and he hit a single. You're Barrel. I don't know. Like Martin Kasovic even

I liked. I was like in the Tucker Towman the last draft, and he had like a very unimpressive season. Yeah, the son freaking Brown was one of the highest bats that they took, and like, oh cool, he's fast. I mean this this bowfroun guy. If I had to make a list, he might be like my number four guy. Yes, I

don't know who's your bat. Who's our bat, Matt, who's our bat? Well, I guess our bat is Raphael. I knew it because he's five to seven. He's five seven, he's tiny little Putian utility guy is what I wrote to start my little bit year. But he's got so many of the things that I like. He's got a robust played approach seventeen percent walks this year, only struck out eighteen point five percent of the time,

both very comfortably plus hit for not much power but not nothing. Twelve homers this year, three zho five four to twenty five four sixty nine on the year with forty doubles and twenty eight bags. So I'm going to talk about sort of across the board fantasy production. It's not half bad now the negatives.

He is small, five seven one point fifty something. I think he's listed at but under looking yeah yeah maybe maybe you know, I might take the over on the weight, but he's he's five to seven probably, and he played a bunch of different positions. I don't think he's really a short

stop. He played a good number of innings there, but I don't think he sticks as a shortstop, and obviously is block in Toronto there, but he also played third base, second base, left field, center field, right field, like plays all the positions and with the played approach as well as you know, not a nothing power on the power side, even if it's more doubles than Homer's. I was just like watching this guys like,

I think he's better than Cavin Bigio right now and plays more positions. Picked him super early on and he was on my short list to be drafted in our draft just because I was like, this guy's gonna play in the big league somewhere and he's gonna be fine. But Steamer thinks he's going to be

even a little better than fine. Steamer projects him for this year at a ninety eight WRC plus, which if he's playing second base and spelling, you know, playing third base even you know, after Chapman leaves and they don't think Irrelevans is ready or whatever. I mean. I think he plays this year, is my point. I think he's going to get some run for the Blue Jays and that's useful enough for us. You know, I'm not this isn't He's not going to be a stud for sure. That's why I

ended up not taking him in our draft earlier. The evs aren't great, and it's it's just a lot of line drives that he finds gaps and uses his speed to stretch. But the flexibility in both position and the way his plate approach. I like him. I like his I like how he plays well. I like him too. Is my pick to Matta and little Lentigua. We're going places, all right, let's move on to the arms here. All right, Well you were poo pooing the arms too. Who are

you going for? Quickly? Last year went with Michael Dominguez. I don't know if you've watched any domingas a little bit kind of interesting. He got up to double a one hundred and two winnings, ten point five to five kpro nine, but he walks a lot of dudes. But I still I wonder if diminga is make for an interesting relief pitcher. Yep, moving forward, but yeah, so this year again, man, I'm gonna go with

a guy that had one outing to watch, because again, Matt a huge fan of the others. I had watched a little bit of Trenton Wallace in double A lefty with a wide angle, low nineties. I don't think there was much to watch where you got injured. And then there is this guy Devereux Harrison that I think is hitting some list who was in high A.

I just didn't know if there was enough juice there. And I just found Ryan Jennings, their fourth rounder from the twenty twenty two draft class out of Louisiana, attack a bit more interesting, even though I only, like I said, watched one game, because that's all there was. Ryan Jennings. He's alrighty listed at six foot one hundred and ninety pounds, He's twenty four years old now, like derailed by injury in June, I think too. In college his last year of college, I don't recall exactly, but I

don't think he pitched very much. Yeah, so he was injured in June, but he did get back for an unbroadcasted September start, so I don't think the injury was too significant. None of Drenning's A ball appearances were broadcast, and only one of his high A was that's the one I got to watch. But I thought he showed a fairly polished fastball, mid nineties fastball,

knuckle curveball attack. He has the rest of the kitchen sink too, But this is the main two offerings North South game, and I admit, you know, this could very well be more of a bullpen looking future. Like most of the arms in this system over the last few years, but I don't think the book has closed on him. Starting three starts this year, ten innings, two point seven, the ra struck out nine point nine whatever. It's not enough to really get into too much, but he struck

out fifty five batters in forty three innings while walking seventeen. I think I shared a gift in that little article that I did of him striking out Victor Barracoto on some pretty nasty breaking balls. Yeah, Ryan Jennings, That's that's what I'm going to saddle up with in this awesome system. I am pulling

a little bit of a page out of your book and taking a guy that I have seen all of like two innings. Welcome to Welcome to the wild irresponsible side. Man. Yeah, I don't love doing it. He did throw a lot more innings in that this year, but of course it was in the stupid Florida State League where there's just no video. Never pitched against Bradenton, did he did he pitch against Saint Lucy? No? Nothing. But I am going Lazaro Estrada on the small side five ten one A and

has actually been around for a really long time. You know he's Rule five eligible and didn't get taken. I actually thought he had a chance to get taken because for reasons I'll talk about here in a minute. But he didn't get taken because he's still in a ball. He's been so what he was a signee in I think twenty seventeen and he's now twenty four. So he's been in the minors for what seems like forever, and he's spent three of

