Episode 36: Hitters' Suck

Nine, five miles an hour, riding to his head. He hop it down first with the lump bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up in stole second face with greatst be he wasn't born, he had yes. Welcome to episode thirty six of The Prospect. Besides podcast I Am Nate, Handy and I Am Super Pumped, they have rook A russ Iszaki back. Matt. How are you, my friend? I've missed you. I've

missed you too. My name Rookie row Suzuki is evocative of a better time, back in the early two thousands, when the Mariners were exciting first place led by young phenom Echiro Suzuki. Do you know that the Mariners are in first place by more games now than they have been since two thousand and two. Two thousand and two was so long ago, Nate, so long ago, it was, it was, I was, I was twenty two.

That's a lifetime ago. I mean, I can't believe that this mediocre team, whose hitters admittedly suck, which I think is your theme for this podcast today, there is the first place by a lot in the al West. And I'm amazed, I'm astounded, I'm astonished. I'm here for the fun differential. I think we're gonna throw a lot of the stats out the window and it's all vibes today, buddy, It's all vibes. Before we started recording, I was just telling you how I'm having a hard time getting excited

about some hitters man prospects that. Yeah, I know. Every year last four years, there's always been somebody that wasn't on my radar that I became like hitting wise, that kind of became a little addiction for me, and someone that i'd tune into and watch at least two, three, four times a week. And I've been looking that and I've been on the problem with this, don't really have anybody this year. Last week I did about a

dozen pictures that I felt really improved. Maybe they're getting interesting dynasty wise, And I did the same sort of comparative study on hitters compared to all those numbers from last year to this year, and that gets a lot hairer, I think, than than doing it for pictures. I don't know, man, I'm trying to find some b side here hitters that are ascending within systems

to get excited about it. I'm just struggling to do so, Matt, Well, that just tells me you're you're not watching all the under the radar guys that I picked for my B sides, because my B side under the radar guys are like full on top one hundred prospects. Now for some people. Sure, people talking up Charles McAdoo, people talking up CJ. Cathis like the next al Manzarto. I mean, these are these are my tabs

in the dark. Where's your B side guys? Sure well, Matt, I was saying, aside to those guys, we already know about those guys. Man, We've been talking to those guys since October. And this isn't until like to our own horns here, Oh, it totally is. I've done the B side stuff, you know, for several years, and there's always guys that come about pop up, so to speak, that weren't on weren't a B side pick, weren't on the short list for me for that

exercise. And I'm just saying, this year, that's just not really happening. And so I got really curious and I was looking at all of our B side bats selections this year and just kind of looking at like Okay, where could we have done better? Who did we miss and why did we miss and that sort of thing, and saying that we kind of did pretty good. I think a lot of these systems organizations, there aren't bats that have clearly become more exciting than the names that we threw out there this year.

I think, now this I'm talking full season guys. So of course there's some guys that have come from rookie ball to able and stuff like that that are exciting. But you know, our look was guys were in full season last year who we think might ascend? Right, So I don't know, man, I think your hitters sucked this year. Man, I mean,

this is the golden age of pitching, my friend. Yeah, And let's dive in on that a bit, because one thing that has been true at the major league level so far this year is pitchers are ascendant across the league and it seems like MLB might have changed the ball again. That is

one hypothesis that has been floated there. You know, some data about how many barrels are leaving the yard, the ball flight of balls that ostensibly have the exact same exit velo and launch angle as balls from the same time period last year and they aren't flying as far, like something like ten feet shorter then similar balls from last year, and offense across the league is down from last year. And I don't know if that is true in the minor leagues.

I haven't dived at kind of a league wide level yet. I don't know if you looked into that, but I do wonder if this might be this this relative improvement for pictures and the relative lack of performance out of the hitters. I wonder if that's related to ball changes in the minor leagues too. I have no idea. I have no idea if that happened. It's not something that I've been researching or looking into or asking questions about or anything

like that. Why but you you love a good conspiracy theory. You know this is a beautiful conspiracy theory. Is not it's not provable. We're never gonna know. There's a there's a difference between conspiracy theory and just hitters make an excuses why they suck, right, I don't know, Matt, Maybe

there is something through that not been on my radar. Yeah, Well, I'm interested in kind of this exercise of kind of like who did we miss On or what guys, you know, because I'm definitely one of those guys that it's fun to look at the guys that you're like, oh, look at this guy succeeding. But the guys that I've kind of looked closer at are the ones that aren't doing what I thought or or are sort of underperforming.

And like, you know, a guy that we both really like, Trevor Warner, I'm about to cut him in every league because his strikeout rates above forty percent. He's an old college bat and the power isn't showing up. It's just miserable. And like, I keep going back to that one as one that I was so excited by his sample last year. I liked him in college, and then his was great in spring training and then he

just freaking forgets how to hit. That's one that I just keep coming back to and like, yeah, you know, Kfus is great, Mcat he's great. Mcgonagall's great. Like a bunch of these like short sample picks that we were like, no, this looks like a real dude, have seen to hit, And then I can't get over Trevor Warner or Yorner Fajardo,

who was terrible to start the year. He's turned it around a bit lately because he got demoted down to Double A, But yeah, man, it sticks in my craw those ones that we got wrong, or even even my guys at Triple A, like Blaine Krim and Troy Johnson, who I think are professional hitters, neither of them are doing well at Triple A this year. And I think it's a little bit of you know, bad at ball,

misfortune and all of that. But it still sucks when the guys you're like, this is a major league quality hitter not succeeding at the at the a much worse level. So I tend to focus on the ones I got wrong and like obsess over those. So it'll be interesting to look at who who should we have gone with? You know, there's some stuff here that I think is pretty interesting in that let's just start angels. I went with the first year player, beat Joe Redfield. You went with Gustavo Campero Gustavo.

Now are either of those picks gaining a bunch of popularity in dynasty leagues? No, but looking at their organization. Cole Fontinelli, who was a guy we talked about first year player. He looked like a guy who was jumping up, but then he had a horrific what ankle, broken ankle or

whatever, So he's like done for the year. Outside of that, like Joe Redfield might pick, who was a college guy who's still in a ball with like one twenty WRC plus, which isn't great, but it's still like you still having one of the better seasons out of any hitters that system. Gustavo has been really good. But yeah, he's been good. Yeah, moved him to the outfield. I don't think it's really played in any catcher

really this year. But he's in Double A and he's hitting. He's old, and you know, a lot of fun seems to be he's fun. But he's a ton of fun, a ton of fun. The only bat in that system that you know, particularly interested in came from the DSL last year to aball and that's young. Kevin Castillo is kind of interesting. Catcher has kind of been playing all over the place a ball nineteen year old. I think he's mostly been playing outfield, right. Yeah, he was doing

some catching though too. He's got like a one eighteen WRC plus. It's not top one hundred. Type of guy for me, But a guy that's firmly you know, on my radar now. But yeah, I don't know, man, you've got anybody else from the Angels that has ascended this year, I don't think so. Another guy that I've caught a bit in Inlan Empire Anthony Skull. He's been an outfielder. He's kind of more York type of guy than mine, and that he's pretty aggressive, like he doesn't really

walk, but he doesn't strike out very much. He's I think he's got solid kind of speed power mix, Like he might not be the prettiest line, but he's one that I've I've caught a couple of games of his that popped a double that looked pretty nice. So he's got five homers and eight stolen bases in third of a season or whatever. So it's it's a little bit of a power speed one, but honestly not really like that's that's the only other guy that is kind of interesting for them. Looking at the Astros,

I went with young ketcher Miguel Palma. You went with Jackson Lofton Palma, who was twenty two years old in double A. He was doing all right and then but he's we're talking seventy eight played appearances before you got hurt. Loton's probably been disappointing, yep. But I don't know who's ascended in their in their system that wise. I know Mystery Irrelevant the last pick in the draft, Pascanio ferraris hm. He looks like he might be a legit

hitting prospect. We didn't see that coming. No one was picking Mystery Irrelevant. No, and all the rest of their guys that are doing well are kind of these old for the level, kind of like up in Triple A and doing pretty well, you know, like Chay Whitcomb, pager leone, Will Wagner, like all those guys are twenty five or twenty six and doing

something interesting. He's just Bestidas Again. He's sort of a B side type, a little bit of like some decent power, some speed, and honestly, you look at what is happening with the Astros, you might want to look at some of those guys in a deeper league and see if you want to roster them, because they're all playing multiple positions. They all might come up if one of their guys gets hurt. Because this team doesn't seem that competitive, and I think they want to maybe they want to give some guys

some more run. So yeah, like as far as a B side guy coming into the year, I don't know, nothing really jumping out to me. Yeah, the athletics, Now here's an org that is kind of interesting in this context. I think they've had a good handful of bats get really interested in this year. I went with Cooper Bowman, you went with Brendan Malone. I think they're both having really nice years in Double A. I think those were both pretty solid choices. I don't know how popular they have

gotten yet with dynasty owners. But then you look Henry Bolte, I think has really really ascended this year. First year player guy that I liked that we talked about some. Will Simpson's had a nice year, Kolby Thomas has done some things, and then of course Jacob Wilson probably has done a lot better than anyone anticipated. But that wasn't a B side and that was a first round pick, top what was the top ten pick, So yeah, one that people crapped all over. But you know, still he's, uh,

he's been awesome to start that year. So I think there was there was a handful of guys that would have been pretty good B side calls. I think, at least in that system, I think all those guys are fairly Henry Bolte, he's cut down the strikeouts quite a bit, and that's that's interesting a bit. I mean, I still think it's like above thirty percent for the year. Oh is it really that? I still I think so. I mean, he's hitting a bunch of homers, swiping bags.

