Not five miles an hour riding too his head. He hopping down first with the mount Bonius face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second phase with gradest be he wasn't born, he had the yes uniforn Well.
Welcome to episode forty one of the Prospect B Sides Podcast, the season finale. I am Nate Handy, joining me as always the late rookie because he was late tonight, NAT's man, how are you?
I am fantastic? I can't wait to review my awesome B Siders. You know, we've touched on a lot of these guys throughout the year, but it's fun to look them all on one leaderboard and see the progress throughout the year. And while there are definitely some flops, mostly on Nate's side, Miner really good. But it's fun to just review. And I'm pumped to do a recap episode with you, buddy. How are you this fine Monday?
Good man? The Rockets just won walk off. They gotta they gotta win five of their last eleven to not lose one hundred. Feeling pretty optimistic about them coming down the stretch here, Matt, their biggest bugaboo is relief pitching, and I'm sure no one's paying attention but their young bullpen arms. This last month, the guys who have come up have been pretty good, and you know, relief pitching is what it is, but at least it's some hope, Matt.
Yeah, and even I saw Kimley has been pretty good at play yeah, close lockdown some games. I think he want to match up against me the other day, and so I have hate in my heart for him.
But you know, Elverson's pumping a hundred and putting it on the black, and Ve's been good, and Hill's getting his run, Like, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how that looks next year. This episode, Matt, we're gonna review our B siders from from the year. I was thinking maybe we'll talk a little bit about I don't know, lessons learned from the season, things of that nature. Put a bow on twenty twenty four, and continue to mud along and get ready for our off season selection shows.
Does that sound good to you?
Yeah?
It does imply that we're capable of learning and reflecting, And as I have continued to beat the drum, we're not really about that here.
At least on this side of the B side.
Podcasting table. I'm just about of hyping my calls that were good, ignoring my calls that were bad, of which there were none, let me remind you and yeah, yeah, So I don't know if I need.
To learn anything.
I'm pretty good at this, Saint let me tell you.
Well, we'll talk about that a little bit. But Matt, last episode, that was pretty fun. It's been a minute I think since we recorded. Having Connor on was nice and I wanted it was really hard for me to not talk about and ask more about calling games. I feel like if he comes back on, I might just ask him a bazillion questions about what it's like calling games.
Should he's good at it. He thinks about it a lot.
And that's actually something that we've talked about over the years with as he took over and started putting his stamp on pitching staffs. One thing that I think that I was a little ahead of the kind of major league game on just from my own experience, was that the baseline for pitchers should be that you throw each of your pitches equally. So if you're a three pitch pitcher, you should throw each of them about thirty three percent of the time.
And then you.
Ratchet up and down based on kind of how good each of those pitches are. And that's I think something that he has incorporated into his pitch mix calling for his pitchers. That's actually something they developed they work on in the fall, is each pitch gets equal treatment until they prove that one is better than the other, or that they can't command one, or that one is actually really a terrible pitch. And it gets guys comfortable throwing
pitches in any count in really mixing things up. And I think that it's a way that hitters still are on the back foot because still from a young age, everyone's taught to hit the fastball. I know that in my career I was way better at hitting the fastball. In my four years in college three years in college summer ball, I only ever hit home runs against a fastball, and yet people still kept throwing me fastballs. And I could hit the other pitches for singles and doubles, but
really getting into one. For some reason about my swinging like fastballs was the only thing that could do it, and people just still kept throwing them to me. But I think I would have been way worse if they mixed more. I kind of think that's true of most hitters, and that pitchers still throw fastballs too much. You should mix more. So that's something that he's incorporated into his
pitch calling. I take some small amount of credit. Most of it is his own intuition and scouting reports and stuff, but yeah, that is that's one piece about the pitch calling game that I know that he has done quite a bit more of of late.
Nice. Well, that seems prudent to me, starting off throwing everything equally and going from there. How have your league's gone? How is your year as a whole as a fantasy player.
It's not over, but it is looking like I'd say a B minus here for me, I'm in one final, three semi finals, and got bounced in playoffs in four other leagues. So like solid, I'd say, if I win this thirty team or that I've talked a fair amount, that's my favorite league. It's my thirty team daily points league. If I win that one, it would make up for some of the other sort of middling outcomes that I had still in the mix to bring that grade up
a bit. But I'm not sure I'm sitting well in two of the other semi finals, and I'd say one of the finals I have a decent shot in. That's a points league that I play with in a couple of the guys from the Dynasty dugout I got to I have a pretty good shot in that final too.
So in Dynasty, I won no championships this season, which is unfortunate, but money wise, one more money than I paid to play. So hey, that's good in that sense. I guess that's a win. But oh, in all, feeling good, not great about my Dynasty performance this season. But I wanted to ask you, Matt, a common theme across my leagues that I found this year was relief pitching, not doing well as a whole, identifying guys making trades to
try to help me in those categories. And I feel like, especially in like thirty teamers or maybe only leagues, you know, the best teams will have a good lineup, they'll have good pitching, and like, the way you can get an edge or separate yourself is with your relief pitching. I think, And the sort of these teams that I Dynasty teams, they have of all kind of been built up. You know, I didn't like take over a great team or draft
a great team out the gates. So I've been building these teams up over the years with the idea that, hey, when I get there, when I need to, I will just trade for some relief pitching. And one of those trades I made with you this year, and I paid way too much. And I know relief pitching is so volatile, But admittedly I don't spend a lot of time prospecting relief pitching. You did this year. You picked out some names, some good ones debuted this year. They probably haven't become
fantasy winners yet anyways. But I don't know, man, you got any advice for someone like me trying to be better at relief pitching in dynasty leagues.
I think there's a couple of things that I look to. One is small sample changes happen really fast with relievers.
Yeah, I send you a gazillion great pitching starting pitching prospects for Craig fucking Kim.
Right, Well, that's not the kind of guy that I'm talking about. Like Kimberl is a different type of relief asset in it. At the time, he was fairly well locked in as a situational He was valuable because of the situation that he was in, and he had been fine as a pitcher, you know what I mean up to.
The point that I traded you for him. He was like the top scoring relief pitcher in our league at that juncture, or.
Right right, he was, but again that was because he was put in situations right he was the locked in closer for the team with the most wins in baseball, so he had the most opportunities to get saves, and often they were like three run leads, which is a super easy thing to do, so you don't have to pitch that well to convert that kind of a save.
And he was doing okay, but if you looked at his K minus BB, if you looked at some of the other situational things like his walk rate had ticked up, he was getting fewer with there was signs that all was not well, and it kind of he wasn't earning all of those points.
So now, are you on Are you on the air, so to speak, right now, admitting that you sold me a lemon? That's the kind of trade friend you are.
It's it's I'm not admitting that I sold you the second best reliever in that league. What I'm saying is that you've got to understand why he was so valuable, and a lot of the reliever game is trying to find either the guys that really are locked into their position, and Kimberle has been that kind of a guy.