the past four years at a ball. So all that is like terrible, right, like red flags everywhere, except that he just keeps striking everybody out and he doesn't walk very many. He's like for a picture that hasn't advanced past a ball. He actually got a really encouraging projection from Steamer. Again, all this is contextual, but I like to use that as a flag of like, oh am, I looking for things that showcase future potential,

and that's obviously what projection systems are all trying to do. And so it was a nice little note in his favor that it's like, oh wow, Like Steamer never projects pictures that are in a ball for low fives eras in the Major League. They waits until they get into hy a double A and then it starts to say, like, ah, this is a real arm. So this year he started the year relieving, which is he's kind of

been doing this. He's like done some starting, done some relieving, and then this year he was doing a lot of relieving early in the year, and then they put him back on the starter's role, and so he ended up starting nine games mostly to end the year. I think, I think

that's what all it starts were. But he had a fascinating year. He struck out thirty three point three percent of batter city face only walked eight point four percent, so that's, you know, just better than average, just barely better than average on the walks, and way better than average on the strikeouts. And yeah, seventy six and a third innings, one hundred and three strikeouts, only fifty five hits two So his whip for the year was

one point six Pretty good, pretty good. The thing about Estrata that is really interesting is that he has this bugs bunny lookin' fastball, like it just it is one of I think one of the best fastballs that I've seen, and not because he throws it really hard, although I think he can run it up there decently fast. He gets it up to ninety five. I

think it's mostly in the ninety two to four range in there. But if I had to guess, and I don't know if I looked at this or saw anything about it, but I think he's got one of the highest spin rates in the minors. So super high spin fastball. Even though it's only quote ninety five, it kind of has some Bryce Miller traits to the fastball

in it. It just rises so much. You see these guys like so again, I've only seen like four innings of him pitch, and they were all in last year, maybe two years ago, twenty twenty one, when he made it up to high A and he I think all the outings that I saw him at Hillsborough, and you just watch these high hitters try and hit his fastball at the top of the zone, and like you can tell that they are trying, like they know he's going to throw it at the

top of the and they're trying so hard to stay on top of it, and they still pop it up, just pop it right up in the infield or with So it's this incredibly high spin fastball that he throws up to ninety five at the top of the zone, and his curveball is wildly good, I think. I mean, it just looks like this massive hammer that it has none of the loop that you see in a lot of a lot of

curveballs. It just looks like it is spinning. It's like he's spinning that as fast as he's spinning his fastball, Like he really seems to have a feel for how to spin the ball. And then he also has a slider, which I didn't think was very good in the looks that I saw two years ago, but I'm guessing has taken some steps forward just because he's probably been throwing it now for a couple of years. But for only seventy six innings pitch this year, and again at a ball, this was a really

exciting arm. I've really really liked a few of the arms that I've seen at a ball, which is unusual for me. I feel like that's not usually where I'm looking for pitchers. Usually I wait until they're at high A or double A and then they're showing out and then I'll snag some under the radar guys there. But there's a good crop at a ball and Estrata's in

that mix. For me, he had a really really interesting year, And some of the traits here are round way up on the velocity and round up on the command, because this isn't a guy who's living on the edges. This is a guy who his stuff can play in the zone. And I'm so fascinated to see him go up to high again and double A maybe next

year. The reason I thought he might get popped in the rule five is that he kind of looks like the guy that might be able to pay ch out of a bullpend just because that fastball and curveball and slider, like you can probably play that in middle or lower leverage innings for a year, especially if you're not a contender and you're like twenty fourth and fifth spots on the roster, like aren't that important. But he's still in low A, and so I mean, it makes sense why he didn't get picked. But yeah,

Lazaro Estrada, I'm just fascinated by it. And maybe some of that's because I've seen so little of him that I really want to see more. So he was one of the guys that I'm actually most excited to watch next year. Guys like that. I mean for our purposes, it's just let's watch this guy. Let's keep an eye here, and if it's looking really good, maybe we jump on him before all of our league mates do. Yep, the Blue Jays, according to MLB Pipeline, the twenty fifth ranked

farm system. Well, the Astros are ranked thirtieth. That's what we like the Astros. I don't mean to be offensive to it was like any Blue Jays fans out there, you guys have a really good baseball team. You don't have to have a great farm system. There are other ways to have a great baseball team. The Baltimore Orioles last year went with for Bat. I went with Creed Williams. There's some Creed Williams fans out there. Yeah.