It's it's a really exciting battle line overall. But the fact that he's still just at high A and the strikeout rate remains above thirty percent, I think that's some cause for concern down the line. An exciting season. I want to see he and Simpson in double A, and then how serious we might be able to get with those two Blue Jays. You know, I hated the Blue Jays bats B said possibilities. I just piggybacked you and went with Raphael Antigua. Did he get all? Did he get the call at all?

He might have called gotten the call and rode the bench, But I don't think he's gotten to to play okay and whatever. He's been a little bit below average for boy, but not that great. I still don't think that there was anyone that would have been a real great call. They've had some guys move up, get the call up to the majors, but they were I don't know if they were really b side asked zero to two percenters

in the off season. I mean someone like Alan Rodin is one that I liked, but I think he might have been just a little high for ownership when we looked at this last year. Dasam Brown is someone that we talked about, I think when we were going through their system, and I said, was someone who might put it together. And he's he's having a pretty nice season. He's he's somebody to keep an eye on because he's cut his

strikeout rate quite a bit, is walking more and still swiping bag. So he's someone he's a little old, you know, not old, but like age appropriate for Hia at twenty two, hitting pretty well. I think Gene Joseph is a little is a little interesting, but I'm not even sure if there was any full season ball of him last year or not. It would have been tough for us to Sam Brown, Is that the most exciting throw

of the guy for you? Yeah? Or Devonte Brown. I mean he's someone I mentioned too, and he's having a good year, but again it's striking out way too much, so like your mileage may vary. You know, he's crushing in double A, but it comes with like a thirty five percent strikeout rate or something, So I don't know if you should be that interested. I was curious what you might think about the braves here, Matt. We both picked Drake Baldwin. I think that that's been a fine choice.

He hasn't been totally lighting the world on fire, but he's been solid, and he got promoted to Triple A, so I'll quibble with that a bit. I think he's actually been awesome. And this was one of the things that I had said when looking and when making this pick was he had played in Chit Parks to start his career for power, and he was still showing some power. He's played most of this year in Mississippi, and that's an awful, awful park for power, and he hasn't showed much power.

But what he has showed is that his batter ball profile has changed. He's not hitting the ball on the ground quite as much and still maintaining good strikeout

rates and walking a decent amount. I thought Eric Longenhagen had a really interesting nugget in his right up on Baldwin in his Braves prospect list that came out last week, I think, where he said that before two strikes, Baldwin had a really love so chase rate, but with two strikes his chase rate went way up, saying that maybe he's approaching a little bit passively, so sort of predetermined takes before he gets two strikes and then trying to battle with

two strikes leading to a little bit more chase. And it was such a big split that it's worth noting something like a seventeen percent or fifteen percent split, which is huge that doesn't normally happen if it's not something to do with the approach. Now, I still think that that is a valuable approach, and I think that some teams maybe are going to come around on this as

things go. So I don't think it's necessarily a ding, but it might be something that gets exploited a bit more as he as he goes up. And he's off to a nice start at Triple A. He just got promoted last week too, and so I'm still huge on Drake Baldwin. I think he's going to be a major league catcher, and I think he's got a chance to be a major league regular, like a like a starting catcher.

Now, who else would we pick? I think the only other guy that you'd look at and be like, maybe this would have been a good dart is EJ. Xposito and I had written down. And he's twenty three in High A and is like doing well, you know, swiping bags, hitting some homers. Strikeout rate is like you know, league averagish and league averagish walk rate, but for an older bat in HIA like, I'm still taking Baldwin ten times out of ten personally, Yeah, yeah, I was just

curious you'd being a Braves guy if there were any other Yeah. Saban Sebios is another one that he's He's looked good. You know, he's sort of a defense first utility type, not a lot of pop in the bat, but is pretty interesting. Luke Wadel, who I mentioned as like a he would be someone I'd be interested in as a B side if I didn't pick Baldwin. But he's been really bad this year. He's i think been exposed. His sort of light hitting approach has been exposed. At Triple A.

I think he's very much on the on the downswing. Looking at the Brewers, I went with young Wan Baias and you went with Isaac Collins. Now both of them are having pretty good seasons. I think Juan Bayez is lacking some home runs and slugging down in a ball. He's still quite young. As the Collins has been great. He's he's still sitting in that quad a sort of his own and hasn't gotten a chance yet. They have some bats that I think have improved, have up their stock, but I wasn't quite

remembering or sure what their ownership rates were this offseason. Do you recall him that was was Luke Adams the guy before? I think he was a guy like I think he was rated fairly high by other people because that's my favorite bat. I think in their mind system, like I really really like what he does and genuinely think that he is like high level, like very quality

major like he's going to be a hitter in the major leagues. And I'm pretty sure he was way too owned our experience, That's what I thought. But yeah, I don't know you got anybody else from the Brewers that they got a lot of guys and I'm like, eh, okay, young Luis Lor. I'm like, Okay, he's nice, but I don't think he's I'm not buddy star that. Yeah, I'm not on l But the guy we did, we did talk about him a bit jetter our arian. He's

got the most hilarious batwaggle in all the minor league baseball. But he changed it. He toned it down. He did. He toned it down. I loved it last year. I thought it was so funny. But I think he's been really good. You know, he's young for the level he's at high A, and I think he's been with the steels like and showing some power, Like it's he's never going to be an elite power guy. The swing and the speed that he brings to the table, like that's someone

in your rot leagues who I could see if he keeps this up. He's like a really interesting kind of speedy, uh, middle and field prospect type, you know. So he's he's the other one. But again we talked about him, and I was just like, you know, I liked Collins more. I thought it was a much safer that and I still think that that's true. But yeah, he of the wonderful batwaggle. He's been. He's been pretty good so far this year. The Cardinals matt Man kind of

rough. You went with Mike and Tico. I went with still one of my favorite players just from a fan perspective, Alexia Decernia. Neither have really had great seasons, and Tico got up to the Triple A, right, so that's nice. Yeah, and I think he was really not good to start the year, but maybe has turned it around a bit. I forget. I looked at him recently because I was annoyed at how bad he was doing, and then I was like, oh, maybe there's something here still.

I had Tonia is weird. I tune in and watch a decent amount of him, and like, there's never like the eyeball test is still like good to me. It's just he's the numbers aren't coming and some loud outs and things. So I haven't given up all all of my hope. But he's gonna need to have a pretty smoking hot second half here. Yeah, and Tika's still swiping some bags and that's that's nice, But the rest of it has been kind of sort of league average production for an older guys.