Like I kind of expected him.
To just keep holding the closer role even if he wasn't great, but because he was going to get opportunities he had quote unquote, he's a Hall of Fame closer. He's done it for a ton of teams and for so many years now, and then he would just keep racking up mediocre innings, but he was going to keep getting saves, and our league rewards that that's value, right, So that is a kind of value that often you can get for relatively, you know, not inexpensive, but it's
worth paying that price if you're a contending team. I did the same in our league the show. I bought a few relievers because I was a playoff team and I was like, you know, my relievers for most of the year were kind of shitty, and so I bought a couple that were They weren't kind of kimberrel esk in terms of their role, but they were decent back end relievers that were going to get me more points than the guys that I had. That's the other kind
of guy. So there's the guys that like are valuable, even if they themselves aren't that good of a reliever, they are kind of locked into their role and they're going to give you value there. I mean a role as Chapman has been this in the last couple of years. He's having a bit of a resurgence this year, but I'd say the two years before that his stuff was down.
He wasn't getting the whiffs, he was walking guys, but people were running him out in the ninth in and that was valuable, and you wanted that on your Dynasty team, especially as a competitor. You didn't really want to like carry that all year, but coming up to the end of the season, like, let's roll with our best guys and paying a slight premium for those things makes sense.
It's also one of the reasons why when I talk to guys that are trying to rebuild, I tell them don't ignore closers or set up guys that might get it, because those turn into assets that like in that in the WGM League where we made that trade. My team fell apart because of some big injuries early on, and who did I try.
And go and get eighth inning guys, Guys that.
Were I knew that those were going to be some of my best trade value assets at the deadline because my team wasn't going to need them.
I'm glad you brought that up because I want I wanted to note. I wanted to say, Man, if you're a rebuilding team, at least in my experience across my five dynasty leagues, to me, that would be the most that seems like the most profitable demographic or place to go, gobble up that nevers man. And then when the contending teams get to the trade deadline, at least if they're like us, I kind of pay you wait too much for them?
Yeah, that that an injured starter. So the other one that you can often buy for cheap, hold on your roster, on your bench because you don't need them for the points.
And then when they come back healthy, you try and.
Screw the maybe bat in the lowers. Yep, housing those guys get that, I say, yep.
I'm normally pretty skeptical of small sample size performances like that. It shouldn't change your underlying opinion of folks too much.
I think relievers might be where I change my mind there, and I do pay some closer attention, especially kind of early in the season, middle of the season to rolling, you know, fourteen game k minus bbs, because managers front offices even they make the same kind of fallacies that we do, and that they like the hot hand, they like the performance of the guy, and sometimes that means a real uptick in talent level or talent level for
that season. I think like Tyler Matsek in twenty twenty one just all of a sudden reverted back to elite reliever ways, even though he'd been hurt or bad for like the previous five years before that. But pretty quickly he was like running thirty five percent strikeout rates and wasn't walking to anybody, and you're like, oh, this is an elite back end reliever, and he helped win the
Braves of World Series. Those kind of guys, in small samples, they earned the trust of their manager to be in those hold situations, those late in inning situations, and then maybe set up men to closer promotions down the line. And so trying to find a couple of those guys early on that are free, like they're going to be free, just like the Cade Smiths of the world. Like he was one that popped out of nowhere, wasn't on any dynasty list, nobody was talking about him.
And Miah and Jeremiah Strada another one.
Like there's a ton of these guys every year that come out of nowhere and then are useful. But that also changes over time.
Yeah. Sorry, that's a point that I think I may have failed, so to speak, or could be much better at as being on top, you know, first of the draw, getting Jeremiah Strata and those types. I need to pay more attention to that.
Yeah, And it's a thing that's a little bit tricky because these are super small samples where all of a sudden it looks like, oh, a guy maybe found a new gear and is the next James Krinchak who came out of nowhere a couple of years ago, was striking everybody out, was still walking people, but nobody could get any hits off of him. And he was an elite setup guy for like a year and a half and he's been really bad since then, and isn't really rosterble in Dynasty anymore.
I think I have him on one of my teams.
Like it's that kind of guy that can pop up out of nowhere, be really useful for a year and a half, and then kind of flame out and be not very useful.
I also watching that guy Matt, like yeah, his anxiety just like went through the TV screen and like got inside of me.
Yeah.
Yeah. I feel that relievers are tricky, and your format really matters a lot too in this league that I'm in, the ALCSN that I mentioned just before or maybe before we started recording, Like, I have four solid relievers, and that's like the most you want in this format. But what some of the other really good teams do is they really rotate through They keep maybe one or two of their reliever spots open, and they just stream relievers to whoever might pop up that day, who might like
pitch that day. And I think that that's something that I might have to do this week that I'm kind of bummed about, because my relievers have been some of the better relievers throughout the course of the year. But it's really about the roster spot in this sprint to the finish, where I've got Ryan Presley who's been seventh or eighth innning guy for Houston and really effective last few years. Jason Foley, who's a closer for Detroit and has righted the ship after being a little shaky in
the middle of the year. David Robertson, who Loki is one of the best relievers of all time and that's not a hyperbole and is back to having a great season with Texas, and then Kyle Finnegan, the Nats closer, who all have been good throughout the year.
They've gotten me to this point.
But I'm probably being suboptimal and like clinging to my pearls a little bit by keeping all four of them, and I should probably cut one of them loose and try and stream that spot because in that form, in this format, that can get rewarded. So that's the other part of always knowing your format and what's useful a couple of formats that we play. You need eight relievers to be a really good team to really eke out
the most points you can get every matchup. You need to be able to mix and match to make sure you've got a reliever who's hot and ready and likely to go each of those days. And that sikes work like that's a that's some deep diving to do. So, long story, long way of saying, each league is a little bit different. Some really reward the role, some really reward the skill, and some just really reward availability, and each of those things are a little bit different that you're looking for.
Man, I think, you know what might be useful just a relief pitching only podcast.
Should we convert that is really niche?
Should we convert to a relief pitching only podcast.
I know we already have only like ten subscribers.
I just don't know if that's.
Five of them will hang around maybe, I don't know. I think another air that I made in one league, in a Roto league that I've been horrible since I joined took over a team is I had like I
was good like the first month of the season. So I was like, all right, this is it, you know, we finally made it, and I traded off some good prospects whatever it was for basically a bullpen for a whole bullpen, and then my team just immediately went to shit and I'm in last place, and so it was like getting a little too excited a little too early, I think. So I'm going to try to be mindful of that moving forward as well.
Yeah, I got to take the long view in the rotor leagues for sure, And that's why I'm a big fan of the spreadsheets for those leaks, just because we can get caught up and like, oh, all our guys, you're going to perform our projections. But that just is never true. You gotta think people are going to revert to the mean, and you want to take advantage of the hot starts and bolster where your team is going to be rather than where it is today.
