Episode 31: Redbirds and Red Hots

Not five miles an hour riding too his head. He hopping down first with the lumpbonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with gradest speed. He wasn't born. He had yes uniform. I had Episode thirty one of the Prospect b Sides podcast. I am Nate Handy. He is the rook and we have been mutting around the minor leagues trying to find trying to see what might be interesting out there in the mud for our dynasty leagues. Now, how are you, my friend? I'm good.

You know. We're got some weird weather here so far today, a lot of rain, a lot of sun, which doesn't happen that often usually kind of picks one. Watched a lot of minor league baseball, yeah, last week or so. I really got into it this week unintentionally. I think there's a little theme for me this week. But Cardinal's pitching prospects got me interested, got me watching it. I mean, like like tink Hens and Quinn Matthews right, like those are no those guys. I was I

was going to ask you and wonder if you've been well. I don't know if I think they weren't broadcast this week down in Low A, if I remember correctly, So I don't know if you could. I don't think I don't think he was this week. Yeah, but I mean he is clearly dominating a ball, right, I mean his numbers are pretty definitely, and I want to see him promoted yesterday, you know, like I want him.

I want him up to Higa in no time. But I will say this is something that that I I think I had mentioned in the dynasy do. I got discord this off season, and Beck reminded everybody today of this that the Florida State League already a great place for pitchers. You know, a lot of those parks play way down and it's notoriously pretty difficult to hit there, and that's where they're trying out this twenty inch wide abs strike zone.

So it's another it's possibly another reason why we're seeing a lot of really great pop up pitching performances in Low A. I really want those guys out of there. I want them all to bump up to high to see if if it's the competition it's at the league, is at the parks. You know, let's see what's actually playing into this a couple of thoughts. Now, I was no follower of Stanford baseball, so I don't know what his velocity was in college. But from what I have been gathering is that his

velocity is up since college. Yeah, so part of part of my just wondering, are we talking about a guy who maybe has a little more juice on the fastball. I noted his walk rate is not super pretty if I remember correctly, when I lost a couple of high walks, starts early, but it's it's trending in the right direction. I like, So what I'm

just kind of zero? So right, So what I'm just kind of wondering out loud, and maybe it explains why he is still sitting in a ball is that maybe he's just got a little bit spicier arsenal spicier fastball and they're just having him work that out and get more comfortable with that and a ball, which if that was the case, makes some sense to me. But I can't imagine he will be down in Palm Beach for very long if she's

pitching like this. Yeah, and then with the strike zone stuff. You know, I've probably watched FSL Florida State League more than any other league that in the Midwest League I've been the two leagues I found myself watching the most, but the expanded strike zone stuff. Honestly, the only time I ever think about it watching is when there's been some challenges the rest of it, And maybe in part is that the guys I tend to be watching are more

north south. And I don't think the strike zone is growing horizontally or excuse me, vertically, right, it's just wider. I think that that's right. Though there is the like the ABS system does affect the top part of the zone, and I think that that Again, don't quote me on this part, but I think that this is another way that it's slightly different from Triple A, where they've got a slightly different definition for for that top part

of the zone. But I can't remember the specifics. Just as someone watching a lot of video, I struggle with some of that stuff, like hey, maybe we need to, you know, think about this guy's higher strike percentages and stuff like that because the zone is bigger, and like that makes a lot of sense. I get that, but it's not really at the forefront of me my thoughts when I'm like watching these guys I'm just kind of looking. I don't know, I don't know, does that make sense now?

Like I'm looking for how they're like using their stuff, what they're trying to do, what their stuff might be, and not so much worried about if they're getting calls or not, or if their numbers are looking the greatest the Yeah, you know what I'm saying with you, Oh totally, And I agree with you. I think it's more it's something to keep in mind because it's one of those small things that you might not notice on two, three, four watching of the game as it goes on, and again there's

other stuff that's happening. It's more important from an evaluation perspective, But I don't know. For me, it's just another sort of like it's another question to answer, and it'll be interesting to see how do some of these guys on the hitter side when they graduate up, does that do they see sort of less of a promotion penalty? And on the picture side, is it the reverse like it? Do they does their stuff seem to not play as

much? And so I think it's just something that we don't really know, right, we don't know how much this is going to affect things, and I have a hypothesis that it might be affecting things a little bit, and we'll see how that plays out. But yeah, I guess I haven't noticed it watching it either. To be honest, I guess maybe to summarize the sentiment I might be trying to get to, is that I feel like that is more of like an aspect, an element of thinking about THEIRS statistics maybe

than sort of their development, if that makes sense. But the Cardinals, Matt, there's some interesting things percolating in their system. I think what that ends up looking like on the major league level, I don't know, but interesting enough that do some homework, maybe try to find some pieces what might be coming down the road in the major leagues. But just kind of looking at their system. In Triple A, you've got Sam Roberts, Gordon gricefo

Adam Kleefenstein, Michael McGreevy, young Victor Santos across the board. Their starters are pretty young. I mean, those five guys are twenty two to twenty three years old. In Triple A, DOUBLEA you got Tink hence to Ko Roby, Ian Bdell, Max Rogic. I think, is that how you say I know you've talked about him before. Down in Hya there's Cooper, Guerpe, Bryce and Motts Pantagua, and then down in a ball they're guys getting some starts. Are really interesting, Quinn Matthews, Eisen Henderson. I

think, is how you say it? An Juan Salas, chen Way Lynn and a couple others. So I got sucked into four guys this week, Matt, I don't know who are I don't know who I want to start with. I think maybe you notice a young Wan Salas popped. He's thrown a couple of fqos fqos or going six innings, giving up three earned runs or less, walking less two or less, not giving up a home run,

having a game whip of under one point three. Just kind of a little marker that I try to look for find some guys that maybe I want to go watch. But I had to turn Saalace on after a couple of those types of outings. He's twenty one. He's from Mexico. He's six foot one, p eighty nine right hander. His first three starts, seventeen innings, a point five to three ERA, a point seventy to one whip, a thirty seven percent K percentage, walking guys a six and a half

percent clip throwing strikes at sixty six percent. Fourteen pitches an inning hasn't given up a home run, has given up one earned run. I don't know how many young Mexican pitchers you've watched at A ball, but I find them to be just such a fun little pitching nerd joy because these guys come out of the box with like some pitching acumen and knowledge of how to use their tools, unlike most young American arms. And I think that's definitely some of

Salas's case here and the reason for his A ball success. He throws a four steam fastball that averages ninety three miles per hour. He throws a curveball. Those are his two main pitches. He tosses in a slider a change up, and they label the cutter. I don't really know about that. Perhaps I don't know, but I'm not going to spend too much time on Salas other than saying that, like, I think he's an excellent A ball pitcher, different sort of ability to execute his arsenal and know how how to

use it for A ball hitters. I don't think there is like any reason that we need to go out and roster. Mister Salas at this point kind of me in some aspects of what the last couple of young Mexican arms that I got into were, like Victor Horez of the Rockies and like Victor Lizarraga of the Padres, who actually just had a really nice outing and is he in Double A right now, Double A or High? I don't remember where he is, but kind of two guys. I don't think they'll ever like

the Dynasty interest will ever skyrocket or get too crazy. But you know, when we just talk about the ability to pitch, like these guys kind of have it. But it's also I think some I don't know, maybe somewhat of cautionary tale of like, you know, their offerings might not be as spicy, and if you're a stuffist, you would point to guys like this is as they move up, you know, they can struggle and they might have to make some adjustments. I wonder if that's what has been Victor Horrez

story with the Rockies. He got beat up pretty bad last year in Hya. He was, you know, very much kind of a command little walk guy. The Walks ballooned on him, and I'm kind of wondering I haven't watched a ton of him if that's because he's trying to get some spicier offerings, and that's an adjustment there. But young want Salas here, not a nobody. I think, have you watched You haven't watched him at all?