We had a lot of fun, especially during his a ball run where he was he was scorching, he was on a tear, and then you know, things didn't go quite as well in Hi A still an interesting watch for me, if I recall correctly. Didn't didn't Gunnar Henderson have some struggles when he went when he moved up to Aberdeen? Did he? I don't know, maybe it was just like a month or something, but AnyWho you

know. Back in twenty twenty one, we went with Ilio Prato. He kind of had a sneaky good season between a ball and hi A. I think he's I don't know how how old is he twenty one twenty two. I'll just stick with my first year player, but we'll do that during the first year Player Draft episode. Last year's pitcher was Juan de Los Santos, who was a young guy who was cutting his teeth and a ball who I

thought showed some pretty good stuff but did not really back it up. This year, he struck out eight point nine k per nine, walked almost five per nine, ad era of four point six over ninety a ball innings, big body guy, maybe still still a name to watch, but didn't quite have the success I thought maybe he could. And so this year pitcher, I mean, I don't know, I don't know what your thoughts were digging in on the arms at this level, but I kind of thought there was

a good chunk of interesting ones. And I know the Orioles starting pitcher future is a question that a lot of folks like to talk about, but I kind of felt like they seemed to have a good bunch of interesting arms that had like in history, like they've kind of went to like the injury the injured college arm discount rack. A little bit later in draft came down to

four arms for me, Peter Van Loon, Ryan who was in the AFL, I think Ryan Long, and Daniel Lloyd. But Cameron Weston, the right hand pitcher who was in High A this year, was the most interesting to me. And this could very well be end up a relief pitcher more so than most. But he was a twenty twenty two eighth round pick out of Michigan. I don't know, did you watch any of Weston? I don't think I did. Right, So he's listed at six two, two

hundred and fifteen pounds. This is kind of shocking. I didn't think he Yeah, maybe he's that big. He's twenty three years old right now. His stat Ryan first caught my eye. He liked four point one innings. He pitched three point four innings per outings. Only three of his twelve appearances where technically starts like I said, you go three to four innings during some

stretches. I had a two point six eight ERA one point two four or whip struck out forty nine walked only two point six eight per nine, didn't give up hardly any home runs maybe a home run through strikes at sixty two percent. You know, there wasn't not a whole lot of reports and stuff on Weston that I found. I did find one draft scouting. The report back in twenty twenty one said that he had a fringy breaking ball. But now I'm you know, it's tricky, but I'm kind of wondering if maybe

Weston is a little bit of a spin doctor. Now pretty twenty some inning pitch shutdown showing during the twenty twenty two Cape, and I want to feel like I heard Jeff talking about him a little bit and his breaking ball. He's got a three quarter arm slot fastballs mid nineties. Regularly think he throws a two seamer. No, it's it's more of a two seam shape.

I think. I'm not totally sure the quality really is, Especially in some outings or some stretches that I saw, he was pretty heavy on the breaking ball, probably throwing the breaking ball more than the fastball. A change up

comes in at eighty three eighty four, I think looks pretty good. And then that little report they kind of remarked that his change up may have been the best pitch back in Michigan. There's like gyro like downward movement, Like it's tricky, Like we've talked about this before, but I feel like sometimes

there's some different pace on the breaking ball. I don't know if that's intentional or just inconsistencies sometimes, and you know, I don't know, maybe this is just broadcast speed or something, but I feel like sometimes the breaking ball seems to take there forever, but the velo on them it comes out firmer,

you know, than you might think. And I think it does have some you know, hard to tell from our angles, but it seems to break a little bit later than your sort of average or your average like gyro slider is down here at high A just watching a little bit of him. There's not a ton to watch. Is this guy's kind of like mastering this break or is this like very much still like in a developmental phase and he's learning how to spin it. I can't really say, but the outcomes look

really nice. I don't know, maybe more of like East West, But like I said, there's there's more vertical break on the breaking balls. He was much more effective versus right east and west east. Part of the reason why I didn't watch that many innings is he came off the ale in June, like I said, he was mostly like a piggybacker then, and then they kind of throttled him down the last couple his last couple of outings,

he only went one. I am kind of wondering if maybe there's a maybe there's a quota that he's supposed to be hitting with the with the breaking balls, throwing them all the time, and kind of kind of like at times, it just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. He had some pretty impressive lines against Bowling Green, gave up two runs, didn't walk an he struck out nine. I watched some of that. You know, his strikeout his strike percentages range from like fifty nine to seventy two in games.

But again, if this is a guy that's really trying to work on spinning it, I could get you know, I can accept some lack of lack of efficiency. So I don't know. Cameron Wesson, like I said, there were some interesting arms, but he just kind of caught me the most and got me drawn in the most out of anyone. And like I said, even if the future is reliever, he could maybe be a good one. Interesting, I didn't watch any O Weston, so I'll have to throw

him on and check out the breaker. He does very much feel kind of like in between to me as far as like is this a reliever or is this a starter, because I think there's traits that go both ways that I imagine the Orioles will continue to explore and see where he ends up. They certainly need the pitching help, so hopefully some of these guys turn into something because they seem allergic to actually spending money on pitching. And so there you

go. Baside, Jeff, there's a Michigan Wolverine for you. That might be good. Well for my arm, I'm going to go back to the