Yeah, well, Matt, enough of this relief pitching mumbo jumbo. Let's get into the good stuff here. Let's let's review our B siding season. Let's do it well. I mean, clearly I was superior, but I think you did pretty well, Matt. I think you did pretty.
Hang On, you can't.
You can't just do that at the outset clearly superior, like I crush you in this Well.
Hang on, hang on, Let's just back up here. Let's maybe explain a little bit. If someone's listening, who wasn't listening the year ago, which is probably anyone listening last October.
I think it was we started our B side selection process, so to speak, reviewed a bunch of guys, watch guys under the radar, rosterd and zero to two percent of leagues at the time who we think might one one pitcher, one hitter from every organization, someone we wanted to throw out there that might gain popularity this the coming season. And then we did a little competitive draft to start
things off. I think we each picked nine hitters. Then we did a picture draft where we each picked five guys out of our ultimate or whole group of selections. And Matt, I gotta say, the draft we didn't do very.
Well, dude, No, we really didn't.
Like so you know, again, sometimes when you're when you're right, you're wrong. Sometimes when you're wrong, you're right. I think as a whole, our whole selections were pretty decent. I think we had some bangers. I think we had some guys that I'm still very much interested in, even though the popularity might not be there yet. But our draft really was kind of poop.
Yeah.
I mean, my hitters were pretty good, My pictures were awful. Your hitters were terrible except for one, And.
My whole draft was pretty much terrible except for one. My hat in the draft was Charles McAdoo. We went up to ten percent and then nobody had drafted.
Which got a strong co sign for me.
By the way, true which I wanted to note. I don't know if you saw on the list that I put together here, but I believe there were five guys that we both selected the same. Four of them went off, one of them did not yet anyway, So if you're listening, we do this again this offseason. If Matt and I are both on a guy, there's a good chance his history says there's a good chance that that might be a real banger.
Yeah, are n four really really speaks strongly to that.
But man, I will say about my draft, though there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, there's still seven guys that I picked that I still was happy with their season. It wasn't quite the big breakout explosion that obviously I was trying to predict or trying to get to beat you in this competition. But there were some, you know, poopy picks, But as a whole,
I think it was okay. Maybe it's just maybe next year is their year, and then you your best pick, just gaining percentage points wise, your best pick was Cjkafis and Drake Baldwin, who you you got lucky on because you just drafted him before I did. I was gonna draft Baldwin too.
You never said that this is the pick.
I'm gonna find the clip and I'm gonna edit and put it in here. Matt, I probably won't do that because that'll take But then Durban is up to five percent. Troy Johnson, he's at four percent right now. But like, wasn't he like at four percent when you picked him? So I don't know about that one. I wouldn't say that that was.
I remember he was like he was a two or three percenter guy.
I think I wouldn't say that was a successful pick, would you.
No, I agree, yeah, I think it was at this point.
And and and he he like one of the guys that's farther down the list. He and Blaine krim they both just were bad to start the year. When if they if they had flipped their seasons and had their second halfs in the first half, I think both would be in the bigs and both would have shot up. I mean Blaine Kremis, so he's down there at one percent, which is what I think he was when I picked him, but he just got written up in Baseball America as like Eli Ben Parratt, who who I think I've shouted
on this pod before. He does great work. But he was like, this is one of my favorite guys, and I'm like, yes, Eli, Yes, that's exactly what I said last year and he ended up having a really good year overall, just never got the shout at the show that I thought he was going to get. Yeah, And that's kind of a commonality with a bunch of my picks that didn't really pan out. Like I picked some quad A type guys that I thought had opportunity in front of them and we're going to get some run
and just never did, you know. And so that that's like Terso or Elys is like that, Troy Johnson's like that, Blaine Cram, Matt Crune, You're in Fernardo.
I want to say, though, so just counting every percentage, just percentage points, your draft cumulative ownership is forty six percent right now, right just counting Does that make sense? Just calling it the point you got forty six points whereas my drafts was twenty two points. It might be different, and we can't do it because I don't have the percentages of when you selected them. If you did a difference, you know, subtracted last year's per roster rate from this year's.
I have a feeling that your forty six percent won't be quite as high because I think, yeah.
It would.
It would definitely knock a few guys who they john said Johnson was like a three percent, maybe like zero one.
Now, so still officially you are the draft champion of twenty twenty four.
I give it again.
That's forty six points to twenty two points to Nate. That's like more than double I think.
So just trying to tell you I would also, I mean, we'd be remissed if I didn't highlight that I am. I am mentoring you, I'm grooming you in in the B side game. Here, Matt and I set up a situation so that you could succeed and gain that confidence that you needed at the start of the year.
You know, so you got to yourself to soothe the pains of the big old fat el you're taking eight. I know you have to do this in a lot of your dynasty leagues. So this comes to no surprise to me that you're trying to rationalize this, but it's ass whipping that the rookie put on you.
All right, all right, so congrats Matt, you won the draft. But now let's look at the whole picture here. For some reason, you had a few more official B side selections than me. I think maybe because you picked a couple got I think the astros. You picked like two pictures or something, whatever it is, And then there were a few that we both selected the same player. Right, But adding that altogether, your fifty eight selections to my fifty six selections, you would be at one hundred and
sixty percentage points. I would be at one hundred and twenty nine percentage.
What is that? Is that more for me? Again?
Yeah, but let's just look at the top of these lists. Though you're like, you know, in gymnastics, you have a level of difficulty components to your score, right, I mean, it's not if I do a bunch of summersaults. If I do a bunch of summersaults, but I do them perfectly, Oh perfect ten summersaults. Congratulations. But you know, if I'm I don't know what's called double triple axle loop d loops flying and fIF twenty feet in the air, but I get like an eight, I don't do it perfectly
like what was better? You know, there's a component of that here.
I think, in what way we have the same rosters to choose for out?
Okay, in this way, in this way, let's look top of our list right now, Matt. Your b side selection that is rostered in the most percentage of fan tracks leagues today is Brent Herder at twenty three percent, and going up mine is Logan Evans who is at twenty percent. Now rewind a year. What was brand Herder doing? What a Brand Herder do in twenty twenty three, chopping up double AM, chopping up double A. What was Logan Evans
doing twenty twenty three debuting? He was in college and got a couple starts at the end of the year.
Yeah.
Right, So that's kind of how I'm trying to help myself feel better here, Matt. Okay, so just appease me a little bit.
Well, I've said this for the whole year.
You really do.
Have a knack for looking at just a couple of starts of a guy and seeing something there. And I think this bears out in the biggest hits for your pictures, especially you know, you've got Logan Evans at twenty percent, Samuel Aldegary at eighteen percent, Jaden Hamm at twelve percent, Gary gil Hill that I still can't believe that's the same at ten percent.