Yeah, that exciting. I kind of feel like a lot of their bats have been just pretty you know, Oh, okay, Jeremy Reeves has been nice because he's not like negative offensively, but that's not getting our Dynasty juices really gone. I know Dakota Harris is having a nice season. He was on my radar at all coming into the year. Maybe we talked about I think we talked about Nathan Church earlier in the year because he'd been really impressive

with the contact skills. He'd had a really really low strikeout rate, and I still think he does. I think it's ticked up a bit. You know. He's somebody that like was as a twenty two year old in High A last year, turned things up a little bit in Double A as A as a twenty three year old, but still not like that exciting. But I think we talked about him briefly, but not someone I would really say is like someone we should have been on. The guy that I'm really excited

about, And I don't remember why he wasn't on my radar. I'm looking at my notes before and he didn't make my short list. When I was looking at Jose Fermen, I kind of think he should be playing for the Cardinals, like the Saint Louis Cardinals every day. He's a twenty five year old kind of smallish second base third baseman, and he's been bad in his small you know, thirty four played appearance sample in the BIGS, buts done. I wasn't sure if he was still Yeah, and he got like a

cup of coffee last year or too, but he's still rochy eligible. But he looks like that, you know, not to overuse the comp but like the Louis Arias school of hitting, Like his contact skills are incredible. Three point nine percent strikeout rate in TRIPAA. It's been higher both times he's been in the BIGS, but still in the low teens, and I actually expect that to come down, Like I wouldn't be surprised if he's a more of

a like ten or eleven percent strikeout rate in the BIGS. But it's come with like really nice shape of production, like low grab ball rates, higher line drive rates, and decent walk rates. Like I think he just makes good swing decisions. So and he was kind of a similar guy last year. Yeah, I'm not sure. I think he must have been hurt a good personal last year and that's why he fell through some some of the cracks,

and he still hasn't gotten a long look at any level. But what he showed at Triple A this year, I'm as excited about him as kind of like any pop up guy that I've seen so far this year. So that's a good older and older guy. I think he could be a guy who has a really long career and if he gets a shot to play regularly. I mean, I think he's decent on defense too, so I wonder if if he can put it together, maybe they'll give him some some run. Yeah that's a good shout, I supposely for me. Yea, I

know, we got to keep saying everybody's name. That's good to do the Cubs that those dirty, disgusting. I think we made some pretty solid calls. Pedro Ramirez has been twenty in high A one twenty eight double w RC plus. Yep, that was a good shot. I don't think he's getting super popular. I think there is fair questions about his offensive game and how exciting he might ever get. But you know he's ascending. You went with Luis Vasquez, who got the call to the biggs. I don't know how

much run he got but not very much. And then I don't know who from that system would have been maybe a better choice. I mean, we had a bit of a Pinango renaissance and he finally got to Double A. He's struggled there a little bit, but I think he's coming around the last couple of series. But I got Jonathan Long. He's you know, we talked about Jonathan Long and he's been he's been al right, you know,

there's some stuff to like there. Yeah, but I don't know who else really like has jumped for the Cubs first quick tangent into more of a pretty boy, but he counts for us because he's a beefy boy. Moises by SROs like that dude just absolutely rakes. And he's twenty and they just promoted him to Triple A. Like, I still don't think he's getting the love that he deserves. Like everybody loves Bisao and Bias Steros is like the same fricking guy. Like you line their staff up this year, you could make

a strong argument to prefer Bias Steros to the SEO. So love that beefy boy and hope he crushes it in the bigs because people hate on him because he's different looking. And I'm not about that nonsense, Nate, I'm not about it. We don't just spend other guys. No, in fact, we love we love those that are odd looking. He hit for the cycle the other day, he did, he did it was just super cool. Yeah, I love to see that in retrospect. Like you know, I

went with Vasquez, but I had talked about Piger Ramirez. I wish I would have stuck with Pager Ramirez. I think, I mean, I still like Vasquez, especially because he's a pretty slick glove man and is still holding his own, you know, slightly below average at Triple A and got to look in the bigs and I think he's another one that he might have a long career as more of a utility man with a chance for more if you know, an injury opens things up. But the only other guys that are

kind of interesting to me that I weren't really on my radar. Where with Brett Bateman. I don't know if you've watched him much this year, but he's done some interesting things. Again, more of a speed profile, but I like that he's more of an OBP guy, kind of reminds you of Matt Atzel a bit, you know, like OBP. Maybe not a ton of pop, but seals a lot of bases. But yeah, not a lot other than they are pretty boys, of which they have quite a few.

But so yeah, nothing else there for the Cubs. For me the Diamondbacks, I went with Gavin Kntocello. You went with Christian Certa cont soloan he's having a good year. The power has not the home runs and that come like we were hoping thought they might be how they started off at the beginning of the year. But he's still he's hitting the ball Aserta's offensively not been the hottest now no power, I mean, I don't know what happened

to him. He's like, I don't think he has a home run still and his triple slash has really been buoyed by a fourteen percent walk right, and like nothing else. So yeah, yeah, that's that's one that I wish I had back. Adrian del Castillo probably would have been a good call.

Yep, we both, we both and maybe maybe even Andrew Pintar, who was still Yeah, and I think we talked about Pintar, didn't we like as an interesting dude that we liked a bit, and I think I saw him in the draft and or after the draft, I mean out there in Hillsboro and good game one of the days that I was there and I was like, that's someone to watch. The Dbacks have had a couple of

bats stick a jump. I think that weren't super popular. Yeah, I saw Spencer Geisting got promoted to double A. I wondered if they if they promoted anybody else. I don't know, I haven't seen, but I would imagine that Pintar might be the next guy from Hillsboro to get at least hitting wise, to get called up double A. Yeah, and I'm still excited for a bunch of their low A guys to get up to high A. Not that any of them have really been lighting the world on fire like tore

In. After our super hot start has cooled a bit. Hansel Luis hasn't been great. He's looked better again after a miserable start. He's still a bad The eyeball test is nice, though, I like it's still very much like to look at him at the point. Yeah, and he has looked a lot better. Really, he was terrible I think in April and since April it's been it's been better, but it's still the power has been showed up as much as I was I was hoping, and it's still he's got

a long way to go. Drew Jones too, he's looked a little bit better of late, and in my last couple of looks at them, and I still am pretty barish on him long term, but he definitely has become acceptable at at low A, and I kind of want to see him in person up here in Hillsboro. So hopefully those guys get promoted and we get it couldn't have been It could have been much worse. He could not have been much worse. So maybe that's damning with faint praise, but hopefully he

turns it around a bit. The Dodgers, Matt, I definitely could have done better. But you know, when we did the Doadgers, I was kind of at a loss. It wasn't sure who to go with. I went with Junior Garcia, who's I don't even know if he plays anymore. He sits the bench, he's did nothing. You went with Austin Gothier, who has been very good. I think we're still just kind of waiting for his opportunity. Right, So that was a good call. Yeah, happy

with goth here. Yeah, I think Alex Freelan would have been a great call. I think he's definitely ascended in the system. Someone that we briefly talked about, Uryl Perez, has had a really nice season as well.

But and another way, guys that you brought up, Andre lipschis like he's he's had a really solid year and we talked about him again falls into that kind of quad a bucket with some of the guys who talked about Troy Johnston and Blaine Krim and Sandro Fabian and tso Ornella's that's just his old news though. Man, he's been b side for for years. Oh is that right?

He's he's been been one of your guys for a long time. Well, I mean it makes sense, like I think that that's he's got that kind of profile of a quality hitter, maybe doesn't have a position, and so there's a lot of pressure on the thus far this year in particulars he's lived up to it. But I never would have thought that he'd hit as many home runs as he is these days. Yeah, A Lipstious has looked really good, you know, seventeen homers, six bags and the strikeout rates

at twenty two percent. Like, that's solid. That's a solid across the board. Anybody else from from the Dodgers for you, Uh, the only other one to maybe keep your eye on is Tray Sweeney. You know, we talked about Noah Miller two like as somebody who can really pick it and had a pretty nice start to the year. Tray Sweeney hasn't had a great

start to the year. He's striking out a bit too much, but he's showing that power speed blend, and I think he can play middle infield like he's playing shortstop in Triple A for Oklahoma City, so playing short while Gothier is moving around, so they clearly value his glove a bit more. And you know, I I don't know you can, especially in rodo you might prefer Trey Sweeney to Gothier, even though I think Gothier is going to be

a more valuable hitter long term. But if Sweeney can stick it short with the glove and feel the bags at the rate to he does and hit with as much power, like, you might look at him and say that that's one better. And I think he got a little bit more love than Gothier coming into the year, so that might be why we avoided him. But that's another one that Tray Sweeney. He's one, especially in your rot league, say keep an eye out for Yeah, he was definitely rostered more than

a higher than our window there, Matt Giants. I went with young Diego Velasquez, who I think has had a really nice transition to Hya one thirty one nice one. Yeah, he's a nice little prospect. He went with Trenton Brooks, who was an older guy, but he got the is he still up with them or did he get sent back down? But I think he is still up with them. But I think that that was a good call on your part and then looking at the rest of their org. I

don't know if anyone has really jumped for me. I didn't come up with anybody. Yeah, I agree, maybe Justin Wishkowski. Yeah, we talked about him a little bit. I think I know, but but yeah, it's pretty It's it's a college bat at high doing decently, you know. I like the strikeout rate at sixteen point six percent and swiping a few bags. But I don't know, it's not We talked about putting daniel A little bit. Yeah, but he's kind of just like, where's the where's the

slug? I don't know. Yeah, another system that's just kind of not a whole lot jumping up on the bat side. Yeah. The only only other one to note in San Jose. Jonah Cox is a college outfielder I