SEC and take Trace Bright from Auburn. Bright had a little bit of helium. I think, you know, maybe before his draft year he was getting talked a little bit about and he had a really nice stretch of starts in the middle to late ish this season I think, where he had something like twenty seven strikeouts over three outings, So it was like twenty seven strikeouts in

like fifteen or fourteen innings or something, so pretty impressive. So he's sort of like a more polished college arm who's moving relatively quickly through the system and had a good year overall, especially you know, didn't quite throw one hundred innings, but started twenty one games, struck out almost thirty four percent of batters he faced. Spent most of the year at high A, but did get what was this his last four he has last four games were in double

A in Buis, and he really did pretty well at both spots. Maybe a few too many walks when he was at Hi A, you know, certainly more than I like to see up around that twelve percent range that I've said before is a bit of a danger zone, but dropped the walks a little bit at double A, although he was getting a fair bit fewer swinging strikes just ten percent swinging strikes at double A, which is again not great, and I think that is partly where I watched most of his Double A

starts, and that's sort of where my tempering of my enthusiasm went. You know, he was on my little longer list of guys to evaluate for our picture draft, but I kind of ruled him out pretty early because after watching him a bunch I just wanted to round down on everything that he had.

He's ninety to ninety five on the fastball, which I'd seen a report before that it was like an interesting pitch or a plus pitch or something, but I don't really think it is. He didn't seem like he was getting a lot of whiffs with the fastball, and he seemed like he located it. Okay, he was trying to pitch at the top of the zone, but he still wasn't getting that many whiffs. Looked like a lot of his whiffs were on a pretty big, breaking seventy five to seventy eight mile an hour

curveball. And then he throws a harder, kind of cuttery slider. I couldn't tell whether it was a cutter or a slider, but it was a kind of slider shape, but I think a little bit firmer, maybe not quite as much movement or break. But I didn't love the command with that one. He seemed to miss arm side on that a lot, which is bad, Like you don't want to miss armside with a cutter. And then

an occasional change which he also would miss arm side some. It just seemed like he didn't his command wasn't tight for those secondaries, and he was pretty decent landing his curveball and his fastball for strikes. But since his curveball to me was his best pitch, that gives me pause. You know how a lot of people they see a change up first guy and they're worried about how that plays. For me, I feel like that's a curveball if you're I

feel like a good curveball. A decent curveball can hide a lot of other stuff in the minor leagues, but that seems to get hit quite a bit more once you get to the big leagues, unless it's a real, like

sharp kind of hammer curveball. Bright gave me those kind of vibes. So even though he struck out quite a lot of batters this year and the walks seem to be trending in the right direction, I feel worried about how the profile is going to play because all the things kind of put together command middling round down on the fastball, round down on the cutter slider, and then

the only plus pitch here is probably the curveball. I don't know. I wasn't blown away, and I think that he's a guy that might struggle a bit more as he goes up the ladder and then he gets to the big lee level and all that said, I still like him. He was definitely a guy that interested in for our picture draft, and some of the projection system seems to like him okay as well, so it'll be interesting to see if he sharpens some things up this year. But yeah, trace Bright interesting

without a ringing endorsement. I see him on some lists. I think only one percent owned, so you know, yeah, squarely within our B side Muddon territory. I felt there were a couple other interesting bats here, and I'm not going to say this. Anita Mordan is a catcher first base who got a little bit of a ball run like I don't know how many of his aid home runs were in a ball were all of them? But just he's just got kind of an interesting profile. I want to watch some more

of a short leverage swing. I liked him, Yeah, okay, right on. I kind of thought you would go with Billy Cook, to be honest, but maybe maybe it don't walk enough for you or something. But Cook going Billy Cook. I'm going Billy Cook. Oh yeah, yeah, okay, all right, did you watch any Maxwell Costas. Yeah, yeah, he's kind of interesting, undrafted guy from Maryland. It's tough though.

Maybe this is silly of me, but if if we are playing sort of the game within the game here, it's kind of tough for me to get on board with some of the guys in the uppers here, just because there's

so much talent at the top here. Yeah, that, even though I may really like Billy Cook or a hitter in the uppers, for them, it's like other dynasty owner is going to be into it when playing time seems very dicey, you know, No, agreed, And they're major league team, very very good for not a hundred win team like they were this year and they way overperformed on their pipeg and everything, but still a very very

good team, very young. And then the top of their like their pretty boys are awesome, like definitely and maybe the lowest person on Jackson Holiday. And I still think that guy's going to be a star. I just don't think he's like the next coming of you know, Fantasy Superstar greatness. I think he's gonna be a very very good major league player, you know,

all star multiple time. I feel pretty confident about that. I just worry about his you know, sort of top three round fantasy impact that some folks seem to think is just an absolute lock. But yeah, Kobe Mayo, Samuel Bissalo, like those guys can absolutely rake and are gonna be phenomenal big

leaders as well. I mean when you're talking about like Connor Norby, Hessen Kirstad, Joey Ortiz, Colton Kowser as like the guys on the outside looking in on their starting rotation are starting lineup, like especially their hitters are just man, there are interesting guys up and down this system, and that did make it a little bit hard to pick a B sider because all those guys