Those are all.
All guys that we had had not a big look at, not a big sample, and you had said, hey, there's something pretty interesting here.
Now, if you were really good at this, you would have.
Grafted those pictures instead of Zach Germing, Rosario, Jared Andy, DJ McCary Party and Hamington Mendez. You know, I think you might have crushed me in the traffic, actually had some conviction.
That is right, just that, just like and thank you for going there, because that is kind of what I wanted to get to. And and I foreshadowed this at the time, Matt, I was multiple times I said, we're gonna pick some good ones here. There's gonna be some bangers. But my money is on me ultimately picking the wrong ones when when it comes to the draft and who I'm going to prioritize prioritize is probably not going to
be the real bangers. And that's how this b siding thing has has really gone at for the last you know, four years or whatever it is, I've been trying to do this sort of thing. So it's not a dud and it's not victory lapping here. I am not like saying I'm awesome, and I think I in a way, I actually kind of really suck at this. I find some find some guys, but don't prioritize them correctly.
I mean, it's tricky, like I picked a bunch of these guys in the draft, and then I was in a Dynasty startup and tried to grab a bunch of them late. But I didn't grab all of these guys, like, I didn't grab all these ones that I thought were the better ones. It was definitely more of a mix.
And I think I only ended up with like one share Drake Baldwin, whom I loved last year and and a lot of people liked more than most other people that were in Dynasty Baseball, But I'm still only ended up with one share.
And a lot of that too, is just opportunity. You know what's happening at the draft table at the time, or on the waiver wire with your roster and stuff like that too. But let's look at your big your big hits, a Herder like we mentioned, who, by the way, has been awesome. He has been He's been killing it.
What how many if it's like six or seven?
I think if I get a little bit of time, this last couple of weeks has been pretty crazy on the home and work front here, But if I get a little bit of time, I'm actually gonna I've got a thesis to write up. Because our buddy Chris Clegg keeps pooh pooing Brant Herder because he quote unquote has a ninety one mile an hour fastball, and it's driving me a little battie because I think that brand Herder is showing us the some of the gaps in sort of your stuff plus analyses or your kind of fastball
velocity only evaluations. And I actually think that there's a really really interesting case study here. So I've done some work on it. I've got a rough outline of a draft I just need to get in if if I want to do it right. I'm trying to like take some screen caps and stuff and all that shit takes me too much time, So yeah, I need I need to do that. But anyway, let's let's shelve him. But I'm I'm loving what I'm saying that a Herder.
Yeah, your hits there. Herder twenty three percent, Cafus sixteen percent, Chandler Simpson at fourteen percent, Logan Henderson at twelve percent, Trick Baldwin at ten percent, Macdoo we both chose at ten percent. Well, we both chose Baldwin too, Oh Brooks. Baldwin is an nine percent. We both chose him.
Durban would be a fair bit higher, but he missed so much time and ended up not getting a shot.
And Neely, you like had a couple of relievers who have made like the bigs that were, you know, good calls. I think you've gained that well. And relief pictures are not really a part of my process, not that, and I'm I'm glad that you do it. So yeah, So I don't know if you've got the tippy top fairly even points wise, you just kind of nickeled and diying me a little bit more throughout the list here. So I think we call that a tie. You know, it was a.
Tie again, one one hundred and sixty points to one hundred and twenty nine points. I don't know, I don't know if that's a tie in in my estimation, who.
Would you rather have in a trade? Logan Evans, Elder, Garry Ham, Gary gil Hill for Herder Capus Simpson, Logan Henderson, Who would you take? What's that?
My four?
No question?
Yeah, I think damn it. I think I think I'm with you all right. Well, Matt, I have been heavy at it already, watching a lot of guys. I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna get you next year, you got the sophomore slump is coming.
In reviewing this, this is my first time looking at the percentages since we've checked in every so often.
I don't agree with the percentages either, Like as far as how I would value them. For a lot of these guys, I don't know how.
You Yeah, I agree, and I think I think a bunch of them are still arrow up guys, like on both of us. For both of us, I think we've got a few guys that are filling that zero to one percent range that give them another year continued performance, and we're going to see them up in the double digits relatively soon. So this certainly isn't over. It's just
an interesting year. And again I definitely picked guys that I thought were gonna maybe be a little closer to getting picked up in more dynasty leagues, like there were more upper minors guys, so that I'm also not surprised that's maybe what you're getting at with the higher degree
of difficulty piece. But well, one thing we've done throughout the year, I think is trying to come back and revisit some of these guys to see who was doing well but also who was doing poorly and trying he's out is this signal?
Is this noise?
Because slumps happen, hot streaks happened. I think we've tried and done a relatively good job of being sober in our take. You know, I joke around about patting ourselves on the back, but like I had talked up Joey Lo Perfito last year and then I was like, as he got off to this electric start, I was like, he's still the same guy who's going to punch out thirty plus percent of the time in the show, and I'm not sure he's got the pop to make it stick. Like this is fun, but I don't know if this
is real. And we've talked about that with some guys like Brooks Baldwin too, like he ran a four hundred babbit for most of the year. That's just not a sustainable thing. And he had an incredible season. His roster percentage shot up. He's in the bigs, has had a nice cup of coffee. Is that going to keep going?
I don't know.
He's got the position flexibility. He's done some good things, but I think we've done a reasonable job trying to provide that additional context. And even as we revisited some guys that kind of started off slowly, Blaine Krim was one of them that I noted. With nathanie Low's injury early in the year, Krim started out super slowly and then has ended up the exact same guy that he's
been for the last five years. But because he missed timed that run, he ended up not getting the shot, and they signed the husk of Jared Walsh for a month or something to fill in. So kind of looking back on your guys, Nate a little bit of retrospective, like, are there guys that you were like, Oh, I definitely wouldn't have gotten I wouldn't have picked him. I would I like regret this choice, I regret the process, or
I really didn't see this outcome coming. Are there a couple guys in here that you look at and you're just like, Wow, that was a big mess.
I think for the most part the guys that were just really duds. I think for the majority of them, like we kind of already at the time. That's the area of the list where it's like, yeah, at the time, I was like, I don't really know if I liked this guy that much, but given all my options, this is who I'm going with. I think that's like, really the poor part of this list is that is mostly that. But then of course there are some guys that I was much much more hopeful and convinced that they're going
to have some good seasons and did not. Ben Ross might be the biggest disappointment for me. And yet I say that and I don't. I don't think there isn't really anything i'd redo in my process. I mean, my process is pretty pretty basic. I think find out all the guys that I can watch or at least dig on, statistically impair some of that or whittle it down that way, and then watch them side by side. Who do you think is the best you know? Who do you want to put a little fun bet On here, So I mean,
I wouldn't change that. That being said, I'm not totally sold that Ben Ross can't be a good baseball player, can't be a good hitter. Small sample sizes giveth and taketh away. I think, Matt, like, some of my biggest, you know, successes this year with this stuff were guys from very small sample sizes. Some of them, like Trevor Werner, weren't. I mean then we weren't the only ones who were like thinking Werner's might be more real than fake, and it turned out to be that's good, not the real
Trevor Werner. Right, So I don't know for me, Maybe maybe I'm just not smart enough to realize, uh, you know, we're there the crappy parts of those processes. But I think a lot of it is just is baseball and human beings and countless variables. Maybe you know, it's all these things are about reasons, right, I thought these guys had the best reason for me to pick them out of what was given. So maybe think about some of those more. I mean, with hitters, I think it's just hard.