Uh, I haven't no interesting watch to me, you know. And down in a ball he gets like good gets wifs on his four steamer and curveball and a good CSW and all that stuff. But again, just as he moves up, I don't know how those numbers hold up. And I'm trying to put out some videos on Twitter to kind of supplement some of the guys that I talked to talk about here. It's tough to put into words some things that you might be seeing, or at least for me, So maybe

that can help. But you can follow me at pitching specs. I don't think I put up any solace video that go around with these these next three guys. I definitely did, and then Matt. One night I noticed that Eisen Henderson pitched three point three and a third innings and struck out nine. He was a guy I looked into him. A little bit first year player player draft research. I had to turn him on heros in Fort Myers. He's a lefty, not the greatest angle. It's a good idea of a

lefty, but that outing. He came in in like the sixth and ended up finishing the game. He gave up one hit, one hand roun walked, one, struck out nine. Like I said, through strikes at a sixty seven percent clip. The main thing here was his sinker. He threw it sixty seven percent of the time. You got ten whiffs on fifteen swings csw fifty six percent. I got some video I think all of his strikeout

pitches, and I think they're all but maybe one. This fastball. But Matt, he kind of makes me think that you might kind of like him because he's a lefty with a different sort of look, a different fastball. It's not about the velocity, it's about the movement. And I would say that he didn't even necessarily, you know, execute it all that well. He just had to like get that pitch in the strike zone. These guys

couldn't touch it. He did toss in a change up, a slider, got some whiffs, marked a curveball, and a four stem fastball as well. Kind of a guy that I feel like is up our sort of soft toss and lefty with maybe some K potential. Alley here, Matt, if you get a chance to check him out, I would recommend it. I'd love to know what you think about him. But guy who has put put himself on my watch list for sure. I want to see some more outings with him, and then Matt. My Cardinals B side arm n Way Lynn

is getting some attention. I know we had mentioned him last week. I think he touched one hundred in his first outing. I see him getting picked up in my leagues. I think he's been picked up in all my leagues now. But I watched his last outing, cut up his k pitchers and whatnot and put that out on Twitter. But I want to talk about his fastball. I wonder if folks might ridden box scores and maybe getting a bit of a I don't know if I want to say wrong idea, but different

idea about this fastball. Let's see, he went seven innings, gave up three hit, no walk, struck out seven three strikes at a seventy five seventy three percent clip, and that he threw seven innings on sixty six pitches. That is that's pretty efficient. But I think the sort of generic story is going to be that he's a tall, lanky flame thrower, you know, dominating an a ball lineup with a big fastball. But it's not really what I'm seeing very much, Matt. He does throw a hard, forcing

fastball that sits ninety six. I touched ninety eight this outing, and like I said, we've seen him touch one hundred in his first outing. But to me, it's way more about the shape from his release that is intriguing. I don't know how much you have seen of like Joey Estes, and it's not a one for one, but I'd love to see some somebody smarter about pitch shapes talk about and maybe compare Joey Estes to Lin's fastball, because they both strike me now. It might be different amount of movement and a

different amount of velocity. I think Linn gets a lot more velocity and a lot more movement, but it's a forcing fastball from a ariety that plays seems to play really well high into the arm side against both righty's and lefties. It's got a lot of runs so to get in on a righty's hand get away from a lefty. And we've seen Es this in his major League time and this year in Triple A really rely on that on that pitch. But

man, Len's like it can really run. Man, They're up to twenty inches of run on that pitch, this outing, and he's got the I don't know how to articulate this all that well, Matt, but I think

you might know what I'm talking about here. But with the Taiwanese guys, right, but like Tang, there's something about their arm motion and their release where I don't know if this would scientifically bear out like this, but just from the eyeballs, it seems like the release is like kind of way more out in front of their torso than maybe a lot of guys who are more out outside. Does that? Does that make sense? You know what I'm

talking about? I feel like there's a there's like a different range of motion in those two guys, is like shoulder or something. I don't know. It just seems like a different a different look, a different release point. You know. Even against this team here was the a ball, a lot of young guys, a lot of names. I'm not familiar with. You know, they don't really have that hard of a time catching up putting the bat on ninety eight, Like Lynn isn't blowing this fastball by people. There's

a lot of foul balls. He threw this pitch seventy one percent of the time, So I don't necessarily think was the plan. I think it just there was a lot of contact, a lot of balls in play early in counts. That's why the pitch count was so low. But like he got uh what three whiffs on twenty eight swings on that four scene fast right, So not really what you might think from a guy with this reputation. I

caught up his seven strikeouts is that right? Seven of them, eight of them whatever it was, and uh, you know, two were on the change up and two were on the slider, and he only threw the change up seven times and the slider five times. But what I liked, and you'll see it in the video, is that he wasn't trying away from trying to throw those pitchers. He was shaking off the catcher a lot to get to those and you know, last year there wasn't a whole lot to watch,

but it was his sinker that was his main pitch. He was throwing that like sixty percent of the time, sixty five percent of the time, and he swapped that out for the four seamer. And I think in part because the sinker, I think, just maybe in a dream world, is a much nastier fastball. But I don't think that my man can throw strikes with it consistently enough, and that's why it's been swapped. Similar velocity, similar horizontal run. But that thing we'll just sort of disappear and drop.

And you know, Lynn, I don't think putting up high strike percentages on his outings. I think seventy three percent, sixty eight percent, seventy one, sixty four. You know, he's very much a strike thrower, not some sort of precision hitting his spots really well. Like that. There was a lot of times this outing, the catcher would set up on his glove side, call for the fastball, that thing would run way arm side,

but still end up being a really nice strike on the shadow right. And like you were talking about the expanded strike zone thing, in that video too, you'll see him challenge a couple of pitches that were on the edges and get them, and that feels like perhaps a byproduct of that bigger strike zone. The change up is an upper eighties to ninety change that kind of I think mimics the fastball really well in its shape. That thing can run way

off arm side two. That looks like a really hard pitch to square up this outing, Matt is what his sixth inning I thought was maybe kind of a little bit of a microcosm of this total outing. But you don't see this very much. It was a five pitch six which included a hit and a strikeout, got a double play in there, obviously. I think you

got a couple of double plays, which was nice to see. But you know, it's folks who like to talk about velocity, right Like I think when I looked at all of his forcing fastballs and the ones that were above ninety seven miles per hour or above ninety six point nine and below and it's harder forcing fastball, there's fifty seven of them through the sixty seven point seven percent for strikes, it was a thirty one point six percent CSW a twenty

five point nine percent with two hundred babbit on that pitch. When it was below that velocity, he threw for much more strikes seventy seven point three percent, but just a twenty three point eight percent csw at eight point two percent with and a two seventy two babbit. So does seem at least in these, you know, just four early starts, velocity might be more important for

when at this juncture and the velocity is trending down. Three of his four outings we have stat cast for when we do not first out he had twenty four that were harder, twenty one that were harder the next start, and then this last start was just twelve. So I don't know. For folks who like velocity, I think that it matters significantly. That might be the case here. I don't think the slider is a particularly good pitch at this

juncture. You know, he landed it for strikes and got a couple of strikeouts on and stuff, but like they were far from from hitting the mark where he wanted were. They were good misses. Just landing that pitch for strikes with the rest of that arsenal might might work out well for him. Yeah, I think his first we kind of talked about how he was probably just like a project. But I think the first step is maybe has been taken here and he's just throwing strikes. A lot of the writings, he's

just kind of hammering inside, which makes a lot of sense. I'd love to see what a guy like Eastak Paradus would do against him. Yeah, I don't know, man, there's watching him. There's a lot of stuff, like a lot of a lot of guys in a ball. You're like, man, I think this could really be the foundation of his arsenal and you know, his his ascension. But maybe it's not. Maybe that's not that good though. I don't know. There's a lot of waffling back and

forth if I'm liking kind of what I'm all seeing here. But yeah, I don't know. That was my homework, Matt, know you got any thoughts for me? So Nate and I we usually share ideas about what we're going to do or we're going to talk about what sorts of things we want to cover, usually like kind of late in the week or over the weekend, and uh, Nate had had said, Hey, how about this idea, and and I was like, oh, it's cool. Yeah, like

we can highlight some of these guys that we're going to talk about. And then I get on today and Nate's like, by the way, I didn't do that. I instead deep dove into these four cardinals arms and I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about that. I was like, all right, cool, sounds good. Then he boots me out of the recording software, so I

can't even respond. I mean, he's just sitting here, like reading it from his notes and looking at his stats and talking about these guys, and he keeps asking me questions and I'm like, oh, it's a good point, Nate, but I can't respond. I can't talk about it. So that was a great little deep dive. I wish I could have contributed something to it, technical difficulties had had me booted. Well, did he hear anything that I said anything? I heard the whole thing. I was in

the like lobby room the whole time. I heard the whole thing. It was great. Like something, that's an interesting note about Lynn if there's more of a of a picture in there, which I think is what you were getting at, that it's not just some velocity, like the velocity is helping, but that he's got some other bits and pieces. I think that's a really a strong mark in his favor. I mean, I know it's the velocity is what got his roster percentages up, and that's what's I think exciting

some dynasty owners. But it sounds like there's more there than just that. I will say though, Like you know, just that little look from last year, it seems a lot. It was kind of like lanky and elbows and you know, inconsistencies and like he does. I mean, I think my man has put some work in here. He looks cleaner and interesting that I getting some popularity. Nonetheless, I like it. I like it. Well. I have to throw on some of those other guys as I'm scoping

around and bouncing here and there. But you know, we've talked a lot about soft toss and lefties, right mm hmm, but we haven't really talked about soft toss and righties. I gotta say I'm guilty. Sam Roberts here young, what is he? He's Dutch? Right, yeah? Twenty two in triple A just is thrown back to back fqos. What I think he went like seven and eight innings or something like that. Has just been really dominant. But I think I'm guilty of sort of obviously aware of him.