think. And he's swiped thirty eight bags so far this year, and that's it's a lot I think he. I think he's leading the California League in steels and it's come with an acceptable strikeout rate too, So not a lot of power there, but just someone to keep in mind too for the leagues where steels are rewarded, like that might be a kind of a sleeper guy that did I wasn't on. I didn't know him. The Guardians, now this this is an exciting one, Matt. I think they've had a handful

of bats get a lot more interesting. Daniel Schneman higher level on Hell. Janeo Janeow. I think on Hell Janelle Now, I couldn't remember how popular he was coming into the season, Matt, but he's been very impressive. Nate, Yeah, he's been really good. Nate Furman's been impressive. Alex Mooney has been impressive. My guy that I went with, Dian Frees,

not super impressive moving up to double A. He's still quite young. The glove is fantastic, though, and I really think that he's been trying to hit for more power when I've been watching him, and he's just not good at that, So maybe there's some transition there. He's not dead to me, but hasn't you know, ascended like we had helped and then to me, Matt, the guy that has jumped the most, the hitter that has jumped the most this year was your pick. Cjkaphisop. He's been awesome,

man Like, he's so good. How good is he? Where? I haven't looked at anybody's ranks, I don't think all year, maybe the first month or something. I have no idea where people might be ranking him right now, but wherever they are higher would be my opinion. Yeah, he's good. I liked the under the radar skills right like that. I thought he was going to play above his raw power, which I think reportedly remains

pretty middling. Like it's not elite evs, but he does have some stuff in common with Kyle Manzardo, who's already in the bigs and you know he's scuffling to start his big league career. But yeah, there's another one. Doesn't that kind of I guess I can see it. But like to me, Caifus is just like way more athletic than Menzardo. Yes, no,

probably, I think the thing that Cafus does better than Menzarto. Manzarto hits a lot of line drives like it comes in that like line drive fly ball band, but Cafus pulls his like Cafus gets out in front and gets those balls in the air better than Menzarto does, I think. But otherwise I think they're like plate skills are kind of similar. They're not going to strike out a ton, they walk a good amount, I think they do.

They do damage on those balls and make the most of their eggsyveilas like they're not quite Isaac Esak Predes level, but they're in that mold, you know, lefties that as opposed to to Paridie's righty. But like they pull their ball and Capus, it's been awesome to see him hit this. Well, I'm skeptical that this is who he is, Like, you know, he's got a one eighty seven WRC plus a third of the way through the year, almost halfway through the minor league season. That's better than I thought he

would have. Like, I'm not saying I saw this kind of run coming. And he is still a first base maybe left fielder. Like that, the bar, the offensive bar to clear there is it remains pretty high. And while he's definitely cleared up to this point, and I think is getting talked about for some like for Clegg, I think he might be in the top one fifty prospects at this point, and I don't even know if he had him in the top five hundred coming into this coming into this year.

So that's like a pretty substantial jump from somebody who does this. Professor, like really really gets that value ranking. Had you stolen any basis? What's this? What's the stolen basis? He's got four? He's got four? How many did he steal last year in his short stint? I felt like he stole a decent amount, but you know, it's hard to steal bases when you ended up on second base or home plate. Yeah, he's still five in the in the short sample last year, which is quite a lot.

But yeah, that was a that was a great call you. You said, shove him up your first year player draft boards, and I wish I would have listened to you more. Yeah, the Guardians kind of showing out for you coming up. Well, I did mention him, and he's a bit more of a pretty boy. But Jason Churio, I think still is. I think doing awesome stuff at low A. I want to see him bumped to high A asap because I think he's better as a nineteen year

old than pretty much everybody else in the league. So I want to see him challenged a bit more. But I've been really impressed with him. And then Alex Mooney. We talked about Alex Mooney too, a bit more for your guy than than me, but he's stealing a lot of bad two and I think Mooney has been really exciting too. Yeah, your Mariners, Matt Picking a B side bat for the Mariners was tricky because they're so popular. I went with Josh Hood wasn't super pumped about its still not super pumped about

it. He's a pretty average twenty three year old and high A. You went with Leo Revs, who got the call. Got some major LEA debates, yep, which was I think kind of basically exactly how you said it would go. I don't know what Ben how popular Ben Williamson was. I definitely didn't have him high enough in the first year player, but he has really impressed me this year. And you know, the bat, I don't

know what the numbers are sitting at right now. They might not be super outstanding, but he's a guy that defensively is I think is going to give himself a chance to be a big leader. The bat hasn't been awful either. He's done some things and he's now up in Double A and I think he's I think he's hitting out right there in Arkansas, isn't he. Yeah. I mean his season line on the year is solid. The one thing that you'd like to see is maybe some more of those doubles turn into homers,

because he's quite a few doubles this year. I think he's got sixteen or something, but only two homers, just one at Everett and just one in Arkansas. There's some more power coming there, Like, I don't think it's the lack of homers is a lack of power. I think maybe it's just a little bit of homer to flyball noise, like he's got a really low homer to flyball rate so far this year, and he has some juice, so I don't think that I think that that's going to revert to him

hitting some homers. And I like the plate skills too, and like you said, he really can pick it a third. And I know you cut up some of his spectacular defensive highlights a little while back and looked really good. So Williamson is one that's really fun. Yeah, was there anybody else for you that jumped down? I know they've got a lot of good prospects in the lowers, but they're all pretty popular. Arroyo has been awesome.

I think BA noted that in one of their recent write ups that he's basically been as good as Lazara Montes like Chase contact strikeout rate ninetieth percent of exit exile, Vilo like all is basically as good as Lazara, Montes and Montes. People are pumping as like a top twenty five, top ten overall prospect maybe at the end of the year because with the way that he's cut his strikeout rate, so huge props to Michael o'royo. I have also heard from

evaluators that his defense is pretty bad. I think that that's sort of true. I think he and TYPEE both aren't very good on defense. But the bat is absolutely playing for Michael Arroyo. But the other guy that made my short list that was zero percent, but it's probably because he was a recent drafty FYPD guy. But brock Rodden don't sleep on him. He's got an elite approach at the plate and that continues to be the case. He's up in every at high A. Now. He was on that Modesta Nuts championship

team last year, but he's at Everett this year. He's older, you know, he's in his age twenty four season college bat. But he's swiping bags, he's walking a ton, he's got a one to fifty seven WRC plus on the air like it's he's crushing it. And I wouldn't be surprised if he gets bumped to double A in relatively short order to play with Williamson and Cole Young, some Moore and Harry Ford. So Rock Rodnon, he's another one that's playing kind of all around the dian second base, third base,

shortstop, a bit. Yeah, he's he's another one that was zero person owned low down a lot of people's fypds, but I think Chris Klegg had noted that he's someone who's college data really popped in terms of like the chase and contact and decent exit velos too, and it's showed out he's having a great start to his pro career too. Matt, the Marlins, we both went with Troy Johnston. I don't think. I don't think we expected

him to have a you know, seventy seven WRC plus. No not doing what he did last year, that's for sure, So that's been a bit of a disappointment. But looking the rest of the Marlins, Org, I mean, Joe Mack, I think has improved proved his stock. That would have been a nice choice. But then other than that, the only other bat and I wanted to ask you about him last week former B side pick

how your Snoia, what did you make of him? Man? Because we both were fans, Yeah, question if he was really a big leaguer, but just loved the way he played and optimize his skill and all that stuff. And now we're talking about a twenty one year old in triple A who was holding his own Man, what do you think now I saw you were mentioning him in the dugout a couple of days ago, maybe sometime last week,

and I was swamped with work and so I couldn't weigh in. But I need to watch him this year because when I watched a lot of him last year, I really liked him. He was my runner up. I

think when I was looking at the Miami system, he's really fast. We know that he swipes bags, he's good at it, and he had a solid contact approach, but he's really upped that, and I think some of this is like maybe, okay, so here's here's One of my hypotheses is that he's doing better at triple because the ABS system is helping with the way

he approaches each at bat. And I say this because while he's dropped his strike his swinging strike rate a little bit, he's almost doubled his walk rate from double A this year and almost had his strikeout rate as he's jumped up to triple A. That doesn't really happen, especially in year, and so

I just I'm curious how that's happening. And you know, the craziest thing is that he's got three homers already, Like he has no power, you know, and the fact that he has two homers in the International League already is like wild up to me. He hits everything on the ground. He has very little top end power. I've watched a good amount of him this year, Matt, and he's maybe one guy that has like kind of gotten me, you know, or I tune in a couple times a week at

least. But yes, he hits the ball on the ground more than you probably would like to see. The power stuff is definitely there's a limit to that. I've been impressed with sort of his gap to gap line drive improvements. He you know, it's kind of you know, slap dicky contact sort of guy. You know, he's up his game a little bit more. I think I think he's a little bit more of a dangerous hitter than that.