I mean, if I could line them up and watch them like I can a pitcher. I think I'd be better at it, but I don't take the time to do that with all these guys and cutting up all their plate appearances. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if there's like one just kind of like global Oh, I took guys who struck out too much because there was guys on this list to edge high strikeout rates and significantly drop those like a Ritter. So so I don't know. I don't know if I'm answering your questions
question well or not. But I think it's a lot of subjective stuff.
And yeah, it's a tricky question kind of coming and looking at the misses and seeing was it something that was systemic to the process or was it just hey, that's baseball.
I think I think some maybe I could pay or maybe not right off injury stuff as much, Like you know, I like Ryan Sermak. Dude, he was like my first pick in the in the hitter draft, and I was like, oh, I think he's good. He's just you know, hasn't been healthy. Well he still hasn't been that healthy, and maybe he really isn't good. So maybe Wayne injury stuff missed time a little bit more.
I think for me, looking through some of the ones that were good versus some of the ones that were missus, there's definitely some luck.
Involved, you know.
I look at some of the guys that ended up higher on this list and had really good years, and wow, look at that. They ran high babbits or high homer to flyball rates, you know, or both. In the case of like Oliver Dunne, a guy we had talked about for Milwaukee, he ran a four fifty BABBB in his small showing in Triple A and hit a couple of homers and then got some play in the bigs, Like that's that's not who he is. That's not like how he's going to be. But that was one that was
a bit lucky. And then looking on the ones that were less successful, like Jackson Lofton, who was like a plus club guy that I like for Houston, Well, he ran a two forty eight BABBB, his strikeout rate ticked up to twenty seven percent, and he ran a seventy four WRC plus on the year split between HIA and Triple A. And it's like, yeah, it's like that's not
a great season. That doesn't portend good things at the big leagues, so you know, it's it's sort of a mix, like some guys kind of performed how you wanted and took a step forward, but some didn't.
And sure, that's just part of baseball.
And there's still guys like just looking at some of the zero percenters that I think had good, successful seasons, it's just not like translating to fantasy popularity, you know, like my Houston bat Miguel Palmer. Sure his offensive numbers aren't super great. I think there is a potential good offensive player in there, but he's extended two levels, is up in Triple A now, like he's a legit prospect, you know, And I get that rostering him in a
fantasy league that makes complete sense. But there's still a lot of stories that have not totally been told yet. And that's that's the fun part. Like we're gonna select the b side of the year, and I think with some of the finalists, you'll see there were a couple of guys on there that I selected a few years ago and didn't really do anything and then this year was their year, you know, And that's how it's going to go.
And that's well, even even a guy that we had checked in on after maybe a month or two Joiner for Hardo, who is my east side pick. I think I drafted him right and like the seventh pick or something of r hit her side of the draft and outfielder for Minnesota. He was awful to start the year, just strike out right through the roof and Triple A. Wasn't walking, wasn't hitting the ball, hard wasn't running like. It was a miserable start to the year. And he
ended up thinking in dfage. I think they cut him, yeah, and at least he landed, Yeah, they really, And then he landed with Pittsburgh and they stuck him back in Double A and he was awesome. His line for the whole season ended up being pretty strong, certainly given how he started, given you know, the kind of up and down nature of the year. It ended up being a one to ten WRC plus right across the year. But I would have said halfway through the year that he
was one of my worst picks. And again in retrospect, the other guy that I talked about who was pretty similar, he ended up getting a cup of coffee in the bigs and Deshaun Cursey. I should have gone with Cursey but yeah, Farhardo. You know, he maybe he's going to stick around with the pirates and do something. So the story is far from written with a lot of these guys.
Right, And we had quite a few b siders just selections from this year and make the Bigs at least get a cup of coffee.
A couple more recently since we last recorded.
I know, this whole point was I want to get congrats to you and Gustavo making my boys, man, my boys.
As we were sitting here just about to start recording, I watched his first major league hit.
I'm so proud. I'm so proud. Gustavo's great.
They had him in DOUBLEA for seemingly forever, and then it was just like, I don't know what was it, a couple of weeks in Triple A and now now he's up there and he's fun. He's fun, fun, so fun, fun fire hydrant.
His first hit was classic Gustavo, one two count fastball, like letter high and he just laces it the opposite field, immediately raises his hand in celebration. Is he's running down the line. He's so fun.
Thirty nine B setters have made the Bigs now Matt. And hopefully next year we get even more. I'll break this year's record of I mean it's really the first year, so it'll be the record.
But yes, Nah, how many do we get from this class.
From this class that we just selected a year ago? Twelve? Matt, there were twelve of this year's class that actually hit the bigs this year.
Not bad.
Now will they stick around or be anything fantasy wise? Totally another story. But yeah, but Matt, let's select the B side of the year. You got anybody in mind?
Talking inside all the time?
Year, the most popular, the most rostered B siders right now are Tovar, Michael Garcia, Raphaela. So I don't know, if you want to look at it that way, I don't know who had the most successful MLB season or is it somebody that really rose the most this year popularity wise, or someone who you think rose the most just as a player in general. I threw you about twenty five names. I thought somebody on that list would be it.
I think of this year, it's hard not to go with Tovar or Garcia.
So you'd go that route. But I mean that's kind of just like old news, isn't it. Like is it really.
Yeah, Like, are they the b sider of this this year when both broke out before? I guess maybe not?
Maybe better I with ask this, whose stack has risen the most for you just as a real player or fantasy asset. And if that's one of those, you know, popular guys, so be it.
Hmmm, that's tough, man, that's tough. Leaning a little towards Joan Kenzie Noel.
Ah, okay, who's rastered in forty eight percent of leagues right now?
And what was he at the part of this year, you know, like I know he was a couple of years ago.
Right, yeah, twenty twenty one. Yeah, at the beginning of this year he was rastered in sixteen percent of leagues. September, well that's September of last year he was in sixteen percent. So maybe even better, may he was at twelve percent.
Correct me if I'm wrong, But that might be the biggest percentage jump on this list.
It might be, like that's a pretty big bump.
I mean, I guess maybe Raphael Garcia.
Could have had a little bit bigger bump.
