Episode 43: 2025 AL West B-Side Selections

I'm just looking forward to talking some ball. Rook. How are you.

and kind of getting the shitty stuff out of the way first, Like, let's start with Houston. Let's start the Houston trash can bang and astros.

so still within our constraints. Here's a twenty five year old right hander listed at six ' four. He was an eleventh round pick in twenty nineteen out of a junior college in Florida, And Matt, you read that little piece that that was shared right on him. Yep, it's kind of a fun story. He didn't make his high school team, tried out for like this juco school and they want him and didn't realize. I don't think that

he didn't wasn't on his high school team. And the gist of the story, in my take a way of that piece, which was awesome, is that this is a.

a few different aspects. I think, Matt, like, I don't know if I've seen a player have quite a turnaround at least production wise, as Gusto did in the PCL like Man his first eleven starts, he went forty in a thirty had era over eight, a whip over two, striking out twenty one percent, walking thirteen percent, throwing strikes sixty one and a half percent of the time, and then his last eighteen starts he goes one hundred and eight innings with a two point zero eight eer, a

point nine to five whip, a twenty three k percentage, and cut his walks in over half at six point four percent, throwing strikes at almost seventy percent. What he finished the season with six fqos in his last eighteen starts at a run, Yeah, mind you again in the PCL.

So I didn't really start paying attention to him until I don't maybe one or two starts into that run, and then I kind of watched him pretty religiously because I was just kind of hooked on what was going on here, and I just generically said, he's turned himself into a pretty good picture, the type that I think you and I like just kind of a lot of offerings mixes it up well, all that sort of thing, right. I don't think there's any offering that is off the

charts stuff wise. He's got a fastball that's like ninety one ninety two, a curveball that comes in like the high seventies. Velocity wise, he's got a slider, a cutter, and a splitter. I think attack is maybe a bit more north south than east west. He's got some interesting splits. He's a little tougher on righties as a right hander, and he was lefties. But I was curious that, like

what may have changed from it. It was literally the cand turned to June and then he was just like kind of a completely different pitcher, you know, production wise, and so you know, him being in Triple A all year, you get you know, all the Savant stuff. So I was just curious what is usage and offerings might have kind of looked like. And the last eighteen starts, he

actually his fastball was like a tick slower. The biggest change that I can see, just like usage wise, as he threw his cutter a lot when those first eleven starts and then started throwing the slider a lot more during his hot stretch. Like as far as spin rates and velocity and like the kind of shape stuff that you can look at on Savant, I don't think anything really changed with his arsenal. Maybe a little bit of different usage obviously probably had a role in some of

his success. The main thing was he just started pounding the strike zone more and then that worked. You know, he turned into a little bit more of a bowl than a matador. And you know, anyone who's gonna get starting pitching chance with the Astros will just like kind of automatic get my attention. And I don't know how good he might be in the majors, but at this raster percentage in a deeper league or what have you, I think it's a no brainer that you raster this guy.

If you got a spot, I think you could do much worse with a roster spot than Ryan Gustau.

He knows how to do his thing, and his success this year was super cool, especially that run to end the year. We were both pretty excited about that possible debut in the last day of the season.

that sort of stuff in spades, and I'm always on board with guys like that.

six rounds, so you know, mid rounds. Like, still got a decent, decent signing bonus, and pitched a little bit last year in pro ball, but it was, you know, small samples, just fifteen innings, after the draft of solid work but nothing calcular, and this year he showed kind of what you expect a college arm with some pitch ability to do. He really dominated a ball and punched out a bunch of guys, kept the walks in check, kept the homers in check, kept the babbitb in check.

Across forty six and two thirds innings in a ball he ran a two seventy nine fifth with almost forty six percent ground ball rate and a really healthy thirty three percent strikeout rate to ten percent walk rate, so you know, really good came iOS BB and was obviously more talented than the pitcher than the hitters early in the season. He got bumped mid season up to High A and things on the surface didn't go as well,

but the strikeouts continued to be strong. He actually walked fewer batters and so his k iOS BB actually went up, which you always liked to see. He got hit a little bit harder. The babbit was almost four hundred, so, like his era, was really bad seven point one point five in twenty two and two thirds innings at HIGA, and he gave up some home runs, which again in that kind of a sample, I'm inclined to say, like, that's kind of unfortunate. It's probably just a luck thing.

I don't think anything about his arsenal has suggested that he is definitely more homer prone or not. So to me, that was a blip that makes him a buying opportunity because then he got promoted again to double A and closed the year out really strong, twenty six and two thirds innings, doing the thing that the Astros tend to do.