are popular and worthily, so you know they definitely deserve it. But going Billy Cook here, and you know, I'll talk about Billy Cook, but there's also like five other names that I also like in other organizations would be my no doubt best side picks. John Rhodes. I think he's a guy we've talked about once or twice before. I've been interested in him for a couple of years, and he had a solid year this year, just like

slowly sort of progressing to the ORG and pretty solid. Her Naves was a guy who like just couldn't even Yeah, I know, these solid potential, everyday big leader, I think, yeah, yeah, and then guys like Max Wagner had a solid year, Frederick ben Cosmy like super interesting, just a weird kind of profile guy, super skinny, makes a lot of contact,

feels bags, but doesn't do anything else. You know. Yeah, they're almost like a lot of Dynasty owners that I play with, Like, cool man, you're loaded up with all these bats, but like, uh, what are you going to do on the other hand, Yeah, yeah, a little bit tough for going on the other side, I thought, But just so many interesting games. And then there's maybe the FYPD guy that

you're referencing. They have like three that I'm really into, which again is like they're doing something pretty impressive on the hitting side of things with their minor league system. It's just like, I'm honestly baffled why they haven't traded for more of this depth because they just have such a surplus and the logjam is coming in the big league level. Oriol fans out there, if this turns into some sort of Dynasty esque championship team, I will give it to you.

I will accept it. I just want like one huge, pinch hit home run like Creed Willems in some playoff or something, because I think that would be so much fun. I think we'll be waiting a long time for

that, and honestly for Billy Cook too. Like so Billy Cook is is my b side guy here. He had a really solid year, not outstanding by any means. One hundred and ten WRC plus on the year, five hundred plate appearances, twenty four homers, thirty steals, walked eight point four percent of the time, struck out twenty five percent of the time. Good overall line. Good for a two fifty one three twenty four fifty six. He's mostly an outfield. Everybody has played some second base, so I did

like the positional flexibility. I really liked his setup an approach to the plate. He has really still quiet hands, which I like, and when there's not a lot of moving parts, it seems like he's going to be fairly consistent, even if the upside is certainly not close to a lot of the

other guys in this system. And then the thirty bags. Like, he's an athlete, He's a really good athlete, has some power, has some speed, and especially for you know, a categories focus league like this kind of guy is the kind that I am often drawn to sort of across the board category production like those kinds of guys I think are really interesting, and then you have your smattering of specialists that you roll in there. But yeah,

Billy Cook, I just liked the overall shape of the production. This isn't a star. He's really probably not going to ever get much playing time with Baltimore, but there are lots of other ways that that can go, whether it's Rule five, whether he gets traded out again. He's just sort of an under the radar name to keep an eye on when he I think inevitably makes the big leagues somewhere else. So, yeah, Billy Cook up to Double A this year, spent the whole year actually in Double A.

So he'll be twenty four season yep. And it's on the back of fifteen to twenty five season last year, so it's not out of the question. And you know, Pat tipping again to him being a pretty good athlete. This isn't just him being a smart based stealer, but thirty steels all only three caught stealing this year. Last year was twenty five and four. That kind of ratio says like he probably could steal even more. So again,

good athlete here, and a nice fine. And the other thing too, was this year his strikeouts he cut by six percent and walked more than he ever has in his career, so like it looks like he's optimizing his plate approach to as he continues to do the things that he does well. So yeah, Billy Cook is interesting guy. Yeah yeah, Yeah, Iso over too, huh yeah. And the other reason that I liked him is his babbeb was pretty low. So he was a two ninety eight babbit guy last

year and then a two ninety babbit guy this year. And some of that is the shape of his swings, Like he hits a lot of fly balls, so forty five forty seven percent fly ball rate, thirty two percent ground ball rate, and that's a lower babeb kind of production. But it does mean that if he spikes a year where he's hitting twenty four percent line drives and forty percent fly balls like that, Babeb's going to tick up. And I think that there's going to be a lot more doubles to go along with

a decent number of homers. So yeah, Billy Cook, interesting dude, interesting, interesting guy to followup. He had a little AFL run as well. I think I think he did some things down there. Tampa Bay Rays always truck full of interesting players in my opinion, even down you know, down here in the mud. Last season, pitching wise went with Ben People's Now, I had expressed that I like in a long term, real serious

sense. I didn't think I was too too interested, but I felt that he kind of had the sort of one loud weapon that the Rays like to, you know, get the most out out of them, move along,

and he had a I think he had a pretty decent season. Twenty two starts in High A as a twenty two year old eighty four and a third inning four point zero six ERA a whip that was a little a little high at one point four to three, but he did strike out ten for nine walks for not the greatest at four point eight, but he did have some really nice outings, some really big lines. You put up some numbers in

the Rays system as a pitcher, you're going to get some attention. So maybe a guy who's still a little sneaky under the radar some extent We've had some success with the bats too here in the past. Oslaves Psave was our original B side selection, and he made the major leagues this year. I'm not expecting any sort of like or a lot of impact with the bat,