He was in the futures game last year and what have you. But I was like, man, this right, he throws ninety I don't know, and I haven't really paid much attention to him, but I watched him this week, Matt, and I got to say, dude, I am kind of loving it when you talk about pitchability, execution, knowing how to maximize what you're working with, having the ability to put your offerings where you want to at a really high clip like my man is sexy, dude, like

he's And the clip that I put up on Twitter, I think was a good example. It was a four pitch strikeout, made a nice triangle all on the edges with three of his pitchers. There was one I think it was a change up on like two that he threw into the dirt. That wasn't a great you know, but he wasn't going to roll that for in the strike zone anyway. Is that was gonna that was gonna be a waste pitch try to get the hitter out himself, right. But that was the

three strikes in that clip. I thought, we're mighty pretty. But he was part of the return the Cardinals got for Jordan Hicks, And you know, I see him what I think Clegg has him at three eighty eight right now on his new Dynasty prospect list. Now, I get that league size and format might matter here, but I'm a guy, especially in a big league I'm shoving him way up. Oh interesting, I'll try to explain why

here. On the season, twenty nine and two thirds innings over five starts, one point eight five ERA, a point nine to two whip, the twenty six K percentage, walking guys at a five percent clip, throwing strikes sixty five percent of the time. He's given up one home run in six urn runs over that. His last start for twenty six he threw cutter, change up, slider, four seam fastball. Over the course of the season,

he will mix it a little bit. And as far as which pitch is, which offerings are getting thrown the most, I think some of that might, you know, just kind of play out and there's more righties or

lefties in a lineup. But over the season, the slider is throwing twenty eight point seven percent of the time, the cutter is twenty seven point nine percent of the time, the forcing fastball is twenty four percent of the time, the change up is nineteen percent of the time, so a pretty even clip even rate amongst his four pitches versus righties, he's slider, cutter, and now his cutter. I would call it on the spectrum of cutters,

it's more breaking ball than fastball. I think throws the four team or twenty percent of the time versus righty's and will on very brief occasion throw right on right change up versus lefties. A changeup comes out thirty percent of the time, the forcing fastball twenty seven percent of the time, the cutter twenty six percent of the time, the slider seventeen percent of the time. Now he's

a righty. I don't know if I mentioned that righties are hitting two thirty five I have two fifty three point fifty three against him with a thirty seven point two with percentage. Lefties are hitting one fifty nine two forty five one two with a twenty five point five percent with percentage. The velocity on the four steamer is averaging ninety point seven. So you know, Matt, that that will probably turn a lot of folks off like it didn't. Now,

Matt, I'm wondering, I don't know what perceived velocity is. Do you know what perceived velocity is on statcast. I don't know what that is. It's a calculation that takes into account the extension. Okay, so it is perceived velocity is about a half mile per hour harder. I don't think that makes too much of a difference. He's spinning that thing about twenty four hundred RPM's extension of six point four feet, which I think is about average.

Right, hard hit percentage on that is eighteen point eight percent. Hard hit percentage in the mL in MLB is thirty nine point one. So even though it's soft, it's not getting hit hard. Now, he doesn't get a lot of whiffs on that pitch nine point eight percent. I don't know what MLB network show it was, but they had Robbers on. He was talking about his other pitches and how they are keeping hitters off of his four steinge fastball, and that I think is the brilliance in Robbers. Here is the

way that he can use his four pitches. The guy's with a maybe not a good fastball in a vacuum. I'm always curious about first pitch fastballs, right, Matt, I feel like that's an important pitch on first pitches against his what one hundred and twenty eight batters faced. He's thrown thirty two forteing fastballs on the first pitch. That's twenty five percent of the time, which

is more or less in line with his overall pitchnicks. Right, he's gotten a seventy one point nine percent strike percentage on that Batters are zero for one, so it's only been put in play once, and he's got a forty three point eight percent CSW on first pitch fastballs, which I think is a

pretty good sign, MA, don't you. I think that this kind of guy is really fun for a lot of the reasons you've articulated, and you know me that I'm a believer that you can succeed with a well below average velocity fastball, and it sounds like he's got some of the tools to do that. I think Roberts is one of those guys that he's got such a fun rest of his repertoire that maybe he can make it work with a ninety mile an hour average fastball velocity with not other plus shapes, other plus traits.

I think the thing that has made me a little bit less excited about him than some of the other soft tossers that we've seen in the past is just that there's sort of a history of like mixed performance, and so it's almost like guys have figured him out as they've seen him a couple of times,

like through the league, you know. And so while well, I think there's something interesting here, and the fact that he's doing this at Triple A on the back of being fairly successful at Double A and Triple A last year is impressive. But he's he's one of those guys for me that I want to see a little bit more of, just because we've got some history of people sort of figuring him out and him not putting it all together at

the lower levels. It's and it's rare to see this kind of picture succeed more at the higher levels like he's done up to this point in Triple A. So it's it's not like I think, I think for me, it's more of like this is a wait and see kind of guy. And in your deep leagues, absolutely, I think he's going to be big league starter.

I Mean, the Cardinals rotation is all old and they are not going to be around for that long a lot of them, so they're going to need guys to fill some of those innings, and I think Roberts could be that kind of guy. But as for like a kind of smaller league, shallower format, I'm still pretty skeptical of his impact. We haven't talked about his good pictures yet. The slider, which he's thrown more than anything, forty two point nine percent with of course, this is in triple A,

but that's not too shabby. Hard hit percentage of sixteen point seven percent on that pitch, what barrel percentage of I guess it gets barreled about average amount of time change up. It's got a forty eight point four percent with a hard hit of twelve and a half percent, hasn't been barreled once, and that's in the sixty six times thrown the cutter. The cutter doesn't get as much with as those twenty five and a half percent, which what MLB average

I think with is thirty percent. Oh, but that doesn't get barreled up either, hasn't been that's a five percent. I don't know. He's a you know, Matt some of all parts, right, I mean, I just think that those kinds of stats at this stage in the season are still pretty noisy, and he's given up like what one homer so far this year, and that is not a trait that he has showed really in the past.

You know, he gave up one and a half homers per nine at triple A last year, one point four at double A, one point four to six at double A the year before. I just think that homers are going to be part of his game, just given the velocity and given that I don't think there's even with the secondaries, overwhelming amount of with for or command. You know, I don't think it's like pinpoint precision here, and so we might expect a little bit less. So I expect that home run

rate is going to go back up to over one. And then now you're looking at a guy who's like maybe low fours era in triple A, maybe a tick above that in the bigs. So again, that's good, Like, that's a right. He's shown a lot of things to really really like. But I'm not counting twenty nine ish innings in triple A and saying that he's kind of figured out this homer against problem. And yeah, so I think for some of these things, I think it's like he's on a nice

start to the year. But I want to see more. Okay, fair enough, I'm just telling you he's pitching clean, man, he is, he is sharp. Nice, But yeah, I know those those were four Cardinals arms that got a lot of my attention this week. Matt forty five minutes on the not the assignment for this week, it's this is this is b siding with Nate. Everybody. Hey, sometimes you just go where the mud leads you. Man, I'm with you, I'm with you on that.

I definitely had a bit of that as I was bouncing around leagues and trying to narrow down because to bury the lead a bit here. One of the things that we wanted to do was we're now almost a month into the season, a little bit less for obviously the lower miners and obviously complex ball starts this week, which is fun. We were going to look at each league and see if we could find a guy that we liked, maybe a

half grade more. You know, as I've tried to preach, as we talked about guys this early in the season, you want to change your mind on guys slowly. Sometimes it can go a little bit faster because it's just someone that you had no data on and so you're really essentially forming an opinion. But for guys that we've maybe seen before or had overlooked before, is there anyone that's catching our eye that we want to round up a half grade or a full grade on. So we went around each league, I think,

right like, you got a guy from each league night. Yeah. Yeah, So we went and come through all the hot starts and kind of tried to suss out what's what's real and what's not and what we like and what we want to see more of. So I don't know if that's a good segue into talking about the real assignment this week, boring Hitters. Yeah, that's why I was so excited about it. I like dove in and I'm looking at all these guys and I did a lot of work for this

one, the guys that were going to talk about. But first I'm going to start in the PCL, and technically still in the PCL, I think as of right now, Jordan Beck just got called up to the BIGS.