But here here's why I'm saying Noel. I really liked him a couple of years ago, because he was showing prodigious power at a really young age, at an advance level, and I wasn't too concerned about the strikeout rate just because he was so young and seemed to adjust to each level relatively well.
You know, so I was a big fan.
I was a big fan of what he had been doing up to this point. But even then, I was still somewhat skeptical that he was going to be able to make it work, because you know, every time he jumped to a level, he would top that thirty percent strikeout rate and it'd be like, oh, well, big donkey boy, he swing hard, but.
He missed a lot, and I was a little worried that it wasn't gonna work. But I kind.
Of think he's showing that not only can he make it work, but like this might be kind of real. I mean, he's just striking out thirty one percent of the time in the bigs so far, but he's still just murdering the ball and he's putting it in the air. And when you hit the ball as hard as he does, that is a recipe for real, real success. And he's still just twenty two. To me, is the one that showing that he can. He's got the power, he can get to it, he can lift it in air in
the bigs. That's exciting to me.
That's more.
It seems like he's getting to what I thought he could be earlier, you know what I mean, And that's a corner outfield, just absolute slugger. So I think he's a really good He's probably the biggest one for me because a lot of these other guys that we liked for one reason or another, they haven't proved it at the big league level, or they haven't done so for very long, or there's still some warts to look at. But Noel looks like.
He might be a middle of the order masher.
You might live with a slightly elevated strikeout rate, but I kind of think you're gonna be happy about doing so, especially in a power focused league.
I like that Clau. I think that's a solid pick, and I think there's some similarities with who I'm going to pick. I'm gonna go with Jose Tania, similar in that I think both of them might be on a track right now where we're talking about them having every day run next year. Now, Noel may be closer to that than Tany at this point. But Dany has been pretty freaking good with his time up with the Nationals.
And I've been watching a lot of games and just kind of the even some interviews and some of the jive, some of the vibes that I'm getting is that like they really like him. This is a good little example of like prospect fatigue stuff to Matt, Like July of twenty one, he was one percent, February twenty two, fifteen percent, nine percent November of that year, down to four percent a year ago, and then now he's up at twenty three percent, you know, and I wasn't sure if he
would ever. You know, it's good enough to become and I still don't necessarily know if an everyday MLB player, but I think that's very much on the table now. And guy can swing it. I know he's aggressive. I know he's not a perfect hitter. He's had some WPA moments and Big Rbo had a kN act at one for four Totnite with their one RBI. I think he's
good enough defensively to play a good third base. And yeah, I don't know his To me, that's the guy that has legit become most legit who probably wasn't on this list this year.
For me, yeah, he seems like somebody who might be proving that his line drive skills are somewhat real. And he reminds me a little bit of the Luis Garcia for the Nats, like kind of a similar player in some respects, and that they've been young for their level, always have shown some skills, but people have always kind of doubted that they can keep it going. I like Tania to prove that wrong a bit. And again I'm still skeptical that he can run a three seventy six
bab it over you know, six hundred plate appearances. But sure, he does hit line drives at a pretty good clip. He does hit the ball pretty hard yep, And in his MLB time this year is showing that he's able to herb the strikeout rate. If that gain is real, then the Knats might have a decent little player on their hand.
Talk about aggressive guys coming up, Matt. Maybe this is a little self serving too, but he can hit good pitches. He can do damage on you know, some nasty and that's that's kind of what he's been doing in the BIGS. He's not just you know, hitting the backed up slider over the middle, you know. And yeah, maybe his aggressiveness is a whammy for him, But right now he's got the athleticism, he's got the bat speed, he's got the mental reps in there that he can put the bat
on the ball at a pretty high clip. I think, mm hmm. So I don't know I'm gonna go with him, should we pull it? Maybe you are ten listeners who's the b SAT year Noel ertained you. I'm sure they'll go with Noel.
But sure I think we should also uh a pitcher, you know, we can have your pictures hanging high and dry.
Well, we've only got you and I did it this year and then threw some out last year, so it's not as big of a pool to pick from. But I don't know. You're going with somebody who's in the bigs, and we just started getting some guys in the bigs.
Well, our two Detroit guys who said a top our list are both pretty interesting picks.
But I don't know.
For me, Herder didn't show me anything new this year, Like this is kind of the guy I thought he was. You know, maybe it's succeeding even more than I than I thought last year, But I'm not gonna pick him. I'm the guy that has impressed me the most this year, I think is Gary gil Hill. Like of a lot of the guys that we picked looking at them last year, like Logan Henderson, I think he'd be higher than this if not for the injury to start the year. This is the guy that I fell in love with watching
last offseason. Like that's not a surprise, Logan Evans. I'm not really convinced yet, Like, yeah, he's twenty percent owned and he showed some stuff this year, But to me, I still think he's got a long way to go to really prove that he's rosterable as a kind of starter in the majors. But watching a bit of Gary gil Hill, I see, like I see that that has some potential. It's got a real mix, a nice pensiant
for execution that I don't think everybody has. And he was one that I just didn't buy like you were, Like I thought he was a made a character, like you had just invented this name. And then even after I watched him, I was like, boy, these like fore innings, I don't really see what Nate sees here and having watched a fair amount more of him this year, that's the guy for me on the pitching side that most that my opinion about has most changed.
I'd say right on, I think I would go with Kaider Montero because what I picked him last year, and that was nice he broke out. I wasn't sold that he was really going to be an MLB starter and that you know, yes he's starting right now, but he hasn't like really established himself. But I think I'm more inclined to think that he can stick in that role now than I did a year ago. And he's had a couple of nice outings and I think he could do it. So yeah, I think I'd go with Montero.
B side arms just a lot of the arm specs that I pick up, I don't always totally like love them and don't want to like stay married to them. This is I totally want to use them as trade bait, you know. And Montero is a guy that I traded away just about everywhere, but I wonder if that was a mistake.
Now Montero, I feel like his roster percentage is inflated by a couple of good outings recently, and you know same same is true of Herder too.
For sure.
At this point, I'm thinking that that Montero still might struggle to stick in the Tiger's rotation. He's the guy that I'm not totally convinced on, Like he's been useful and definitely showed some stuff.
But to me, that's fair. I think there's.
Before he before he got into the bigs. If you would ask, no way, I'm betting that he sticks now, I'm like, yeah, maybe I would, you know what I mean, I'm not I'm not completely sold. I didn't think i'd be in that situation looking at everybody else, like, I don't know if they really change my opinion as drastically as he did.
Yeah, I think that makes sense. That makes sense.
Are you sure that we can't go with brand Herder though he's a b side arm that's dominating the bigs.
Honestly, I'd love to go with Herder. I it's just that this is kind of what I said, Like, I was like, he's gonna come up, he's gonna look different, he's gonna befuddle big leaguers. I think he might be getting a few more whiffs than I expected this time last year, and I'm not sure he's gonna be able to sustain one point one walk rate per nine or whatever it is. Like his his walk rate is really impressive,
but like it feels pretty real to me. The fifth is there, the XCRA is two point one eight, Like.