I'm more dangerous than I think I ever gave him credit for forgetting to Yeah, don't know, and it may be to me, you know, and I know, and for a guy that is as small as he is and kind of limited in sort of the physical physicality that he brings to it, I'm impressed with how he gets to it. And I don't know, he's he's a fun one. I hope he makes the majors. And you know, he's sort of that classic second basement that they're playing all over the

diamond that Miami seems to cove it and play everywhere. But yeah, he's he's a fun one. And the fact that he's twenty one and doing this at Triple A is you can't knock that too much. Like it's it's impressive stuff. Yeah, I agree, man, the Mets, we both went with young Will we'll freight. Laura, who was an a ball last year, has been at Brooklyn all season, not statistically lighting the world on fire ninety one w RC plus. But and I didn't I don't think we discussed

this, or maybe I just didn't realize this. I think Maddy Backpack mentioned this. But he was coming off of a hamlet bone thing, and we know that that can sort of sap a guy for a while. And I was kind of like h Man, kind of bumming on Laura here the first couple of months of the season. But he's been much better of late.

I think he's kind of kind of getting his mojo back here a little bit at the plate doing Yeah, we're still not seeing a lot of power, which was one of the things we liked about him that for someone so young, he had showed some pretty decent evs in the Florest State League. But he has been a little bit better of late, although I think his last week or so it's been not great, you know, kind of since mid

May, I think there's been some signs of life. He's another one, along with Treuvor Werner, who I've been looking at in a couple of deep leagues from like, man, is it almost time to cut wilfreidl Laura. I think it's The answer is not quite yet, but well maybe it may

be coming. I asked you this and now. Don't get me wrong, there's been some some hitting prospects the Mets org that I think have really ascended Hayzus baias young Ewing, but I don't think those guys were in full season last year at all, so looking at sort of the rest of their system,

I don't know. I don't know if there would have been a better call or someone who really pops out is as sort of like a good B side ascension here this season so far, I'm not not really I mean, maybe a j Ewing, but again, I don't know where I don't know if he I don't think he was we had any full season in last year. Yeah, you might be right on that. Yeah, and I don't think. I don't think we did with Jesus Baias either. If we did, it was we definite. We definitely didn't with Bias, and he's been

he's been great. And the only other one that pops in one of my leader boards is Nick Morribido, and he wasn't on my list last year, even though he had a decent little run at low A at the end of last year. But he's, you know, a super speedster. I don't think there's going to be an impact bat here, but a lot of steels and has thus far been pretty good as a relatively young guy in Brooklyn.

Yeah, so I don't know. Even though Laura has been underwhelming, I think i'd still take Laura over a lot of their bats as a B side hopeful. All Right, the Nationals, ye old gnats. I went with petcher Max Romero Junior, who's not had a very good season at all. You went with Johandy Morales, who I think, I mean, he's in double as first pro season. I think there's still things to be excited about, but probably not the season we were hoping for. But I know that

the homers still haven't showed up. That's the bummer. With Yo Handy, I'm like, the power is there. He hit like, what we say, fifty homers in college and he's gotten two in Pro Bowl. Wild to me. Yeah, But looking at the rest of their system, Matt, I don't know who would have been a good call. Some first year player, a ball glasser who's doing well got promoted. But I've watched him some.

I don't know if I'm that's real exciting. But I don't know what other bat that wasn't already pretty boy has ascended or had a real nice season for them. I don't know if I mentioned him when we talked about the nets, but Darren Baker was one that I liked last year, just kind of like, yeah, just like a speedy guy. I'm never going to be a lot of pop and you know, round down on the plate skills, but he was one that I thought, you know, he could hit

some singles, walk a little bit, and steal some bases. He's kind of doing that. He's now up in Triple A. He's twenty five, but it's not. This isn't big league level production. It's more maybe he's a bench bat in your thirty teamers that gets a little bit of run. So, you know, I still don't think he's a good B side pick, but he's doing kind of what we expected. The Orioles Matt I went with Matthew Etzell. I think that was a pretty good call. You went

with Billy Cook, who I think that was a good call too. He's up in Triple A now, he's having a good season. I think he's just yep, he's just stuck behind a lot of good players yep, which we kind of said, you know, like Billy Cook is sort of more of that, you know, a little bit of power, a little bit of speed, decent plate skills, doesn't strike out much, walk some and it's just going to be a solid kind of corner. I think he's played

some center field, a little bit of second bas this year. That's good. But Billy Cook is just behind a bunch of way bigger names and even though he's been you know, about as good as a lot of them. And Etzel was a good call for you. That's one that we both liked and I sort of co signed on that one where he's really showing his stolen based prowess, making a lot of contact and walking a decent amount with a little bit of pop too. So and he's up in double A now,

which is which is good, and he's still doing pretty well. He's going to have the same issue that Cook has. So yeah, at least they're outfielders, I guess, and the Orioles big league outfielders are older, like Mullins isn't going to be around for very long, and so you're talking about like Santander, Kerestad, who elseus and somebody else that oh beavers, but he's at double A. Yeah, and they're gonna have a bunch of mouths

to feed, for sure. I know there's a couple of young bats down in a ball that I think put themselves on the map a little bit and like Sosa and whatnot. But uh, I don't know if there was if there was anybody else that would have been a good call for us. Matt

Now, I think we nailed this one. The only other guys that are as good as the two guys that we picked are their pretty boys, you know, Jackson Holliday, Hessen Karstad, Kobe Mayo, Billy Cook and Matthew Etzel are like by my list here the top performers so far, and then the next one's the Sao Beavers Norby Like then you get down and Creed Williams. You know your boy, Creed. He's he's looked pretty good for long

stretches this year. Matt Horvath started the year pretty badly, but has really turned it on the last couple months and is now performing kind of like the guy that we had talked about. You know, Pop Walks steals a bunch of bags, super athletic, playing a bunch of different positions. So Horvath, I think it is playing better of late. And then Enrique Bradfield Junior too, he's striking out a lot more than I thought he was going to.

I thought his contact rates were going to be better. But he's got twenty nine bags and has hit two homers, three steel or three triples an a doubles, So he's at least getting to a little bit of power for someone who some people gave like a twenty on his power grade. He's he's got a little bit of juice. But yeah, I'm a little surprised that Bradfield strikeout rate. I thought that was going to be down in the like ten percent range, twelve percent range. Yeah, agreed, Padres Matt.

I went with young Rossman Verdugo, who has had some stretches where he's hit some home runs, is still nineteen year old, pretty league average, has had some moments. You went with Urso Ornellis, who still has gotten his big league shot, been doing okay, I guess, and TRIPLEA. But looking at their system, there was only one other name that that kind of popped to me, and that's Romeo Santa Bria. They're young catcher at a ball looked pretty good, but other than that, I don't know if they

have any bats that have really popped this year. Yeah, and Santa Bria, I don't think he was at full season ball last year. I don't know if we got to look at him. Oh he wasn't. Okay, Yeah, well I don't think so. I mean he's he's still at a ball this year. Let me let me double check that. But I don't think we got to look at him last year. Oh, it looks like we did sixteen games at low A at the end of last year, but he did crap all like I mean it was a small sample. No Homer's

okay line but nothing really exciting. So he's a guy that's been teetering on the on the top of my pick up list and a couple of my deep leagues, but hasn't quite made it yet. Yeah, I mean, one thing to note is he's seems to be a first baseman. He's now twenty two, and yeah, he's doing well at Low A, but it's Low A as a twenty two year old, and he's played a bunch of teenagers like That's his performance has been really, really good and it's definitely a pop

up guy. But yeah, some some flags there. Yeah, I don't know if there's anybody else here that I would take over tier. So even with this three months of additional data, yeah, Philly's I went with young Brian Rincone, who I think what's he's in High A now, but he's been pretty average. But the glove glove is the is the big appeal there. But even with that, I and the offense that he showed last year,

I was I was hoping for some more offense this year. And then you went with an older tripa A player, Matt Cruhn, who I think he's having a decent season but still hasn't gotten his shot right. Yeah. The only other bat though, in that system is a former B side call, Leonardo Pineda, who's kind of one twenty eight WRC plus and Hia He's had some nice stretches. Other than that, don't know who would be It would have been a good B side call, Matt. What do you if

you watch any of William Bergoya this year? He's in Jersey Shore, but he strikes me as a little bit more of your kind of guy, Like he has a league average walk rate or maybe slightly below, but really below average strikeout rate, Like he's swinging a lot. I think, not a ton of pop, but swipe some bags. But he's I had seen some stuff about him last year and hadn't watched him very much, but I think he's doing okay so far this year. I just wondered if he'd watched him.