And he's a guy that made some top one hundreds I think, and I think rightfully, so one who I think there's a real fantasy friendly profile here in terms of he's gonna steal a few bags he's going to hit I think a decent number of homers, and if the thing that I'm excited about really has happened, if he's really improved his contact skills and his strikeout rate really as down as it is comfortable to say that this guy's like a top fifty

kind of fantasy prospect if he gets the time and if he gets the run. But Nate, you had said this offseason that he was the top prospect in a fairly well regarded Rockies system, ahead of Idel Amador Fan for fantasy, for fantasy, and I think he took some heat for that, but they're early going. You know, it looks really good. I think for me, the biggest thing is the strikeout rate is down below twenty percent, which he hasn't done since low A in twenty twenty two, So that's pretty

impressive. Doing it in triple A. The swinging strike rate looks better, so it's you know, he's probably going to strike out more than that at the big league level, and especially out of the gate. You know, don't be surprised if it's an upper twenties, slow thirties percent strikeout rate, because he's run that kind of strikeout rate before. I think he's maybe focused

more on the contact skills and let everything else play. There's average or slightly better power here, and I think he's going to swipe some bags too. So I like him. I mean, I think that this is a great call up. I hope they give him some run and I hope he makes the most of it because he's a guy. That is an up arrow for

me from watching him both in spring. Although he's struck out a bit more in the spring, I think, but the early goings here, the strikeout rate improvements, if that sticks, this is a guy, you know. I agree, And that was that was my PCL. Nice look at that, look at that. Hopefully we don't agree in all of them. But let's let's speed through the PCL, speed through the triple A, because these are not our guys. These are not muddy enough. Yeah, we've been

watching some backup. Just generically speaking, I think it's it's clear there's some good maturation that has taken place at the plate. And but I've seen a couple of outings where he like walked like three times, Like that's not it's not like typical back So I think you love to see that in the International League, Matt I went with a guy that I have been skeptical of,

and I think maybe I mentioned before, but I gotta give props. I think or Elvis Martinez has definitely moved up a grade or after grade or or something in my fantasy opinion. Now, obviously I don't have any shares and I ain't going to try to get him now, but just gotta gotta give him a shout and some and some props for improving his game. And you know, he's been on a pretty good tear and I think they're calling him

up pretty soon from what it sounds like. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I did see somebody share a report in the Donasy Dugout that said they really want him to work on his defense, which is definitely can be code for like he's going to be down there a while longer. But again, bit bit a strikeout rate improvement for him, and everything else looks really good. Like he's hitting a lot of fly balls, which for someone with the

plus power that he has. You know, I'm a fan. I think he's firmly a top big fat middle part of the top one hundred guy for me. But I chose Aurelvis's teammate Addison Barger, who we had also talked about this offseason when you made a dig about the Toronto's minor leagues and I said, well, you know, Irrelvus is definitely a guy, and I said, like, I think Addison Barger is a is a regular too,

And I think I think Addison Barger might be more than that. Like he's not as good as Eurelvius, I don't think, and never have thought. And he also just got called up. He's got a couple of games under his belt at the BIGS, but again the walk and strike up numbers are going in the right direction as he gets older. He's, you know, got some power in his bat. I don't think he's like a you know, double plus kind of power guy, but there's plus power at peak there,

I think. And he's I think one of those guys that he's going to play a couple of positions, got the potential to be a better version of Kevin Bigio, you know, like actually some power in the bat. He walks a lot. He's got a pretty good strike strikeout rate and it's backed by a single digit swinging strike rate, which is also really good. So He's just one of those guys that I think he does a lot of

stuff pretty well and that it can be under rated. So yeah, that Barger, I think is taking another step forward and definitely earned his promotion. And I hope he sticks and succeeds right on nat in the Southern League. You know who. It's interesting and excuse me, you traded him off in our in our little trade episode and Carson Williams says, looks like you might

be answering or taking care of the biggest wart. Yeah, he's one of the very biggest up arrow guys this off season for me, are this early early going foreshure. That's that is definitely a good call out and something I wasn't sure he could do. But he definitely has showed that he can play the defense and it's maybe that hard work is paying off in his hitting as well. Yep. Another guy who referred to the minor leagues as practice.

Yep. But he's looked good man. I don't know, I don't have his strikeout percentage up, but it's markedly improved from last year, right it is. But he's also you know, back down in Double A, and he's not walking either. I do think that his strikeout rate improvements were more notable early on. And I think he's had a few strikeouts lately. Yeah, this last week, I think he struck out. Yeah, the last two weeks, I think he started out really well, but the last two

weeks he's struck out quite a few times. So twenty one strikeouts to three walks so far. You know, if he can keep those down. I mean, there's no doubt he's got power. There's no doubt that he can play defense. It's just that that strikeout rate part is can be tricky. Is he your guy for the Southern League? He's my guy for the Southern League? Yes, all right, Oh, I'm gonna, you know, say some more good stuff about Nate. I was pretty skeptical of your pick

for the Angels. Beside, I had watched a bit of Cole Foughtinel and I was like, guy, it seems okay, you know, like I third base kind of corner guy. Maybe there's some pop here, but I'm not really sure. He's been really good in the early going, more so than I expected, I guess. And I think that he's you know, not striking out very much. He's walking at a decent clip, and unlike a lot of the guys that are starting really hot to start the year,

he's not running some absurd babb it either. You know, it's three p fifty so that's PI. But with the amount of line drives that he's hitting, some of that is earned. And he's doing it at double A, which he's skipped over hi A. He like you know, spent most of his post draft year at a ball and then just skipped totally over Hi A and now, and that's not unusual for the Angels. They are definitely ones to push their prospects and see who sinks or swims. But he's showing surprising

speed, like ten bags already in the early going. Is honestly, wildly impressive. And the strikeout walks look really good. So good call on Cole Fought. No, I did not see this one coming in, especially with this shape of production either. Yeah, I haven't been. I haven't been paying too much attention to him, to be honest to them. Yeah, it's not like a bunch of things aren't jumping off the page. But ten stolen bases is near the minor league lead right now. And I've watched a

couple of and he looks athletic out there, So I don't know. I've been pretty impressed and early going like that's he's moved from a follow to like I've looked at who has him, and I've sort of inquired, like, hey, maybe that's an interesting one again and in rotal leagues, I think that matters more. But yeah, he's good. Early call by Nate Eastern League. Who you got Matt Eastern League was fun. Number one guy is

Agustin Ramirez. Like I ended up with him in a few spots because I think I liked the improvements, like that he's a guy who he doesn't strike out a lot and had good underlying data and so even though he scuffled at his promotion to Double A, he was so good at high last year that he was Like I think I drafted him in maybe four FYPD leagues because or

off season drafts. Obviously he's not an FYPD guy, but I drafted him in a bunch of spots because I was like, I really buy the hitter that he is, you know, so he like I mentioned, he scuffled a bit in thirty one games at Double A to end the year last year and is just lighting double a on fire right now. So for Somerset, he's hit nine homers already, he's striking out under twenty percent of the time, nineteen percent of the time, he's walking sixteen percent of the time.

His babb it is two hundred. Some of this is he's leaving the yard a lot, right, like, you know, hitting nine homers, that's it's like a forty five percent home and a fly ball rate, and that's not going to keep happening. He's not peak Berry Bonds or anything here, but I think this stick is gonna play. And I've watched a little bit of them on defense, not enough to get a sense for if it's going to be a really good backstop. It's interesting with the Yankees. They've got

a lot of guys on their forty man who are catchers. I'm not convinced that Ramirez isn't the best of them, you know, just from a whole package standpoint. So he's he's like I think, you know, firmly top one hundred guy, and he was super cheap this offseason, So that one that one feels good. Small pat on the back for pat on the back for me for lucking into him in quite a few places, because he's now really showing out so far this year, Like he's he's jumped up a grade,

so to speak for you. Yeah, like I I grabbed him. I know you liked them coming into into the season. I did, But I really didn't expect this kind of power explosion. I didn't expect the you know, he's going to strike out a bit more, but it looks like this is a major league starting quality catcher here. Like that's certainly with the bat, and it remains to be seen with the glove, but to pass my expectations already, and hopefully he keeps it up because he looks really good.