but I do think he's a good hitter. There's probably a lot of ways that the Rays can go, and I don't know where he fits in with all of it, but I think he's got a chance that if he produces, he could stick around. We went with Brett Wisely in the past, who was obviously traded to the Giants, but he made the big leagues as well. Not that I believe he's going to be some huge star, but I do think that he's better than his major league performance last year. Be

better. Just a guy who good athlete who can kind of do it all. He just has to stop striking out all the time. I don't know if he was really ready, to be honest, went from a two way player to exclusively a hitter, and in what and then two and a half seasons went got all the way up to the big leagues like and then this season for the bat, I took I took Ryan Sermac number one overall on our in our hitter drafts. Yeah, what do you got for a bat

this year, Matt? There are a lot of good B side options here, I do believe. I looked at Drew Baker a bit. I liked the light power, but some power, batch of deals with a decent played approach outfielder made it up to double A this year. Even liked a little bit of what Ronnie Simon did this year at triple A kind of utility infielder that you know, ninety five wrsc pluses but thirty one steals playing all around the feel like again, there's some utility in keeping tabs on those kinds of

guys. Tristan Peters had an interesting season where he ended up in Double A. Another outfielder, a little bit of power, a little bit of speed. Yeah that's who they That's who they got in the Wisely trade. Oh that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah Peters. I liked him, But I'm going with someone that it sort of fits what you were saying of like

a one tool guy. Do you know, do you know who it is? One tool guy? This one sackisaki no no similar though, so it's stolen bases is a stolen basis or walking a bunch. Chandler Simpson second in the minors in steals this year, just behind Victor Scott. Wait wait wait, how tall is he? He's tall. He's he's a like tall skinny

guy. Okay, all right, yeah, six two six two, one seventy and I kind of believe that, like he's he's skinny, six seventy, ninety four steals this year, no homers, so unlike Victor Scott, who you know, is a top one hundred prospect I think a lot of places, and rightfully so, especially for fantasy, who had ninety five steals and like ten or twelve homers or something. So he has, you know, some power. Chandler Simpson. No power, There's there's none here.

The ISO on the year was point five to oh or something five to two. It's I mean, he has just no pop at all. It is a really goofy swing. You watch him and you're like, what are you doing? But he's so fast, dude. I just like watching him is really fun. He's just a totally different kind of player than lots of other guys. Does he bunt? He bunts, He like shoots balls in the

gap and and just runs and runs, and runs. The reason you probably don't have him on your list is he was at three three percent when I pulled this, and and so it was like a little a little high, and so a lot of the other guys that we talked about were lower than

that. But Chandler Simpson, I just couldn't pass up the like the one tool star who just I think just isn't getting love anywhere else because the swing is so goofy and there's he is never going to hit home runs, like he might not hit two in a season ever, but the speed is absolutely real. And so you know, focusing on a category, its like like this is a guy who I'm never interested in in any of like my power focused points leagues, but I couldn't help but pick him just because he is

so fast. I got him eleven one on a triple O this year for context, the fastest in the major leagues and a triple this year, I think was was like Ellie at eleven oh five and Corbyn Carroll was right behind him at eleven oh six. Something that you know, again, I'm not stat casting this. I was like me timing on my phone watchson, but it was like eleven one eleven two like it right in there. That is

lightning fast around around the bases. And the other fun thing about him is he's got no power, but he doesn't k He like eight point seven percent strikeout right on the year, which I think is really important for a guy like this because if he just puts the ball in play, it puts so much pressure on the defense. And when he does find holes, that's a double, that's a triple. So it's I normally really right off guys whose ISO is is below one hundred, and his is way below one hundred,

and it's deserved. It's not like he was getting unlucky. It's just like this is his swing. But the speed is truly a top of the scale tool. And then the contact skills are good good to very good. So Jaylor Simpson, I think that this is one of the more interesting one tool players in the minor leagues. And and you may you might even call it two tools because like I said, the contact skills are are solid, and you know, he hit two ninety three this year and seems reasonable for him

to keep doing it, especially in the minor league. So he's just going to keep hitting the ball in the ground, finding holes and running. I mean, I kind of decided that I was going to go with Cermak pretty early on. But I have here too as far as upper miners, Blake Hunt, Bob Seymour, Kenny, Piper Tanner, Murray thought, we're all very viable B side selections, and then in the Lowers Blake Robertson and then at the time was Shane's Sasaki, But I think he's gone up. He

was at two percent. Then I'm sure he's gone up now after the AFL, but when I pulled in, I think he was. He was still at three percent or something. But again, like and honestly, I probably wasn't as interested in him as as those other guys. I have a feeling this season, Matt, that we will be talking to about a good slew of Tampa Bay ray Bats when we're looking at guys who are not rostered at a high rate and doing some things offensively arms, I think, again,