He did some piggybacking. His outings were a little bit shorter again because I think they were trying to manage his innings, but he still struck out twenty seven percent of batters, only walked eight percent of batters, and that's really solid. Like, that's a very very good double A line, even if the talent level might have been a little bit down at the end of the season when he

was there and the outings were shorter. I really like what Piccos got again part of this Astro pitching development, which really do a good job getting a lot out of their pitchers, even there unheralded mid major types. And one of the reasons I like him is kind of like Gusto, he has a ton of pitches in various outings. I counted six different pitches, a four seamer, a two seamer, a slider, a cutter, a change, and a curve. Now he'll dial them up and down depending on the handedness

of the batter or even the outing. Like some outings, I didn't really see that many two seams at all. Others I saw quite a few. Again, his slider and his cutter. I think maybe those blend at times, but I saw enough that I thought there was a distinction there, and I'm interested to see if he keeps the command tight with like that many pitches at deep of a repertoire. Sometimes what happens is they're all kind of fringy, and or he loses command of some, and then he might

be prone to some blow ups. I saw enough that I thought his command was gonna or at least the control was going to be good enough to help him not get into too many of those tough spots. And maybe that's what he showed at Hia a bit, was that those kind of blow ups can happen to him.

So maybe that's the downside version. But you can do worse than kind of prototypical six to two hundred pounds starter who's twenty three next year and going to probably start the year in a double a rotation for Astros rotation that I think they're going to have some open slots. So I like Ethan Peco for a deeply target here, and I really do think that he's a pitch ability guy in not a derogatory sense, right, Like there's there's a lot of clay to mold here.

one one percent. Yeah, Hicks, James Hicks, who I like to zero percent, Like, I don't know, just it's just that Astros thing.

up guys like a lot Perfito or whatever. This particular crop was tough for me, so I don't particularly love my choice here. He wouldn't. He's not a guy I'm like looking to roster unnecessarily. It's probably in my bottom third.

But I went with Jerron Williams. He was their ninth round pick in twenty twenty three out of Toledo. He's a middle infielder and play some third base. I think he's got a real good arm. I've seen them just just make some cannon throws. These good size listened at like six one, twenty three years old. Right now, he's

split the season. He had one hundred and thirty one played appearances in High A, then one hundred and fifty four played appearances in Double A, and no doubt that the double A run was not very impressive production wise. It wasn't hi a double A. Not so much what he slashed two oh four two sixty six three point fifty two. He had three home runs, stole fourteen bases in forty games. You know, not super impressive, but I

really like the athleticism. I think there is a little bit of a power speed blend here, as we've seen with astros hitting. I think part of the reason why they get like ranks so lowly often as a system is because I think it is tough to tell where that you know who the pop up guy is, who's going to blow up here, but they always seem to have somebody, So I don't know. I don't know if it will be Williams this year, but considering all my my options, I kind of thought I just kind of, hey,

let's let's watch out. Athletic guy who can potentially do a lot of things and play up the middle. Seems to have a decent bat ball profile. Strikeouts on a big issue. He only struck out what eighteen point two percent of the time on the season. It was actually less in double A than Hi A. He ran a two thirty two babbit in double A. So maybe there

was just like some bad luck there. I don't know, but just turning on the film, what both defense and at the plate, like, I thought I could do a lot worse and you know, maybe this year that double A production kind of catches up to the talent a little bit more.

zero in the power department. So Saco Junior, I liked him a fair amount and is one I could see being more of a utility guy for them. I don't know if there's like a full time regular there and the impact I think held me back from making him my official B side. But Tommy Sacho Junior is another one to keep an eye on if there's an injury opening,

maybe he gets some run. But the guy I wanted to pick here is I don't know, maybe a little unusual for the kind of hitter that I pick, but I'm going with Austin deming Mate.

But he's pretty well built and I think very athletic. Like I saw him make some decent plays at third and think he could stick there. Don't necessarily think he needs to shift somewhere else, though they have played him at second, and I think the bat might play even better at second. Got almost no money. I was a tenth rounder and may even have been a senior sign or something. So he yeah, because I think he's a little bit older for the draft, and that's why nobody

cares about him. Nobody likes him. He's I'm pretty sure zero percent what I like about him. His swing is really really short to the ball. That is some in common to like a chase the latter in like the abbreviated finish piece obviously from the right side, with the latter from the left, but there's some similar he's there, but he still swings pretty hard, like I don't know if I ever got any exit veulos on him, but to me, he hits the ball pretty hard, and especially