Eastern League. I'm gonna go with Zach Vine, who seems to be back being the Zach Vine from the AFL a couple of years ago or whatever it was. And I know folks have talked about and he had injury last year and what have you, but UH just got to give a shout to him. What he's sixteen games, he's hit two home runs, swiped seven bags, he's been caught once, he's walking fifteen percent of the time, he's striking out twenty six percent of the time, three twenty seven, four

thirty one five eighty two slash. Now he is running like a four forty four babbit, but that's good for a one eighty three WRC plus. He's keeping the ball off the ground at a pretty nice clip, pulling it well. I know that I've talked about him in the past and I've seen him shift sort of his approach at the plate, and that I haven't watched a ton of him this year. With a little bit that I watched, I'm kind of wondering if he's found a good, little happy medium for himself.

And I think, if you were being hopeful or believer, lots of good news this year so far. Yeah, like a lot of the guys that littered the top of the early WRC plus leaderboards, like you mentioned, running a really high babbeb you know, four forty four, and he's quote unquote earning it up to this point. He's hitting almost forty percent line drives,

which is unusual for him. I think one of the things that I had knocked him for in the past was that for a guy who supposedly had such good power, he hit the ball in the ground a lot and he's doing that less. But nobody really hits forty line drives. So it's going to be interesting to see which direction those bat and balls turn as the year goes on, because if they eke more into the fly ball range, like I

think that's going to be good for his power. He has the power to back that up the raw power, that is, if they leak back towards the veen of old and he's hitting them on the ground, like, it'll be interesting to see, but definitely nice to see him hitting the ground running, agreed. And then in the Texas League, Matt, I'm going to go with someone I'm probably guilty of doing the same and not giving enough credit for maybe his offensive potential this first year player draft season, but uh,

Jacob Wilson is off to a pretty nice start. Mm hmm. That he is he slashing or seventeen four thirty eight six' thirty three. Again, he's got a four sixty babit and he's hitting the ball on the ground at a fifty four percent clip. But he's popped a few home runs, stole a few bases, he's striking out fourteen percent of the time, he's not walking, which you love that profile. He have mixed opinions on that, but the whole point is this is a guy who is uh is the defense.

He's gonna be playing shortstop in Oakland, and maybe there was some more bat here than the first year player consensus had it. So he's moved up half grade or what have you? For me? Yeah, I like it. I didn't watch either of his homers how they look. Were they squeakers or they didn't get into him? Did you see him? Saw one? I think I only saw one. I haven't watched a lot of them. This is mostly mostly stat stuff, but I saw one that it was like,

it was like a really hard line drive. Interesting the homer. He's got two already, which is sort of surprising because, like I remember, the report on him was that he is like a zero homer, kind of no real speed threat, like he was sort of like great glove, good contact skills, and then kind of an empty profile. Otherwise, maybe it's not so empty, like yeah, and calling out a little bit of power in there, fantasy darling here, but just maybe better than we gave him

credit for it. Well, I've got a name for Texas League that I gotta be honest, I wasn't familiar with. I think i'd seen him a bit here and there last year, but wasn't really a guy on my radar. But he's doing something interesting at Double A this year. His name is Nathan Church. Do you know? Do you know Nathan Church? Sounds like a country artist? Kind of does kind of does I know the name, but I haven't paid much attention. He's a college hid from Irvine, you

see Irvine two years ago, eleventh round pick. Like, not a big prospect by any means, and part of the reason is he has almost no power, like very very little power. Six hundred and twenty nine plate appearances. Coming into this year, he had three home runs, so that's not that impressive. He already has three this year. He hit two backed on back to back days last week and is really hitting the snot out of the ball now. I say that as in like he's getting a lot of hits.

Is babeb is three forty two, so a little bit higher than average, but not one of these super unsustainable guys. But the thing that makes me pretty interested in him, especially in points leagues, is he's running a five point four percent k rate so far this year in Double A. I watched quite a few of his at bats because he was just a guy that I wasn't really familiar with, and I get why. Like he he is not one of these really strong, really fast bat kind of guys. He's

sort of got that like Caleb Durban slow bat thing going on. What that means that when he's fooled by a pitch, he's still on time, Like he gets his barrel to that ball and he might not hit it super hard. But both his homers this past week were on looked like curveballs or loopier sliders that were left up and that he was out in front of. But he just extended the barrel like we had talked about previously with Caleb Durban, and he found the barrel and you know, both squad out. Neither neither

was a big jack or anything. But I love this kind of profile, like the you know he's gonna make contact, he walks a decent amount, you know, like I would say, an average amount, and if he's finding a little bit more power. This looks like a regular me and from somebody who I would have looked at this line and looked at his year last year and be like, this guy isn't making the major leagues and he's better than half his strikeout rate and matched his homer total from last year in ninety

two played appearances. That's that's something. This is a guy to keep an eye on. I'm not saying run out and get him, though. If you're playing in a really strict K penalty league, like any guy like this should be on your radar. If he keeps this up, we might be going full Durbin on him. So I'm actually pretty excited about him. It's not the it's not the not full Durban alarm, but it's somebody that in your strikeout penalty leagues were we're half Durbin here, We're half Durbin. Nice.

I like it. The Sale League was a little tough for me. I think the Sale League as a whole is a little tough. Can't say I'm getting overly excited about anyone knew, so to speak, or jumping up for me. But I just wanted to note and give a little shout to Jalen Vasquez Aberdeen the Orioles. We had briefly talked about him during our first year Player Draft episode. I think he was like the Orioles, I don't know, twentieth round pick or something that like that out of a small college

or whatever. Right, but I've been catching just a few at that. It's nothing crazy. You know, he's walking more than he strikes out. I know you like that, hitting two eighty four thirty eight, slugging four to twenty. He's popped a home run, hit a couple doubles in a triple I saw. I've seen a little bit of defense him, had shortstop

and looked nice, quick and clean. Again, not a guy to go out and get, but like you know, this was just a little bit of a mentioned interesting guy, first year player draft season, and now I'm like, maybe he's gonna be one of these next o's that come up and become kind of like a real prospect for them. Just a little little shout there, a little muddy showy. They do find those guys. And I actually did catch him swipe a couple bags the other day as I was looking

at guys. So yeah, he's got n got once, pretty pretty solid. Well. The Sound League was actually pretty fun for me. I watched quite a few, and I've found myself drawn to another Yankees catcher, if you can believe it. I think, uh, I think Beck might have shouted him out on his three cap his daily Minor League three cap. But

Omar Martinez for Hudson Valley is somebody to keep an eye on. He's another catcher, first base type who is showing plus played, approach, walking, striking out, not very much, getting to some power, and he's not even running an above average BABBB and he's still rocking a one fifty two WRC plus so far. He he hit a monster homer might have been just yesterday. It looked really nice, like beautiful left handed uppercut swing, got all

of this ball and put it out. He's forty man eligible this year, so this is his forty man evaluation year because he's been in the minor. He was signed at sixteen. You know, he's one of the international assignees, and so he has to be protected at the end of this year. I don't know if he's gonna be like he's got a. I think got a lot to prove from low A that they should protect another catcher. But there's precedence for this, like this is kind of what I guess In Ramirez

did last season. He showed out at Hya, got bumped to double A and wasn't great, but they protected him after that season. So it's possible that this happens for Omar Martinez. So far, I really like I like what he does. And the other thing I wanted to note is he's got that kind of sweet uppercut swing that means he's gonna get to his power. He's one that was a fun under the radar find for me. And while we're in Hudson Valley, watched a bunch of Hudson Valley games. And there's

a ton of fun prospects in the Salleague right now. But a guy that I've been I think we talked about a while back, Jase Avina. He was either my Milwaukee B side or somebody that I mentioned when we were talking about Milwaukee this offseason, but he got traded to the Yankees in the offseason. I forget for who for like a reliever or something. Anyway, the deal with Avina is that he's not a very big guy, but he has incredible raw power and is getting and like lifts the ball all the time,

so he's going to get to a lot of it. But he had one of those like totally unacceptable strikeout rates in the low miners, like above thirty percent on the complex above thirty percent at low A and so it was always this question of like, Okay, he's got great power, but how is that going to show up if he's going to strike out this much? And he's like probably a left fielder, so it's not like he plays a plus defensive position. But common theme here in the early going, the strikeout rate

looks really good. He's below twenty percent after really not being below thirty percent at any level, and he's not hitting in a great park. It's cold as balls up there in the in the sal League at the moment, rocking a one to sixty two WRC plus, so even slightly better than Omar Martinez. But Jasvin is another guy to keep an eye on. He's only got one homer so far, and he is hitting the ball on the ground a

bit more than he usually does, but he's gonna revert to type. Like remember, batted ball statistics are pretty sticky and they take a little while to stabilize, so you should expect that he's gonna hit a bunch of fly balls and there a bunch of them are going to be homers. So Jasvin is a guy that like keep an eye on. He could really start to put something together. Here, so I had a lot of fun watching some Hudson Valley games. Nice, I'm glad you have been getting sucked into the Sale