That's fucking phenomenal.
And it's not like he's going out there in one run outings or in one inning outings to bump up the stuff or anything like, Yeah, he's only got one game started, but he's gone bulk and every single outing that he's had, So I've got I've got some opinions about this, like some thoughts about how he's succeeding and why, and to me, it seems fairly sustainable. He's not going to be a sub three er guy, I don't think.
But is he going to be a really good, valuable starting pitcher, Yeah, I kind of think so.
Why were his Triple A numbers so middling this I didn't watch much of him in Triple A at the beginning of the year. I watched a few outings and that was it.
Early on, his walk rate was a little elevated for him. I think it was up over three per nine At one point.
I wonder what he was doing, what he was throwing, what his game was looking like. If he was I don't know, throwing some offering more than than usual or what is it?
Just yeah, I'm not sure about that. But I remember when we checked in on him and you were like, oh, the era is high, and he's like not succeeding like we kind of thought coming out of his really impressive double a the year before. But you look at it other than the walk rate ticking up ever so slightly, and again I think that was inflated a bit by some early outings. Everything else looked All of the skill
related stuff looked pretty normal. But what wasn't normal was a three point fifty BABBEB of sixty three percent left on base and a fourteen percent homer to flyball rate. All of those were worse. Those are like the three luck metrics you look at for pictures right. While pitchers have some influence on BABBOB and some influence on homer to fly ball rate, left on base rate is like pretty much luck of the draw shit and BABEB and
homer to flyball rate are also somewhat luck metric. Base and all of them were in the worst direction for his overall line. So when we looked in on him earlier this year and we're like, oh man, the ERA doesn't look great, and you know, his triple ARA still sits at five point eight, I was like, you know, I kind of don't really think it's telling us anything different, just as like this is the how the luck metrics
is stupid. Yeah, yeah, and even FIP in this case, like, yeah, I you know, four to four FIP in triple A as a starter is like, that's fine. The International League is quite the PCL, but offense is up there, and I think those things should tell us that, like what he's doing at the major league level is due for some regression. But I also think that what we should look into the triple A line is, yeah, those luck
metrics were all three against him. He's still pitched to a four to four FIP, Like that's impressive, that's that's not that's pretty good. So that to me is that
he wasn't doing much different. And I think we've seen that at the big league level too, that he still throws mostly fastballs, leans on his slider in the strikeout counts, and then has still a bit of a show meet change up that I still think he could do to use a bit more the Okay, i'll spoil a little bit about the hypothesis that I have for how herd Or succeeding here is he he has a unique four seam fastball, and he uses his plus command in a
really interesting way. So his main pitch is his two seam fastball, and while it grades out okay by some of the stuffed metrics, it looks sort of like your standard sinker. It's got some run, its got some sinc but neither are super impressive. And as we talked about before Nate in the Dynasty, Herder doesn't have great extension, even though he is a huge old donkey six six two fifty with long limbs.
One thing that I think.
Is helping him as a sinkerballer primarily with his two seam fastball, is I wonder if his lack of extension is helping the movement play up a little bit more on the on the two seam. So his observed horizontal movement is greater than the predicted horizontal movement, and some of that is due to what's called lamin or flown. If you if you've heard that term before. But the turbulence around the two seam that lambiner flow, laminar flow.
It's not like a like a woman thing, No, it's.
It's the turbulence around the ball that causes it to move more than you would expect just given the spin characteristics. It's a super complicated physics phenomenon, but it helps explain the difference between lamar. I think it was a guy. I think that's a guy's last name. I don't remember it's capitalized when when I've seen it, so it usually
means it's a guy. But I wonder if he's letting the ball move more because he isn't extending down so unlike with a like a four seam super high ride fastball, where you want to release it as close to the batter as possible so they have as little time to react. I wonder with something like a two seam whether he isn't served by the little bit of extra movement that he gets by letting that ball hit the air and move a little bit more as it goes.
It's not a completely alien concept. I've never heard lamin or flow, but I've heard some people talk about and this makes sense to me too, Like the ball obviously, if the ball's in the air longer, has longer to travel, you could get more movement, like you're saying, right, I think that's is that fair the way that I that And also too part of that because like Noah Schultz has a really short extension as well.
Hmmm.
And it's funky from the left side, very basically putting it. If you're if you're throwing a ball that looks like a strike, right, which is you know, an optimal thing for a pitcher to do, and the ball is traveling longer and looking like a strike longer, like that might be a part that plays into it as well. Does that make sense?
I think that that's some of it too. And one thing that he does seem to have is pretty good command of all four of his pitches. And I say that too because he has a unique fastball, a four seam fastball he uses very differently to his two seam. Two seams is bread and butter. He's using it early in the count to get strikes. He's using it on the shadow. You look at the heat map and it's one of those ones where it's a lot in the middle. But he also puts it in all different corners of
the zone depending on what hinded batter he's facing. But his four seam fastball, if you look at his heat plot on that, he commands the shit out of that thing. It is only at the top of the zone. And now you're saying, like, oh, well, of course, like you throw a foreseam fastball at the top of the zone, you're looking for pop ups, you're looking for whiffs, and that's what you're going for. But that's not the shape of Herder's fastball. Herder's fastball actually is a unique outlier
in the other direction. It drops way more than other similar velocity and spin rate foreseeing fastballs. And I'm not sure why this is yet, but you see aiming that thing at the top of the zone. You see these guys, nobody's hitting it hard. They're also hitting it on the ground a lot, which is sort of a weird thing
for a fastball at the top of the zone. And I wonder if there's something about the unique nature of of his four steamer that guys are looking at and used to that four seam riding high, hard fastball and they're trying to swing to try and hit that ball and hit it hard and hit it out. But instead of it continuing to quote unquote rise as the as we're seeing more and more often, Herder's unique extra five
inches of drop. So it drops five inches more than you would expect it to given the rest of its characteristic. That's a big amount. And so you look at him on stackcasts and like that's a huge outlier. It's just that it's an outlier in the other direction that we're used to thinking about four seamers. And I have a hunch that that's really leading into why his batted ball outcomes and why his expected era from its stack caast
metrics remain excellent. As I mentioned in the Dynasty Got Discord, the guy that comps closest to Brandt Herder as far as batted ball outcomes is Corbyn Burns.
Yeah, who excels.
At getting the soft contact, excels it getting weak contact on his pitches.
Yeah. Well, that you bring up a couple of interesting points to me, Matt, Like, okay, so stuff plus models, right, I am not a scholar. Aren't they supposed to measure how different a particular pitcher is for steam fastball or whatever offering is the mean fastball of the league. Yes, okay, but so is there not like an absolute value sort of measurement going on there, Like, Okay, this for steam fastball is really good because it's got x amount of
more inches of you know, IVB or whatever. But like, like you're talking about Herders, it's like like maybe it's like a kish fastball, like it's it's so bad it's good sort of an idea.