the way he looked at Corpus Christie. He struck out quite a bit in Asheville, which was odd and didn't quite put up the numbers that you might expect, but upon promotion to Corpus Christie, he kind of raked, you know, two fifty five whatever, but eleven point six percent walk rate good for a three fifty seven OBP and an even five hundred slug as he socked seven homers across one hundred and twelve plate appearances. That's pretty darn good. And now some of this I think is like a

little bit of homer to fly ball luck. He's not going to be this good. But I saw him hit some nukes, you know, like he stays so short to the ball, Guys try and beat him inside and he just turns on it and ropes, ropes the ball out. So I thought Austin Deming really had one of those kind of underrated bats, Like I could see him being a a major league regular, especially if he ends up

staying at second base for somewhere. Third base offensive bar is a little bit higher, and he's shown, as I mentioned, a propensity to strike out that might hamper him at the upper levels, especially at the major leagues. But I don't know. I thought that maybe some of that was just he was trying to take advantage of the good offensive environment and like or a expanded his own or something, because once he was up at Corpus Christy, the strikeout

rate came down. The swinging strike rate is, you know, a tick above average maybe, but isn't bad. I don't know, I like him as a really polished college hitter who maybe can play enough defense to be a major leaguer. But I liked the bat a lot. He was one that I came away surprised at how much I liked him. And just as another note for our fantasy focus, he steals bags too, and it's pretty good at it. He's wiped thirteen this year and only was caught three times,

and I watched most of these. A lot of it was it's not like he's got blazing speed, but he's a good base dealer, and I think that's underrated and is something that means it gives you confidence that he'll keep getting the green light or at least the yellow light to go sometimes.

mentioned just the other day in Sammy Neta junior. And this is a very like he has to be zero percent owned, right I didn't.

George Klassen, who lit up the world last year. Like those guys are all good and I think exciting, Like those those are obviously way too owned for our purposes. But I was kind of scrolling through the other guys and I didn't like a lot of what I saw, Like, like you said, there were flaws with each of them, or something just wasn't quite right about them. Another guy that we had almost no look at, And I don't

know if he's your guy or not. But Derek Clark is another one of theirs to who we saw very few innings, but I liked what I saw of him. He's Derek Clark is like a super short arm action and just nasty stuff. Like the stuff just moves all over the place. Someone I want to monitor. Probably more like relievery to me than starter traits. But he punched out thirty four percent of batters in his eight innings and didn't walk anybody, which I always like in his

short sample, and so he's a fun one too. But Natara Junior just liked the way his pitches looked. His fastball to me, looks a little erratic, and I think that's something worth monitoring. The walk rate as a touch high, and it seemed like it wasn't a consistent miss. You know. His arm action is a little bit long, like he kind of hides it back behind his hip and then it maybe takes a little long to catch up, and I wonder if that contributes to some of the command issues.

But the fastball was tough to hit. It seemed like both kind of looked like he had a four seam and I saw him run some that at least had some armside. I don't know whether that was specifically different pitch, but definitely a different shape. And the slider was absolute

murder on lefties. You just see him. And again some of this might be camera angle and just at the lower miners, you know, this was like at high A. I think, hard to tell for sure, but these lefties were just bailing out on this pitch and missing it by like, I don't know, a foot off the end of their bats because it was just moving so much away from them. And I liked the change up to

righties too. He threw it a couple of times, and I remember one in bat in particular that it was like a three to two change up down and in to a righty and they just like swung over the top of it.

a starter. I'm not saying, like, rush out and go get him unlike some of the other people that we'll talk about this week. But he's definitely the most interesting to me. These little scene B Side esque arms for La.

million dollars, you know. Twitch to me isn't really like B Side right, you know, but yet because he was the eleventh round pick, if Dynasty owners are going to treat him like Dana, he's not going to be rostered, He's not going to be getting drafted. But I don't know, I felt like that was maybe a little, i don't know, just a little weird for our constraints here, So I decided against that. Natara was one of my four that I was really interested in for a lot of the

reasons that you listen. I know that the walks have been high, but watching him, like, I don't know, I just like didn't really want to believe the walk rates because it didn't feel like that. To me. It didn't felt like there was much better execution going on and my looks than those walk rates might suggest. So I don't know, maybe the lively slider, you know, it could be tougher to throw for strikes and what the.