League more than I Midwest League. Matt. This was a I feel like there's so many guys who have become more interesting for me, so many hitters. Alex Freeland, Will Simpson, Cafis a Collier, Sale Stewart key Shall, Luke gold Through Rodriga is awesome guys. All guys off to some pretty good starts in that league. I won't do you know who's fourth in that league right now? In Opsango? Oh yeah, he's. He's honestly of those names like he's He's one of the ones that I looked long and hard

at to see who we want to talk about. But all right, I'm not talking about him, but okay, I kind of just went with the guy who's the newest this week to me, that got my attention. That's Alex Mooney with Blake County mine too. Oh nice, Nice. I don't know if you saw I cut this up and put it on Twitter. He had a five hit day. Yeah? Well man? What he was a

seventh round pick out of Duke for them last draft. You know, it's interesting that he's popped five home runs already, and I think he hit five all last year in college, if I remember correctly, when I looked, and you know, he's just swinging it and he's hitting it to all fields,

popping some home runs he hit me in college last year. But still like on a rate basis, man, Yeah, it feels like kind of my guy, you know, sea strike, hit strike, But not that I've like, you know, gone all crazy like I did with Baldwin and watched all of his at bats and all that. But from my looks like,

I think his swing decisions look good. He's swinging his strikes, hitting three thirty nine, three seventy nine, slugging six sixty one, five home runs, five doubles, but he's struck out thirteen times to two walks. Kind of an athletic looking middle infielder, I don't know, just a good looking the player in his first pro season, and I picked up a few share. I had some relievers, you know, arms fall off or something, just had some spots, and I picked him up in a few just

to see what would happen. Yeah, I really like what I saw from him. I do think that the approach is going to catch up with him, especially because he's had so much success and his swing looks really good to me, Like he's got that nice right handed, athletic kind of flat finish to his swing, but it's really through the ball. And I saw him

scorch a double to right center. He hit one of his homers this past week pretty far out, like over the four to ten sign, so it was like probably four thirty four forty, So he's got some juice in there. Nice to see that it's showing up so far. I do think he's going to have some swing and miss concerns, and I if he's going to continue to not walk, and you know, he was okay at walking last year for a college guy, and albeit young college guy. He was a

draft eligible sophomore and currently only walking three percent of the time. Like that's something to keep an eye on as the book gets out, and having on the back of such a hot week that he just had, it'll be interesting to see how folks approach him this upcoming week. Like I imagine he's going to see fewer strikes. I get your point, Like he was doing sort of his best Seeger impression right where he got strikes and then was just hammering

them. Has definitely worked for him up to this point. And like I said, I was pretty excited, Like this guy was really looking like he had put something together here, and I watched a lot of him. I watched a lot of Cafus. Like the Midwest League, like you said, has a ton of interesting guys going on right now. And again hat tip to Cafus, Like Cafus is doing basically the same thing, except he's walking

more and striking out less. Like Cafus looks really really good too, has a couple of steels already, Like mooney Man, what a what a nice breath of fresh air in the Guardian's system. Doesn't seem very Unguardians like a bit. I mean, he definitely has some swag. I mean he's got the haircut, the headband that he wears, and like his hat falls, his helmet falls off after every double like like you know, high contact walk noodle bat guys in the mud level, you know. And then here's this

aggressive guy slugging. Yeah, it's nice to see. Did you see definitely, well we're on the Midwest League. This shocked me in a few ways, But did you see who one hitter of the week this week in the Midwest League. This was the very first Brewer Visa selection. And to be honest with you, Matt, I didn't even know that he was still playing professional baseball. But Edwarki Fernandez, who's still only twenty two years old, center fielder for Wisconsin. He went five twenty four, five eighty three,

selugged one thousand this week. I hit two home runs, stole five no excuse me, stole two bases, four doubles. Like oh, Like I said, I didn't even know he was still around, and here he is having a better week than all these other hot hot thats. So that was kind of fun to see. Well, that Cleveland High a team there in Lake County. I had another guy that I was totally unfamiliar with that I just wanted to highlight his name. I'm not even totally sure how to pronounce

it. Mike Coiato m a I ck cool ad O. He is off to a really good start too. Again, this one seems a bit more babup driven to me. He popped a couple of times when I was watching him in the past couple of weeks, hit a couple of really nice singles a few days ago, hit a homer, say the week before that looked really well struck, and he's just someone that like no idea about him.

I've never read about him. He looked interesting to me. So he's one that made one of my follow lists partly two because he seems like he's got a really good eye and is walking a lot. Northwest League. I'm not going to talk more about Gavin Contosolo, but he's the guy who's jumped up the most for me, what about you for me? I'm not going to talk too much about him either, But the one in the Northwest League is

Ben Williamson. We've talked a bit about him before, and I do think that his swing looks better than it did in the pre draft video that we looked at. I think what he's doing looks just solid across the board, like there's not a lot here to poke at, you know, it just looks it looks like he's backing it up again slightly high. Bab it four point nine percent swinging strike rate, Like that's so low. He's walking, he's barely striking out. He's only got one homer, but I think there's

more coming. Like he looks like he belongs at this level and then some so I didn't really expect him to hit the ground running quite this much. I kind of want to see him in double A before too long, playing alongside Cole Young. Those two might make up make it up to the bigs relatively soon. And then a ball, Matt, I'm gonna I'm gonna blow through mine pretty quick here only because of my own lameness, but uh, Carolina League, I had written down Glader figure roa I've seen a little bit.

Didn't really finish my homework, but he was a guy that wasn't on my radar at all to like, hey, I want to get my eyes on him, see him. And then in the FSL, I'm gonna go with Ricardo Cabrera kind of the same story. I want to get more eyes on him, see what he's about. And then in the Cal League, I gotta go with Perez as the guy who's jumped up and become the most

interesting to me. Even though Junior Garcia went three games in a row with a whole home run, still still kind of bummed that didn't go on my short look Perez for my d sid Er Dodgers. But yeah, I got sucked in the pitcheon because it's so much more interesting did in classic forum. I spent more time watching the A ball guys, so I've got extra A ball guys to talk about too. Yeah. The one that has jumped up

just globally the most for me is Jason Cheerio. He looks like a slam dunk top one hunter prospect to me, and there aren't that many of those at A ball Who are you know, nineteen years old or whatever he is right now. Everything about what he's doing looks sustainable. He looks different than the guys that are hitting around him, many of whom are like three years older than he is. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets moved up to Lake County before too long, and that might be one of my most favorite

teams. If Jason Cherio gets up there, that would be super fun to watch up in high But I'm not going to talk about him too much because a lot of people know him obviously Chario brother, and he seems like he might be the real deal. So love him, but not the guy that I wanted to highlight from Carolina League Jesus Lopez. He's an eighteen year old catcher for the Rangers who has been around for a couple of years, but this is his first state side appearance and he's in the d catchers tonight.

I am. I didn't plan that at all, and I think I have one more coming. Actually I don't know. I think this is my last one. I think one of his homers so far this year was on video and it was a really smooth left handed stroke. It just looked so easy and went way out. Pretty impressed with that swing. He's not running a very high babbit either, so it doesn't look like this is super unsustainable.