there were some good options. I was I was probably gonna go with Logan Workmen. He kind of you kind of got buzz in the a f L, and I don't know if he's really B side esque, But I watched this Roel Garcia, who was in hi Ah Duncan David a little bit who was in High A two felt a little too raised plastically for me. And they're older in High A. Not that that's a huge deal now. I know Trevor Martin is on some lists. Drake Christiansen, He's not on the

list. But here's another interesting guy in a ball. And then Anthony Molina, who I think the Rockies just picked in the Rule five draft if I'm not mistaken, Yeah, yeah, he was in Triple A. I kind of decided against him because I feel like he was probably a relief pitcher and I think that's probably the plan for the Rockies here. Yep. So I actually ended up going. And this is very very much because of the system

that he is in. But Gary gil Hill, who was a sixth round twenty twenty two selection of Theirs out of New York Prep selection. He's only nineteen years old, and there was again this is another very small sample size for me. He logged three and two thirds A ball innings after a late August move off the complex, and all of those reviewable. He's listed at six y two one sixty. He is lean, you know, hard to tell, but I was kind of surprised that they had him listed at six

' two. I didn't think he was that tall. Maybe he is, but the innings is a it's a sharp fastball slider combination. Fastball I think was getting up to ninety six and the slider looks like yes, sorry, So fastball was like ninety four ninety five I think maybe ticked up to ninety six. But the slider I feel like could maybe turn into a special pitch, especially with the Rays, who are going to get this probably two pitch attack, probably as sharp as it possibly can be get it in the lab

and tuned up. And not that I have like real true dynasty interest in Hill, but I do feel like this is a guy who is going to rack up a bunch of k's be in the Rays system and get a lot of attention. I know that might be a silly bet to put on a nineteen year old that you've barely seen any of You're nothing if not bold made. I love it. It feels like this feels like prime Rays clay to me that they're going to sharpen into their one of their like little plastic pieces

here with a big weapon. Maybe I mean power to you for getting excited about a nineteen year old in a ball with the twenty k RA and five to five e RA. Well, Gary Gil Hill. I always like learning about new players, so that is always fun, you know. I mean, what what was the sign what was his signing bonus? It was fairly high in the sixth round. Oh really, I just yeah, I just feel like they well, you know, he's you know, maybe he maybe he could fill out, get a little stronger. I don't know all that

stuff, but I don't know. I'm gonna make I'm making a wild bet that Hill racks up a bunch of k's in a ball next year and gets gets noise. But again, not a guy that I would like seriously be, you know, wanting to roster right now. But maybe just a little watch put a tab on Hill and see how his k's looking a ball next year. I was drawn to their A ball arms as well. I watched

a bit of Trevor Martin and Marcus Johnson. I think both sort of interesting for different reasons, but they're like this is you know how I was saying about Logan Henderson the other week and talking earlier today about Trace Bright like guys and lazarro astrata like guys that are at a ball low a they're so far away, so unless they're just absolutely dominating, it's really hard to be like

it's super excited about what they're gonna do. And so that's why Martin and Johnson for me, I both were sort of interesting, but after watching him, I was like, I need to see this work at higher levels. And none of the other kind of b side esques starting pitchers really jumped out to me. Again, I'm very sure that some of the guys that I passed over the Rays are somehow we're going to turn into a good one hundred inning pitch starter. They're gonna find someone. I'm just not I couldn't figure

out which one it is. And actually Logan Workmen might be the pick. Like I did watch a little bit of him, but didn't come back to it, and maybe that was a mistake because he did some things that I liked and what you were saying, yeah, yeah, he's got some plus weapons and just generically speaking, it's an okay picture uses them all right,

I think. Yeah, Santiago Suarez was like that too, you know, he's again member that a ball rotation, and I did end up watching quite a few of those games, just because I was like, oh, well, this guy's interesting, and this guy's interesting another super low walk okay, strikeout kind of guy. So I think that trio is of interest for me. As they rise in Trevor Martin, Marcus Johnson, and Santiago Suarez, and then again Logan Workman, I might dive into him a bit more.

I do think Workman's got like I think they say, he's got a pretty like kind of highbrow designer fastball if you will, Okay, okay, Yeah, the guy that I wanted to which he kind of really checks out with the race. Yeah, totally the guy that I wanted to pick and talk

about for my official piece. I'd here is another reliever. So I'm not super excited about it. But as you were describing Gil Hill, mister Gilhill, which I can't believe that's his name, Gil Hill. What we need to discover the story behind it's Gary gil Hill. So is it Gary gil It's last name Hill or Gary Gary, Gary gil Hill, no hyphen nothing, just Gary gil Hill. I don't know Gary gil all right. I

still want to know the story behind that name. But I'm going to go with Keishan Askew rostered had a really good year, but is a reliever. I mean, he started nine games this year, but and through almost one hundred innings ninety seven innings this year. But I just feel pretty sure he's

going to be a reliever. And maybe in sort of that like Jalen Beaks mold that the Rays have done before, of like a guy who can go multiple innings, they might use as an opener, they might use as a follower, maybe with a little bit of volume behind it because they have let him stretch out a little bit. Mister Askew has a wicked slider, and you want to talk about movement profile, like this thing from the left side, it just dives across the plate, and I think he gets a decent

amount of depth for being a sweeper. For like being a sweeper esque slider. I think it also crosses the zone a lot, but I think it also has a little bit of bite to it at times. And whether that's him manipulating it or he just has a little more depth to his sweeper,