But point being no one that's really popped off the page or off the video that's gotten a lot more excited about. Yeah, I'm really excited to see Starlinkaba in clear Water. I want to see him. I mean, our little look at him and the spring breakout game was super exciting, and all the reports continue to back that up. He seems like a real, really exciting young in field prospect. Yeah, I agree. Well, Matt the Pirates, we both went with Charles McAdoo. McAdoo maybe just behind Capus

that that is probably ascended the most for me. Yeah, I don't really know what to pick at with him at the plate. I know there's defensive questions, literally nothing, I mean, like, no, put the man in double A and see what he can do, because this is ridiculous. At this point, he is absolutely raking, like I love it. I mean he's stealing bags to showing his athleticism on the bases, like let's go.

Yeah, I was hoping this week, hoping two weeks ago, but yeah, I want to see him in double A. Put the man in Altuna already. Matt the Rangers, I went with young reluctantly went with young Marcos Torres, who hasn't really done anything in Abel He's nineteen years old, but I'm not interesting. He went with Blayne Krim, who has been underwhelming the Triple A. Surprisingly underwhelming, but all that being said, someone who

wasn't already popular, I don't know who's like popped in their system. I know young glider Figureo's had a nice season, but I mean this is his second a ball run. I kind of want to see him get to Hya, but he's a guy that's it's gotten more interesting to me. But other than that, wasn't really anyone in their system. Well, the only other guy is the other guy that I was coin flipping when I talked about Texas,

which is Sandro Fabian. And I think he's he's the best guy in the system, you know, like when you look at how he's done relative to level, and you know he's still not striking out at all. Thirteen percent and triple A is super impressive. I don't care if you're twenty six years old walking slightly below average amount, but pop seven homers. And with Blaine Krim, I think, again, the skills are still there. He's walking eleven percent of the time. I think it's been a bit of babup

misfortune for him. I think he's still a good a good hitter, like somebody who could be a major league average hitter right now. So you know, slow starts the year, and then the only other guys in their system other than Fabian and Krim for me, you know, Walcott obviously was super exciting. It's been nice to see him drop that strikeout rate, Like I've been critical of him and kind of his line, but seemingly it's down a season line to twenty eight percent, which it was like, what thirty six

percent last year or something like it was. It was way up there last year. And the fact that he's going up levels and still continuing to drop his strikeout rate is impressive. And the only other guy that for me is one that I wasn't on but I would like to see more of is Cody Freeman. I don't know if you've watched much of him this year a little bit. He's, you know, twenty three year old at double A, So like that's a solid challenge for a twenty three year old slightly above average

one or nine worc plus the strikeouts are in check. He's swiped some bags, eight bags and six homers across two hundred and twenty eight play appearances. Like that's solid production and I'm curious to see if he can make that play. They still list him as a catcher. I don't know if he's caught at all this year. Looks like maybe he hasn't caught it at all this

year, but they played him mostly at third base. I think so as somebody who I wasn't familiar with his work, but I think he's been interesting enough to put that on a watch list, so Couldy. Freeman's the only guy in TEXASSM that like, I didn't know about that. I was like, oh, maybe there's something here. Yeah, it's a good shout the

Rays. My number one pick in our hit or draft was Ryan Sturmac felt like just injuries have delayed him and people had moved off him too quickly, and then he goes and gets hurt and just came back I think, what

a week and a half ago or something like that. So I think he's I think he has done some damage with the bat, but got to stay on the field, But hoping wondering if since he's missed so much time, they might jump him up double A. We'll see a guy that I still think is talented and want to see both defensively and offensively, just want to see him play. Then you went with Chandler Simpson, who I think has done exactly what we thought right young counter backs. He finally just got promoted

up to double a forty eight bags on the air. So far, like he's I think comfortably in first place for the miners currently. You know, as we talked about, that's that's like his whole game, right, Yeah, yeah, he does have a homer this year, which is exciting. But was it inside the park? I don't know, but it would be surprised if it wasn't. Since the park exactly, but I will say Trey Morgan from LSU has been really good, way way better that than I had

thought that. I agreed that. No, I agreed, that's that is was exactly what I was going to say too. I thought, kind of that corner profile, low power, good athlete skill set, it's like super hard to make that work. But thus far he's kind of saying like, yeah, I can I can do that. I don't know if you remember he had that three homer game in the regionals or super regionals for LSU, which was super exciting. I was like, Oh, this might this might

be a dude. But then you watch him and you're like, oh, there's just not a lot of power there. But he's got a strike out rate under ten percent. He's at high A, he's young ish, you know, considering he was a college draftees only twenty one. We'll see if he can make it work. But I don't know it's he's He's been an arrow up guy for me too. Yeah, definitely Red Sox Matt We both went with Alan Castro, who I think it's safe to say we were hoping

expecting a more offensive, productive season. He's been very vanilla. And then I don't know. I guess maybe in their system, Mat Matthew Lugo, Campbell, Cavadis might have been better, better calls, but we did not We did not select them. Yeah, Christian Campbell, I think is the arrow up guy in the system. And while strikeouts continue to be a part of his game, as Chris Clegg noted, I think pretty early in the

season his exit velos are way higher than they were last year. I think he was a drive line guy or a triad athletics guy, and Christian Campbell upped his exit velo average and ninetieth percent out by a lot. It came with a bit more swing and miss, but you know, he's popped ten

homers. He's up to double A. Playing all around the diamonds, second short left field, there's he's he's moved pretty firmly into like real prospect territory, especially for fantasy, And I didn't have that on my red art all coming into the year, so he would have been a great pick. Yeah, the Reds, Matt, I was more excited about Ethan o'donald than I was Charles McAdoo, and he has just been very vanilla in Hia. It's not popped like I had hoped. You went with Jacob Hurdabies, who's in

the big leagues right now. I think maybe he's still love right yep. Actually, like I saw him. I saw him take some at bats. What last week went to the Reds Rockies game. Nice were there two strikes away from a win and ended up losing by five. Yeah, I think that was a good call because I don't know if there's really anyone else in their system that would have been Dominic Patelli. Yeah, who's kind of ascended. Maybe that would have been a good call. I know you've talked about

Ariel Almonte before and his massive power potential down at a ball. He's repeating a ball, right, so we would have had a chance to see him. But yeah, and the strikeout rate for him is obviously off the charts still like which it was when we talked about him before, but still the power is intriguing for a twenty year old. He's I think leading the Reds

minor leaguers in homers so far this year as a twenty year old. To enable other than Patelli, I don't think there's really anyone that wasn't very popular that has kind of kind of popped this year. Yeah. The only other one that's Blake Dunn got a little cup of coffee too, and I think he was an under owned guy. I still like her to Bees more.

I think the Herdabes's profile of like walking a lot, stealing bases, and hitting kind of line drives is more likely to play than Blake Dunn, who sells out a bit more for power but still brings some speed to play. Yeah, Herdibees is still probably who I would have gone with the Rockies. Matt my guy. Ryan Ritter has been a lot better than even I expected. The strikeouts been cut quite a bit at double A. He hasn't hit for as many home runs, but he's still playing stellar defense, hitting forever

more, stealing some bases. He's been pretty good I think your pick Jimmy Harron has been all right. I think he's hurt now, isn't he or did he just come back? I think so. Yeah, he's missed a good amount of time, but he was solid before then. I just don't know. I just don't know if he's gonna get a chance. Yeah. And he's another of these older guys that I thought, maybe he gets a chance. But again, the Rockies have stockpiled quite a few of these.

So it's not Bouchard Doyle, you like, a lot of these guys were older and then finally got It's kind of a lot of outfielders. Even with them all with several of them banged up right now, there's still other outfielders ahead of them. Yeah, and even a guy like Braiden Ward who's a level below but like he was about he might he might get a shot instead. Yeah, that would have been good calls for braiden Ward. And then Caros has been a lot better than I expected that he would be too.

Kyle Carris, Yeah, beatty braiden Ward, man, he's he's a fun one. He is a fun one, and like that man. We've talked a little bit about stolen bases as a skill and how you can see that a bit in some minor leaguers and Ward has that. Ward is one of those guys that he isn't just fast and isn't just taking advantage of bad defenses. He's got the stolen based skill in there. He's a fun one.