He might be swinging and missing a bit much, but I do think he might be a guy who changes his approach a bit when he gets to two strikes, so you know, there might be he might be able to sustain a slightly better than average k rate even if his swinging strike rate is more average. He's a catcher. It doesn't look like steels are going to be a part of his game at all. But he doesn't look He's at Moises Ballistaro's at Bysteros at there like he's He's an athletic looking guy, so he's

one to follow. Again, this isn't a rush out and pick up. This is deep league only, but I liked what I saw from him so far, and I think Longenhagen might have written him up and said some nice things about about him too, So anyway, he's he's the guy to follow in the Cal League. I watched a bunch of guys because I hadn't done a ton of colleague watching other than a few Modesta Nuts games here and there. And I'm not going to pick any of the Nuts. They're all pretty

well known and pretty I think well rated. Like none of them have really changed my opinion, although maybe Michael Arroyo, like he seems to be an arrow up guy for me, and I think he gets lost in the shuffle

a little bit with that Nuts team. But I'm gonna go with Andy Perez, who was not somebody that I had ever watched coming into this year, or or maybe I had seen him a bit last year because he spent most of the year at A at low A in Fresno, and so I definitely had seen him, but he didn't really show out to me really looked good

to start the year. I think Nate he's your kind of guy in that he swings all the time, he's constantly swinging, and even with that, he's still got like an almost six percent walk rate, so he's walked a few times at least. But he is really good at getting the bat on the ball. He fouls off a lot of pitches. I do think his

bat to ball skills are comfortably plus. I also don't think he's going to be in Fresno for all that long, just because he spent most of the year there last year and he's looked way better than the competition so far. Hit three homers. He had a game last week where he hit two triples in the same game. He's swiped a couple of bags, got caught stealing a couple of times too. But I think he's pretty aggressive and he's looking

to go. I also thought he's a pretty slick shortstop. I didn't see a ton of his defense, but I got to see a few play and they were pretty flashy too, which is always fun. Like, you know, it's looked like slick fielding but also some fun and he's got some swags, So he's somebody that I think it's not a perfect profile, but it looks pretty compelling. Like I really liked what I saw out of Pez so far nice. And then I got another guy in the colleague that stood out

too. So I watched a fair amount of Visalia last week, you know, because Jancel Luise has not looked very good, so I wanted to get eyes on him. I hadn't watched much Christopher Torren, so I wanted to watch them. Wanted to check out on Drew Jones see how he was doing. Drew Jones still looks bad. Hancel Luise doesn't look very good either. He's striking out a lot, hasn't been very impressive. But again it's still

early and I think it's starting to look maybe a little bit better. But the guy on Visalia that really stood out was I want to say Ann Derdson Rojas, but I think it's it's Anderson. Really. As you say, you just kind of dropped the second D. But he's got a weird second D in Anderson. So Anderdson Rojas is a little outfielder. I think he plays actually all around the field. He was on that Viaze team last year. But thus far in the early going, he looks like he's taken a

big step forward in his bats to ball. He's walking a bit more, has a nice line. So far, he hasn't hit a homer this year, but he also I think had multiple triples in a game earlier this season. Let me see, I think that's right. Yeah, he had two triples in the game in the game last week. He's looked really good, like lat of line drive. He's still small, he's still young. He's nineteen, I think turning twenty this year. But he's somebody to keep an

eye on because I think there's some speed. I think there's some potentially positional flexibility and a really fun kind of bat to ball, a little dynamo type. So Anderson Rojas is one to keep an eye on. Nice I've been tuning into those guys very much. Now there's a name to watch though, thank you. Yeah, and then I think I've got one way to go in the Florida State League. A former Dodgers prospects. So I don't know if we can talk about former Dodgers prospects too. I'll allow it, you'll

allow it, Okay. He's a guy who got a bunch of hype I think out of the International signing period a few years ago, and he was really good on the DSL. But Rain and Don Cone hasn't been very good the last couple of years. He is his third year in low A, and I think last year especially, the Dodgers got sick of him and chipped him off after just a seventy six WRC plus at Rancho. And I don't think he was very good. Like it wasn't there. There wasn't a lot

to like about that performance. But I do think some of it was a suppressed babbit, right, Like he ran a low babbit both the previous stints at a ball and now his babbeb is about one hundred points higher up at three point fifty two, and everything else looks solid. You know, he's not striking out that much. He hit a mammoth homer the other day. Fort Myers and Fort Myers their their camera is terrible. It's nice that they

have one, like because you get to see a few more guys. It was particularly shaky this day, I think, But he hit a big homer, so he's one that like there's some prospect pedigree there. I think maybe he wore out as welcome and had some bad luck before, but he might be a quick mover. And that Fort Myers team is pretty fun, Like there's a bunch of guys to watch on there. So I think I'm gonna

keep tuning into Forested League, like Winnakers there forgetting who else. But the team is fairly fairly interesting in we get to see so much more fso it's yeah, and like I said that, that team has enough guys that it's worth watching see they all develop. But dun Cone is one that I just wanted to flag. Is like maybe it's not totally he might not be totally

done, Like there seems like there's some still skills there. And again you look at him and you see why people were excited about him coming out of the DSL cutting up a lot of FSL pictures this year, I will say he seems to be getting a disproportionate unfair amount of just nasty ass pictures.

He's still doing pretty well, yeah, yeah, yeah, but like I feel like he's sort of popped up as a guy, Like several of these arms putting the montage together, like that might have been the nastiest pitch and oh it's against him again. Yeah, and when Walker Jenkins comes back, that's gonna be where he'll be back at LOWA. I expect to so Jenkins and dunt coone Byron Turio Jose Rodriguez who looks like a beat standing of himself. Yeah, it's a fun crew there at low A. Well, I

got some other notes from the week. I just wanted to touch on some other guys here. Tuesday, nice afternoon watch aj blue Ball went against Christian

Mana. Not to be a turd hat here, but I feel like the blue Ball outing went pretty much exactly how we thought it might the night before when we were talking about it. He went three innings, seven hits, four and runs, two walks four k's definitely not as nice of a line as his first triple A outing had had people the buzz and made him like the trendiest pickup of the week, And he actually gave up less hard contact this go around, but kind of the same story, you know. To

his credit, the execution did get better through the start. First inting was really rough, but like even the strikeouts I'd say that like three of the four strikeout pitches really weren't good pitches. He missed his mark substantially. So yeah, I still have my my reservations about how excited we should be with blue Ball. There. I watched his outing on Sunday, and Yeah,

had similar concerns, like I didn't think he was all that sharp. He was getting hit hard even when they were out, and he gave up a few runs in that Sunday outing as well. So as we talked about, like, I do think there's value there. I think he's going to pitch in the major leagues. I'm just not sure it's gonna be all that great. Like if you got somebody who's you know, full on on the blue ball train and it's coming at you for a trade, I would think hard

about that. Leo Davrees, Dvriise Devrees and McGonagall their debuts Tuesday, tuned into some of that kind of all. His first six batted balls were fairly hard. One O three ninety one eighty three is not that hard. But he hit one O six one hundred ninety one off to the you know, the start that we thought he would have. I think I watched some DJ McCarty, my number one B side arm draft selection. He went four innings in relief, gave up one hit, three strikeouts, no walks. What

I liked is that he was throwing strikes and seemed to be commanding. Wednesday, discovered that Hickory is broadcasting now. Mark another one off the list, although it's still just like a press box view. But as we've seen with the new places broadcasting, it kind of starts off that way and then then

a centerfield camera shows up, so we'll see how that looks. I watched thatch just like Ashville and Spokane. No, Spokane's broadcasting now, so it's just just Ashville and Hya and then uh yeah, and down East I think is still not broadcasting. I watched some Gary gil Hill. He's got an interesting arsenal. He's throwing a four steamer, a two steamer. Uh.

They were talking about two different cutters that he throws and a slider. I think that the home run he gave up was like a slider or a cutter that backed up on him, and it was just kind of like a wall scraper. He was pitching really clean, unraveled in the fourth a little bit. All after. I thought this was interesting. All after, he didn't get a call that seemed to bother him, and I don't think he responded very well to that. Lots of soft contact on the ground, seven groundouts

to just one air out. He's kind of sucking me in a little bit more and watched and listened to most of RVs versus Team Hence Matt, which was maybe the most interesting matchup Mud versus Pretty Boy for us. It's funny how lines can work, right. RVs went five, Hence went three and a third at like the amount of hits and runs giving up and walks and

strikes strikeouts the same strike percentage. But Man RBS was pretty dominant and hence struggled it figures after I give him, perhaps he kind of went back to being what I don't like about him, inefficient, lack in command, RBS rebound scooter. He went a stretch where I think he retired like fourteen out of fifteen or something like that. The first two batters he walked. I

don't know what the umpire was. I think he was tough for the umpire to pick up because there were some ball, some strikes, some balls getting called that were just right over the middle. And of course those two guys came around to score, and then the two that he left on when the reliever came in scored as well. But again no one could square him up.

Man. There was like one hard contact ball. I think, just an interesting juxtaposition of a couple of performances there in a season high four strikeouts for RVs. So that was nice to see. I had mentioned in the previous setting, which was I thought a pretty good outing overall. Nice to see him get a couple more punch outs again. That's still something that I'm watching over the next couple of starts. He's got a nice matchup on tomorrow

against my San Diego beside arm Austin Crop. I watched a little bit of Jaden Ham versus Austin Peterson. I was watching more of the Ham side, but I gotta check out Austin Peterson a little closer. I think here he's a bit of an older guy in Hia, but he put up an f QO. That outing had some nice lines. So I don't know what the whole story is with Peterson, but I kind of want to do some home just on Ham real quick. Did you see Mooney got Ham for for homer?