I'm not sure.
Just measure it that way if you're supposed to be measuring the difference from the mean.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
And some of this might be just some small sample nonsense and people might start teeing off on Herders for seam tomorrow, Like I don't know, but I do know that stuff plus grades herders foreseem fastball as like absolutely atrocious. And I think so does pitching Bot too. Yeah, both of them like say that this pitch should be unplayable.
It says his sinker is okay, like below average but okay, and his slider is really good, and his changeup is atrocious but he's got good locations and so it all adds up to again, I've got some I think that both stuff plus and pitchingbot don't do a good job of like actually using numbers to make them mean something useful, but gives them an overall pitching plus of ninety five with all those things combined, and a stuff plus of ninety even though he still is throwing by far more
fastballs than he is any offspeed. I still don't understand how that works when it just like hammers his other his other stuff grades, but I wonder if those stuff
grades are kind of missing that kind of thing. And looking at some of the other comps that are on his like pitching characteristics comps on stack cast, I think they were like it was like Braxton Garrett, Shoot, I'm forgetting some of the others, but it was like maybe just in Steel it was like crafty lefty types, you know that have like a low nineties fastball and then an interesting array of secondaries, and that all seemed like
pretty useful pictures to me. I was like, those are some decent pictures.
Like I don't hate that group.
Right, Sometimes part of being a really good picture is just knowing how to use your tools well, right, And stuff plus doesn't measure that, right, man. I know they try to do like location plus and all stuff. But is there sequence plus? Is there? Yeah, knowing your hitter well plus like I don't know.
Well And one of the things that I find so interesting about this and again it's a small sample that we have at the big league level, but we've got the stuff plus saying that Herder's two seem his most thrown pitch is a eighty eight, which is very bad, Like that's not good for for a fastball. And yet Fangrafts also puts the run value on a particular pitch, So how many runs above average has that pitch been worth? His run value for his sinker so far this year
is six point nine. That nice, Yeah, that is nice. And give me a second, because that like is I'm fairly sure, wildly good, like it.
Is performing really well.
Yes, like this is a terrible pitch and is up there pitch is up there with one of like the very best pitches.
I don't know, you know, Sarahs, I don't you know I have any sort of relationship with him. I wanted to ask him just recently, like is there a commonality? Does he notice things that like when you're looking at the difference of performance of a pitch versus it's stuff plus, like what those pitches that are outperforming, there's stuff plus, like what do you what do you see there? What are their commonalities? Is there a theme going on with pictures that are outperforming, so to speak?
So so I just went to the Fangraft's leader board and looked at the most valuable sinkers over the course of this year. And this is this is not a rate based metric, right, this is a counting stat So the more of them that you throw that accrue positive values. So a lot of the guys on this list have thrown a.
Lot of innings.
Number one on the list, Paul Skeins nineteen.
That's a lot.
He's also thrown one hundred and twenty innings. Number two on the list, Logan Web seventeen point five. Seems like those are two pretty good fastballs. Jose Soriano is way up there, which I think is interesting. Number four Franbervaldez seventeen, Zach Wheeler sixteen point eight, Number seven George Kirby eleven point eight. You get the picture, right, This is like the volume and these are guys with great sinkers, great
commands that are really making it work well. Brent Herder in thirty eight and two thirds innings is twenty fourth on this list at six point nine. His sinker has it has been as value valuable as Errek Scoobles, and Trek Scuoble has thrown about five times as many innings. Now, of course he probably hasn't thrown five times as many sinkers.
They are slightly different pictures. But that is like kind of astonishing to me that in thirty eight and two thirds innings, this quote unquote bad pitch is either being commanded so incredibly well that it's actually really good, which you know, the stuff plus models do give him some credit for exceptional command of all of his pitches, really
and do that. Obviously, bolster'ses overall pitching plus thing. But it's just a really interesting case study that I think maybe it's missing something about that pitch, and certainly the command I think is one of the real positives that we're seeing from Herder.
You're geeking out on Herder here and going on like, I think I accomplished my goal of the year, Matt. You finally are getting it. You're finally coming to the right side pictures. That's where it's at. Matt pictures are better.
It's certainly it certainly as fun when you hit on somebody as as exciting as this.
Uh and and.
We'll take our victory lap while it's still hot and fresh out the kitchen.
We don't need to wait for I'm gonna roll that body in.
So you may have won the battle, my friend, but I won the war.
If you say so, If you say so, well.
Matt, I think I want to be done with twenty twenty four.
Well, you got to root my couple of teams that are still alive. I've still got a couple of championship hopes. Good look there and hoping, hoping it works out.
Hope you do. I'm to say this, it was really hard. I wanted to talk about some guys I've been watching lately so badly right now, So we have to turn off these microphones until I guess, the off season, until we're ready to get into that and and do next year. Matt, Is that is that cool?
Yeah, buddy, and that's cool.
I'll have some time off of work coming up.
I don't know how much in minor.
League baseball I'm gonna be able to get in, but I'll do my best. I'll start working through my list, and yeah, we'll work on it.
You have the title to defend, now, don't you.
I do, I do, And like you, I'll just keep pointing to the like two successes that actually work out and say, like, man, look at how good I am at this, Like too out of every hundred turn into something real.
I know, look at me. Well, I think that'll do it for the year. If you've been following along, you've been listening, we appreciate it. I've had some fun, I've learned a lot from Nat. Nat, thanks for joining me this year. I hope it wasn't too painful for you.
You bet, buddy.
This has been a real pleasure and thanks to our fans.
We love hearing from you.
And even I was just looking at some guys roster today is asking for some help in the Dynasty. I got Discord and I was like, oh, man, either this guy's a B side listener or he's just got some of the same ideas we do, because he had so many interesting B side cats in his Deep Deep Dynasty league. So we always appreciate hearing the shout outs. Come join
us in the Dynasty. Discord reach out to Nate on Twitter and it'll decide whether you're cool enough to talk to me, and then he can pass along my my info if you are otherwise. Happy, happy mudding, everybody.
This has been a real pleasure.
Yeah, we'll, we say, next year, but it'll probably just be like a month we started off last October right end of last Octobers won't be too much longer. We'll have some at least to us, some fresh names to throw around and start thinking about twenty twenty five b siders to be.
We'll maybe convince ourselves that the twenty twenty four Minor League season wasn't all awful like we like we thought it at some point this year.
No, I've yeah, all right, I gotta save it. All right, We'll let Chicago Farmer take us out. Be well. Touch to you next year.
Later, five miles an hour, riding too his head. We have them down first but the umbonius face. And now on the very next pitch he up and stole second things with greatst speed. He wasn't born, He had the dead, Yes, uniforn