Oh well, I was going to ask, like on the older level, guys like Coco Montes, like he's been one that has popped up for me as like maybe if he gets a little bit of run if Rogers or or I guess when Brendon Rogers went down, I wondered if they were going to give Coco Montes run and instead they're promoted amador. But has have you watched much of Montes? Yeah, yeah, I've seen, and he was up with them last year a little bit. I think he's a really good Triple

A ballplayer. I don't think he's he gives them anything that Alan Trejo doesn't give them, you know what I mean. Yeah, Treo is better defensively, So yeah, he's nice. I was kind of hoping my guy Hunter Stoleall might actually get a big league chance because I love him, but that didn't happen. The Royals man, I know Trevor. Trevor Warner has been a big disappointment for both of us. We were pretty excited about that, but that has has not gone well. But I don't know who would have

been a better call on that. I've liked this, uh, some of these looks of this Jared Dickey guy, but he's still like putting up pretty pedestrian numbers. That ball shape is nice, But I don't know. I don't know who would have been a good call. I don't know who's popping for the Royals that wasn't popular. I think Javier of Oz, who I'm

pretty sure I mentioned when we were talking about this. It is like I really liked him coming into the year with exactly what he's shown this year, which is high contact, decent plate approach, a little bit of speed, and maybe he'll look into a few homers here and there. So I do really like Javier Vaz and I did kind of coming into the year. I think he has a chance to be like, was he still like B side

range popularity though, because I know he was. He was super you know, like it sort of fringy for us, but still two percent I thought was such a safe territory, and he had made it up to Double A last year and spent most of Double A most of this year in Double A two. But Oz, I think continues to be a guy who looks like either a platoon guy or a utility guy with a chance for a bit more, especially if he gets to a bit more power, which I wouldn't not

expect it to happen. But Oz is still a still guy. I like here the Tigers, Matt, I went with Luke Gold who has hit some home runs in hye been okay, I guess, And then you went with Brady Allen, who's nothing been underwhelming in Double A. Yep, I don't remember how popular was how you lee before the season had to have been over our threshold limit because he's been awesome. Yeah, yeah, he's probably he's probably the clear cut to me, sort of like B side ascending guy.

Yeah, I think that's right. I mean McGonagall obviously hat tipped to you for iding that one. I I think mcgonagall's been phenomenal since he came back from his injury, like better than Max Clark, who was obviously a top five pick. And yeah, McGonagall, Mcgonagall's freaking sweet, So I'm pumped for you on that one. The Twins, Matt, we both screwed the pooch here. My guy Ben Ross has been probably the most disappointing guy for me this season, maybe other than maybe Werner not been good at all.

Good defensively still, but yeah, the bat's been awful. Your guy, Joiner Fajardo was released picked up by Pittsburgh. I think he's in Triple A for Pittsburgh now right. I think they might have signed him to Double A. Like that's what I was saying. I think they I think they had signed him to Double A. The Twins probably had. There were probably some better calls now. We talked about Keishchel and liking him coming into season.

We also talked about Kursey junior Deshaun Kirsty junior, who I really liked from back his days in college, and like I was like, you know, Fajardo is kind of him, but a little bit younger. Maybe he gets a shot first. But Cursey has been really good, has finally dropped his strikeout rate down into an acceptable range and it's still showing a power speed blend. Like I hope Deshan Krazy gets a call this year because he seemed to

have earned it after a really long stint in the minor leagues. This is I think his seventh year in the minor leagues now, and part of the reason why I was attracted to Ross was because I thought the Twins would would help him hit some better home run shapes. Right. They didn't do it with Ross, but man Kell Keischell's hitting the home runs, yeah, pace, at a pace he was not as a as an amateur. I think

that I think that played. There a couple other guys that have been good that kind of you know, quote popped up, came out of nowhere. Nowhere is Ricardo Olivar and Rubel Saspads. Those would have been some good calls too, but we did not make them. That we did not the White Sox. We both went with Brooks Baldwin. I think that's been a Yeah, that was pretty good. I don't know, do you think I'm hoping that he gets the double A to the majors treatment like what they've done with

a handful of their of their guys. Of wait, moving them from Birmingham. We see trade Luis Robert and then promote Baldwin to play center field. I don't know. I don't know what those as clowns are doing. Uh yeah, Wilfred various. That that's I think that's been a decent call too. Like we've talked about, he's slimmed down and stuff. The strike cuts are still kind of high, but that was a good runner up call,

I think. I don't know if there's any other bats. I know they got some dude, some old college guy crushing it at a ball, but I don't know who else has kind of jumped for them offensively. Well. The only other guy that I don't think is really relevant for dynasty leagues or anything. But it's just a fun interesting profiles Riku Nishida. I don't know if you've watched him before, Yeah, I've seen them. Yeah. I

mean it's just like super high contact, zero power zero. I pulled up I pulled up his spray chart and Clegg's thing, and I do legit, there wasn't a ball hit past like medium depth outfield. Yeah. Yeah, he's just a fun profile and I like watching him, you know, just because he's got a different approach up there. And then lastly, Matt the Yankees. I went with young Jose kolmanis who got hurt before the season started. He's done for the year. You went with Caleb Durban. It was

a great call. He's been hurt for a while now, Man, when does he come back. I don't know. I don't know, but he's been crushing it like he you know, But I think they drop in and it's been awesome. I love I love Durban, But the Yankees, I think there was a handful of guys Rafael Flores, Haesus Rodriguez, Jared Serna, Benjamin Cowels would have been great B side calls as well too, I think. Yeah. And then my guy Augustin Ramirez, who might really have

qualified as B side. I mean maybe not. He might not have qualified this offseason, but I know for me, he was like top of my draft board for a bunch of leagues, and I managed to snag him in quite a few places, and he has been awesome to start the year. He's great. Now, this was a very long way going about me asking you, Matt, where where are all the pop up bats man? Where what am I supposed to be doing with all my roster spots and my deep

leagues? Yeah, I mean it is interesting going through it kind of team by team like this and seeing who could we have been on or who maybe has like surpassed the guys that we identified. I don't know, not scientific at all, but like I'd say two thirds of our guys are like either the guy or a top guy from their from their systems. You know, that wasn't like a very very top prospect, right And to me, the point isn't like, hey, look at us, we're so smart. The

point is it is not like this in other years. In other years this short list. Because I've done this every June, looked at my picks, who should I pick? Who were better? Every order will have a guy that I could argue was just as good a call or had five guys that would have been just good caller better. That is just not the case this year at all. M Well, that's interesting. The historically that's the case.

I'm going to chalk that up to one. You picked twice as many b side guys this year, right, Like I picked a bunch so so, and we also talked a handful. We doubled up on a couple, but for the most part we picked different guys. Even even when we agreed, we usually were like, oh, but this is another guy that you should keep an eye on. But so that's part of it, Like you,

we picked more guys. I do wonder if there's something about the offensive environment overall that like maybe hasn't showing up in some of the surf surface line stats that you know, like it actually turns out that a one oh five WRC plus at double A is actually phenomenal and looks way closer to a really good line historically speaking, so that that kind of stuff is harder to know.

I mean, it's also interesting hearing your perspective about that. Usually there's a lot more at this point in the season, because I think for me, this is the point in the season when shit starts to feel real, like you know what I mean, Like lots of guys kind of started hot. I'm like, man, I'm kind of skeptical of that. Like hoost Way de Paula had one week where he hit five homers and how many homers

does he have in all of the weeks combined? One? And like, I mean, okay, yeah, maybe he's that guy like everyone else said he was, or maybe he's the guy that I saw all year last year and have seen most of this year, Like I don't know, and so looking at somebody in June or early July to mean that starts to look like, Okay, this is the vagaries of the up and down of a season have started to smooth out a little bit. You can start to buy who a guy is more at this point, and that's on the good and the

bad side. So like, maybe we're just starting to see some of these guys who've like maybe started out pretty hot, poked through and we should start believing them. Yeah, I don't know, does that make sense like that? Maybe maybe it's just that it took a little bit to get here and now now we should start to see some of the players kind of separate or be a little bit better. Well, you've bring up some good points, but you didn't answer the question right. The correct answer was filled them with

pitchers. Yeah, the pitching. The pitching has been fun. You know, this is something that you know, since I wasn't on last week and you talked about a bunch of the pop up arms or arms that are like these are guys we should have been on, or that are that were really

interesting. I always feel like there's a couple of arms in those first couple of weeks that they turn out to be really, really good, and maybe there were a few more of them this year, and we'd identified a few of them coming into this season, like you with jayde Hamm, Like, I think that was a great pick. Hat tipped to me a little bit. Quinn Matthews, I talked about him in January, is like, this is a guy to me that looks like somebody who could really put it together