I did, Yeah, that was that was pretty impressive. I thought like that. They said that that was tripled his earned runs that he'd given up so far in his minor league career in that one swing. Yeah, I think that's what kind of got started my Mooney interest. This week, Emmett Olsen had FQO and I've heard some chatter and people ask about him. I know Vogel was asking me about him. But only one of his three outings had been broadcast so far, and that was Fort Myers from a press

box, so kind of hard to get a look there. But he threw an FQO. It looks like he's a he's a lefty, maybe a softer toss and lefty. I think his fastball averages like ninety one slider, curve, change up. But he's a sixteen innings nowhere in runs, a point seventy five whip, thirty two percent k you know, fourth round. I think he was a fourth round pick. Yeah, fourth round pick this last draft for them. I think did he get promoted too? I think Vogel

might have told me he got promoted. So I think his next start is in Beloite. See how those Midwest League hitters treat him. I saw that night too, Bubba chandler Man. He couldn't get out of the first inning. Two thirds of an inning, two earned runs, two walk. He struck out Khalil Watson to lead things off well, tracking he hit Dan frees, the louder flied out, and then a walk and a walk and he

was done because he was at like thirty four pitches. So Alan Castro had a nice little WPA bump that night, Matt, he had a walk off double to win the game. Nice Thursday, Matt Wilkinson had his fifteen strikeout performance. Yeah, that it has everyone a buzz. Now, try to do some homework on him. There's been really no good views of him. He's a lefty, and the only one from a center field cam was this camera was like this poor, kind of grainy, faraway Salem outing from the

nineteenth. So I did go back and I watched that, and you know what a fun kind of conundrum here for us, Matt. We got a soft toss and lefty who's racking up a bunch of k's and my man's fat. Oh he's so fat. Yeah, but you know, kind of a dropping drive gets down that mound pretty fast. It seems like maybe the fastball is what they'd call like heavy or something. I don't know, but he's

still like very liable to have pictures go off. And don't want to discredit the great fifteen strikeout outing, but I think there's a lot of questions here still about until we figure out how much we want to really value Matt Wilkinson and I cut this one up and put it on Twitter at pitching Specs. But my Phillies B side Aldegari been pretty good so far this year. Matt, I know he had a little stint on the list, but he put up an FQO then he and then he had this last five inning ten strikeout

affair. We still don't get like a real great angle on him. We got to see him in Bradington last year, some but interesting lefty arm. I'm still very much intrigued. In Following Friday, you see Blaine Kram had like two home runs and seven RBIs Rangers B side Montai Yeah yeah, Bizara Montas said, walk off home run for your nuts. Saturday we got a Trevor Werner finally got on the home run board, did he? I hadn't seen that. That's great. Yeah. Prospects that are trending on fans.

On the top of the board is Joey La Braffito, who's getting the call. Makes a lot of sense. Juel Perez is up six percent, He's up to ten percent. Makes sense. Matt Wilkinson is up to six percent. He's up five point four so the third most added. Quinn Matthews up a few percent. Jonah Thong again up a few percent. See Jonathan Bolan is going to get a start for the Royals here. Man, he was a guy I know injuries say night, but did he tonight? I didn't.

I didn't say so. But he was a guy man that I liked quite a bit before a bunch of injuries kind of derailed them. Sam Roberts is up a few percent, but those were the big the big gainers this week. Did you see who won the International League Player of the Week? I did not. It was your Brewers b side that Isaac Collins nice, who is fourth in the International League in ops at one point zero nine to five. Nice. Kind of interesting, huh? Coming up this week?

Might have my eye on and you know, things can change. I wanted to watch Lynchburg last week, but it was a bad press box view and people get promoted and you just don't know. I watched a bunch of Cardinals that I wasn't planning on. Right what I'm kind of thinking. International League got Buffalo at Indianapolis. Man, it would be kind of fun to see or Elvis versus Skiings. Huh, I'll be sweet. Yeah right, and I haven't watched Skiings, so maybe this is the week in the PCL.

I'll check this out. Now, we got Tacoma your Mariners at Sacramento, which is more of a pitcher's park than people might realize. Yep, But like, can we maybe have a PCL kind of pitching duel happening here? Because these are probably the two best staffs, at least statistically they have like six of the of the best starting pitchers in the league in this series? Can that actually be a thing? Sure, they're both tied for first, and maybe we get to see, uh, your boy Tang start to right

the ship a little bit. Well, my, he's not gonna have to face my Mariners B side pick who's currently on the show. Yeah right, what did you say? He had a triple like his first triple. Nice, he's gonna get I think a little bit around while JP Crawford's out nice Eastern League. I'm thinking maybe Eerie at Booie some fun matchups in that one. Yeah, my, my Orioles B side arm Cam Weston got promoted curious to see what kind of usage they're going to have for him there. Is

he gonna get some lengthen starts or not, I'm not sure. Well, maybe I can see what the buzz is with Bencosme of course, Basallo and those guys. I was thinking they was going yeah, yeah, I was thinking they would maybe have a chance to go up against Ty Madden at some point. But it seems he got promoted to our mud hens. Matt oh nice, yeah, those Mudhends man. Maybe see some some exel. Do you think he's gonna get the cold? Maybe not this week, but maybe

not this week, but I could see it soon. You see a Horvath is starting to starting to turn it on a bit, had a really nice homer last week. Southern League. I'm thinking Racket City at Birmingham at least where the Caden Dana start. Perhaps that would be his toughest matchup yet versus Baldwin and those boys who've been swinging it for Birmingham. Have you have you watched any Dana yet? Just a little bit, a few winnings, nothing

in depth. I'm wondering where the strikeouts have gone. Like the strikeouts every outing seem like they're taking a step back, and his swinging strike rate is now under ten percent, so I think there might be something going on there. And yeah, he's walking a few more than I expect, like he had that great first start against the Baldwin led boys. But we'll see, we'll see that goes. Maybe that'll be a good a good start to watch and see what's going on. Yeah, in the Texas League, I'm thinking

maybe Midland at Amarillo. Midland is quietly a good team at Jacob Wilson and we talked about Colby Thomas, our b Sides Malone and Cooper Bowman. They have given up the least runs in the league. They got Selinas there, Baso Cusick Hog j t Gin. But yeah, they'll be going up against the highest scoring offense with DDLS AJV the Titanic, So that might be kind of a fun one fun. In the Sale League, I'm thinking maybe I'll

maybe I'll do some Winston Salem at Greensboro. How McAdoo fairs against Schweitzer and Schultz. Midwest League kind of got I mean, I love the Midwest League right now, but Great Lakes at Wisconsin two first place teams. I want to see my guy Rosario Ferris Bronze and the like with a decent angle and a gun at that Wisconsin Broadcast Northwest League is a no brainer. It's Eugene at Spokane because the other two series are press box and Eugene and Spokane are

the top two teams in that league right now. Carolina maybe some down east at Fredericksburg, mostly because I want to see my guy DJ McCarty and I want to watch some of that figaroa guy that I mentioned earlier. Florida State League. Oh, I've been waiting for this one, Matt. This is a good one, but it's a battle for first place. Clearwater is at Lakeland, So you got Aiden Miller, Walton Pouaco, Grego Saltabah the dude,

he's an older guy. But they also got an outfielder one player of the week I forget his name, uh in classing versus you know, Max Clark, McGonagall, Braseno. So that's that should be a good one. In the Call League, I'm going Rancho at Modesto. Kind of a no brainer. Most most exciting bat prospects in that league are kind of basically on those two rosters. I think probably watched some of that late night love those rundowns. Shoot, we're getting muddy. Yeah, it's getting fun. We've

been talking for a while here. We should probably get out of here. But uh, yep, Like I said, I try to put as much video out there as I can for some things I think I might talk about here and it probably helps. She listening to me ramble about some stuff. But you can follow me at pitching specs. We'll let Chicago Farmer take us out. And this cold episode thirty one a rat Matt and thanks man, thanks again for shedding some light on some guys I should maybe pay attention to.

Yeah, maybe you'll do your homework next time. Hey, hey, I just go I go with it, man, you know, I just go where the signs tell me to. I guess that's what we do. All right, have a good week. We'll talk to you next time. Bye. Five miles an hour riding to his head. You hop it down first with the lump bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with gretested he wasn't born, he had to heat. Yes, you deform