I'm not sure. But it is a very very good pitch. He struck out thirty one percent of batters face this year and walked eleven percent, a little high for me, and I think it's largely because his slider moves a ton and his other secondary is a changeup that it really doesn't seem like he knows where it's going. Like I saw a smattering of strikes with it, but I wouldn't be surprised if his strike percentage with his changeup is below fifty

percent. Again, anecdotally from the starts that I watched, it was the he missed with that one a lot. But his fastball is good, you know, it's a ninety one to three with sync and from a kind of

low short arm action slot. He seems again to me, like a pretty high probability big leaguer and just maybe in that swingman role that they've relied on from a lot of their a lot of their starters, and with the way that the Rays chew through their starting pitchers, end up needing this kind of guy a lot, And so that's why I kind of went with him. He made it up to double A this year and was pretty good there as

well, so he's not far away. That's sort of what broke the tie for me between a skew and trying to decide between Martin and Johnson and Suarez. So Kishanasku super interesting guy. Think he's going to be a reliever, but maybe more interesting than most relievers, just because of the way that rais. The Rays tend to deploy this kind of arm. I like when you talk about some pictures I haven't watched, so I'm always always down for some

new arms to watch. That's the Al East, that's the al least, don't you think though, it's a You get out to these Eastern divisions and I like just the prospects are more popular. Yeah, but we had lots of guys to talk about in Baltimore. I mean, their hitters there was deep and I am really excited about the two guys that I talked about in Toronto. I know that I tend to agree with you. The rest of

that system is a little bit shallower. You know, a couple of decent guys up top, a couple of interesting names, and then it's not a lot there. Next week it will be our last division installment, right, we got the n Allis. It's been a few months of this. Huh Yeah, so many names, so many names. We're probably gonna have like at least mentioned five hundred names, four hundred. Yeah, we've got to

We've got to hit on one of them. Matt. I know, I'm kind of feeling down today just with the Rule five and not none of our none of our guys got popped, you know. Yeah, it's not everything right, you know, like, but it is a nice little feather in your cap if you get one Rule five guy, you think, uh,

Devis Davison, Dela Santos will uh, I think I'll do anything this year. I don't know. Our buddy Don really likes him, and he sounds really in the losers. I know he does like Luis Matos, so I've heard. I've heard that. Yeah, I'm just giving down hard the time.

I really don't have a problem with those players did less. You know what, he missed a little bit of time this year, and I think some of that that it was hypothesized that it was for developmental reasons, like they wanted him to work on a swing, and then he came back after that and was better and hit better and the power is legit. I just think his swing decisions are so bad, like he chases so much, and while he's got power, it's almost like he's giving away so many at bats

that he can't let the power flourish. So while I like him and Jock Hessey, Noel too very similar in a lot of ways, like young a ton of power, have yet to really put it all together. And it's interesting they're both in the same organization. Now they might, you know, compete with each other for spots, but Cleveland's they're not dumb, and I think they know that they need more power in their organization. Like they've got three hitters on their Major League forty man they have any power at all,

that's it. And and like even they're good prospects, they've got two that might have average power, which in Cleveland system looks like wow, those are the big homer bats and Manzarto and the latter. But other than that, like they've got no thump in that lineup, other than Jose Ramirez and the Naylor brothers. So that's why, Like, if I'm a Guardians fan, I'm sitting here and like, why do we have why do we have Juan Brido sitting in a j Well Nolan Jones is I don't know, Yeah,

that is an interesting one. And I like Juan Brido and I like a lot of them guys. But I wonder if getting ddls and seeing if he can be a low OBP, high slug kind of first base DH right handed power bat you know, might be in the mix. What do you think his major league strikeout percentages this season next year? Yeah, above thirty percent for sure. I'm gonna go thirty second because he Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with you. I mean, he was like above thirty even after

he improved and had a little time off. Like that's and a lot of that I think is from the chase in zone contact numbers off the top of my head for him. But I remember looking into him after talking about him with Don one time, and I was like, yeah, that power seems interesting. He does seem like some things have changed, quieted up his stance a little bit, and I thought it looked better. But he still is just swinging at everything out of the zone, especially breaking balls, Like he

just whiffs at so many sliders. That's a hard thing to change. So if he can get a little bit more selective and actually hunt those pitches like he he's got a ton of pop and it's young enough that maybe he can still make that change. All right, So that'll do it for episode fifteen of the Prospect. Besides, we'll let Chicago Farmer take us out. D Well, we'll talk to you next time. Adios for miles an hour.

Riding to his head, he hopped down first with the lumpbon in his face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with greatst speed. He wasn't born, but he had the dirdy Yes uniform.