in pro ball, and he's been nothing short of awesome. And certainly I didn't think he was going to be this good, but that's somebody that we were we were on. But does it feel like there were more of those pop up guys to you this year that like maybe we thought this was interesting, but they've showed out as like this is a stud pitcher. Does it does it seem like that's the case. It's a good question for the last, you know, three four years i've been I don't know if it feels

any different. I feel like every you know, what I was doing, like that pictureless review stuff was like every week there was at least one guy that I was like, Ooh, I could see how this could go. And I don't think that has changed. I think pretty much every week there's a picture that I catch. It might be his best outing of the year, but you get the glimpse, you get to see, like it goes like this, this is gonna be pretty good, right. A lot of

it's just how consistently are you going to be that good? You know? So I don't know that's a good question, I will say, though you're talking about earlier in the year Jonah than for one, I think classing those were two guys right right away the first week of the season I got excited about. I was like, oh, ye've they've lost a little bit of their appeal to me moving up. I think there's been more guys this year who were kind of like repeated a level or maybe they maybe they finally just

got promoted or something of that. But I feel like there's been more guys that were just pretty vanilla and kind of lost my interests that have become more

interesting than the year's past, if that makes sense. Interesting. I feel like the list of guys that maybe started out at low A or high A and then really like jumped off the page, you know, like tug Bot Wilkinson, Quinn Matthews, Zebbie Matthews, Caden Dana, even Austin Peterson, Winston Santo's Like, there's a lot of those guys that it was like two or three starts in, and I feel like it was pretty clear these are

some talented arms that are doing some interesting stuff, and they've mostly held that. While I agree with you a couple of them as they've gone up, it's trailed off a little bit, as you would expect it to a bit, obviously, but it does feel to me like there was more of that crop at that level that we hadn't seen a lot of, Like because the thing that's common about pretty much all of those guys is we hadn't seen much

of them prior to this year. And Key Sting was another one all the Gary Is and other of your picks that I think he's really he showed out really well. Erku Lani even I think he showed some things too. But a lot of those guys that we hadn't seen very much of, they've kind of kept up that performance more than I expected. And when I look at how how things have gone this year, it seems like those early flashes have sustained for the most part, and those early like pitcher pickups have been pretty

good ones, and I wish I had more of them. I mean I grabbed a few, I think in some of our leagues, but here I wish it would have gone with me more of these guys. When we did our B side arms, there was a lot of small sample guys that I picked, right, Yeah, but is say, hello, Gary gill Hill, guys like that, right, some that haven't been good, Jackson Humphries, but Logan Evans, you know a lot lots of guys that have been

good, right. I think with the condensing of the miners, I think maybe there's some better arms down at the complex level, at rookie ball level than maybe you know, half a decade ago or something like that. I think when we're when we're sort of B siding or whatever. I think the

second half of the year is going to be really interesting for arms. When we see these guys, they get to move complex to full season, even though we might just see a little bit of them, Like, you can glean a lot from seeing a little You can glean a guy throwing high nineties or wicked slider or something like that. You know, and there's reasons why those are the guys. Those are the young guys getting promoted. So I'm

excited for that part of the season. I'm excited for the last month or so month and a half of who are these arms that are going to come up and get a few starts? You know, we're not going to have a large enough sample size and who's going to be next year's crop of B

side arms, because that's a lot more exciting than hitters. Well, I'm not going to go that far, but it has been interesting to see how many of these guys really did, you know, show out like that they really were quality early and then it was apparent that they were a cut above either even what we thought they were or what they had been kind of rated by the larger dynasty community. And I just think that's an interesting thing to

note. You know, I don't know if there's a larger takeaway to be gleaned from that just yet, but it has been interesting just how many of these guys like continue to populate the top of the K minus BBE leader boards,

for example, in in the minor leagues and whatnot. And yeah, you found a lot of those small sample guys that like even even Hayden Mullins like he hasn't put it all together yet, but he's had a few starts that like there's that slider that is just wiping everybody out, and when he tightens up the command a bit, I mean, I still think there's there's an arm in there that it's worth following, especially in that pitching development organization,

the way they've turned around a bunch of those arms like he's, he's another one that has it hasn't quite come together yet, but yeah, there's there's some real, real potential there. I don't know if I find it interesting. Man, I got a few teams good. You know, I'm trying to get better. My teams aren't very good. Trying to make deals and you know who are the pop up hitters and who should that is tough, man. They're just saying a lot to go after right now, and

it's making me a little nervous. But as I think we said before the season started, if you're rebuilding like I am, or trying to get good like I am, a few teams, you that young MLB hitter demographic, I think is where I got to be spending my time and trying to treat I think we identified some some decent hitters that way. But I'd be really nervous if I was like a total strip down thirty team or large even small

league. It was like, all right, I just got all these hitting prospects and in a few years, I don't know, man, I think there's also maybe a little bit of a log jam after the condensing of the minor leagues and all this stuff. Like there's a lot of young bats, young talented bats, I think in the majors right now. It's like they're vying for time and probably deserve it. You know, Like I'll just look at like the path of like Brett Wisely, who's doing all right now?

You know, you got one hundred and twenty at bats one season, had waited half a season to get another shot. You know. Just a lot of dynasty owners can't can't be patient like that, and the rebuilders. I think you should try and collect those kinds of guys. It's different. It feels like a very different environment, very favor of mud right now. Man. I took a look at the trending prospects this week, and any good ones not really, we're hitting that lull. Yeah, nothing super remarkable that

I know. I think CJ. Hunt is that right? CJ. Hunt? The picture of the Brewer system, I think, oh, I'm sorry, you're right, Casey Hunt. Thank you. He was like one and a half or two percent increase. And then Cutter Coffee with the Red Sox, who I don't know, what do you do, like hit six home runs in a row or something like that. Yeah, he's like, I think home run seven games something like that. Yeah, he's on fire, and you know I remember, I mean he was what a second round prep

pick, signed for like one point eight million or something like that. But I don't really I feel like I've never not really heard a lot of compliments about Cutter Coffee. I can't say that I watched him once I picked him up, though, Like no ideas, man, I didn't look at the schedule upcoming this week, but I do know that I want to watch Amarillo when Spencer Geisting makes his double A debut, hoping to get a decent angle too. I don't know who's got the best angle in the Texas League,

but that's been my angle. Isn't bad. I mean, they it's a little bit off center, but it's like nice and close up. I think that's that's been my biggest, uh my biggest hang up with geisting at how much do I like them is I've never's never been a good angle to see a lefty in the Northwest League for the last two years. You know, mm hmmm. This Vancouver is okay, but it's still not the greatest. But yeah, so I don't know, Matt, I think that'll do it

for episode thirty six, Hitters suck of the Prospect. Besides podcasts a conspiracy, this will be fun budding times though there's there's stuff out there. We just we gotta we gotta dig deeper, Matt, we gotta find something here.

The second well, and as you noted, it's it's definitely getting to be promotion season where we see a lot more movement between the leagues and some of the guys that have been really crushing it, let's see how they do as they get promoted up into High A or Double A. I think that's like where a lot of the interesting promotions happen. Yeah, obviously the Complex ball is up to a A ball. I think we're going to start to see some of those guys fairly soon. And there's some really exciting guys in

the Complex too. Yeah, I don't allocate a lot of my roster spots to rookie ball guys. But I have been backscore watching and keeping Demetrio Crisantis on some of my rosters, and I'm curious and anxious to see him. I'm hoping that's fairly soon. D bex So. I think he's playing second base roadstap But I don't know if you've if you've peeped his complex numbers, but they're they're pretty interesting. He has popped up a couple of times when

I've looked, and definitely really interesting box score so far. You know, you always like to see the stolen based numbers and the strikeout a lot of triple Yeah, five of them. That's impressive. Yeah, so we'll see he's but he's no collades though, or triples, five homers for steals. Yeah, he's gonna be so freaking good, do you think so? I'm worried about the strikeouts, man, strikeouts are going to be a thing. I just I think for him, he's going to be one of those guys

where the strikeouts are are there. But I think it's been better as he's gone, Like he started out with a lot of strikeouts that I think they noted this maybe in one of the Baseball America right ups recently, where his contact rate started out as abysmal and now it's more below average. And for a guy that hits as hard as he does, like it's I think that's going to matter a little bit less. You know, you wanted to keep

getting better. But I'm still super in on Colase. Well, of course, I'm hoping we'll let Chicago Farmer take us out and we'll talk to you next time. See you. Miles an hour ratting two is him. He hopped down first with the lumpbonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with gretest speed. He wasn't born, he had yes, beautiful