I ended up going with a twenty year old at least twenty at the time, who was pitching in high a Keith ol Key.

spot help relief thing. But I think we got a couple of decent looks of him in Hi A. He had six starts there, twenty nine innings, three point four to one, ERA, one point three four whip struck out twenty nine point eight percent, walked almost sixteen percent. Right, not great there. This is like just some young arm talent that I don't think is hopeless to get harnessed a bit more here. It feels a little bit like some of my more successful smaller pick or smaller look

picks from the past. With his walks, you gotta like look at the mode and not the mean this is a lean body. Maybe there's some violence in the delivery.

too much. But as far as just like a little bit more electricity then you know, at least three of those other guys, I think he's a little bit more electric potential than the Naturo. So I'm glad that you went with him and I went with Keeks. I wanted to highlight both those guys. Again, Key is not a guy that I'm going to be rostering or drafting, but would not be shocked if he kind of pops up a little bit this year.

have you he was still only one percent, but I landed on and ended up maybe a bit reluctantly so on Tucker Flint. I don't know if you paid any attention to him. I sure did, but yeah, Flint so well zero percent of rosteries. Was twenty three years old, played outfield in a little bit of first base. I think he played all three outfield spots. I'm guessing was probably more corner outfield. Listed at six ' to two, good sized guy. He was a thirteenth round pick out

of Florida Junior College in twenty twenty two. Most of the year in Double A, got a couple of weeks in Triple A at the end where there was some stat cast stuff to glean on.

out almost thirty percent of the time. Though, you know, line nothing too crazy, you know, two forty six, three, sixty four, four, nineteen and double A. But I will say, Matt, I don't know what you thought about the Southern League this year, but I thought it was and I don't know, I don't have Actually I did look at these numbers, but I don't remember, but I think it was kind of a worse run environment than it had been in the past. And I don't know if that was because

of the level of pitching and what have you. Thought. I thought the Southern League was kind of chuck full with some good pitchers this year. But yeah, I mean Flint, He's the bottom third of my thirty bats here for sure. Not anyone that I'm drafting or rostering right now, but the guy that I'm going to be watching, I think because but as bad ball profile looks pretty decent right puts the ball in the air, pulls it.

without some power. And I think maybe if he does a little bit better job in the air, kind of like he did in Corpus CHRISTI or sorry, in Rocket City Rocket City, then he'll be He looks like a major league regular to me if he can do that. Yeah, So yeah, I liked. I liked Flint a fair amount. I think he's a good a good deep league call.

the Rule five. Los Angeles took him. He'd been Yeah, he'd been with the Yankees for obviously six years and had been mostly below average, but had kind of figured something out in Double A the last couple of the in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, small samples both, but the k rate was down, the power was up. He was hitting the ball harder, and when Los Angeles picked it, he wasn't really on my radar coming into this offseason.

It's not a stride. It's almost like a quiet lifted up. But he's really spread, you know. I don't know if I'm doing a good job describing that. And the swing is a little long, like he's a big dude six four two ten third baseman. I think he played some first maybe two, but and the swing looks a little long at times, and I wonder if that is people look at it like, oh man, how is he? How

is this guy really gonna hit? But he doesn't strike out very much, struck out only thirteen percent of the time in triple A this year, walked just a hair under an average amount. But I think it's because he's got pretty good contact skills. But he also has power. I mean, he launched twenty some homers this year across the four levels. He did debut, and I you know, I haven't used that as a hard and fast rule. So he did get a few plays appearances with the big club at the end of the year and kind

of looks like he belonged. You know, he plays third base primarily. They're paying Anthony Rendon just an ungodly amount of money, but Rendon never seems to want to actually play baseball. So I don't know, maybe when Rendon inevitably gets hurt, Wagman steps in and actually just looks like the better hitter for what it's worth. The Steamer projections just came out and they think that Wagaman's going to be a league average hitter next year playing third base.

I don't know, you can do worse than that. The other thing to note about him he has a pretty even batted ball distribution, and not in a bad way, Like when the ball's on the outer half, he smokes it the other way. I saw him hit a couple of triples like that thought last year. When it's to the middle, he drives it to the middle. When it's inside, he's happy to lift and pull. He's sort of those one of those like you watch him and you're not

going to be wowed by your look. Maybe you watch him enough times and you appreciate that this is what a professional hitter kind of looks like in a way that I think you'd appreciate, nate this, especially with the driving it to all fields. He's a little more aggressive than some guys that we disagree on. But yeah, Wagman by Eric Wagman. I think it's somebody who he could be a real contributor to the major leagues next year.

was a lot of a lot of decent choices, a lot of different directions, which I kind of feel like is always the case with the Rangers both sides, I think, especially on the pitching side, like stuff just kind of tends to fizzle out once they get to the uppers, unfortunately for a lot of their guys. But I will admit that I let my fandom of my choice here to kind of break the tie. I think. Do I think my guy here is a future big leaguer. I

think it's a long shot, but I love him. And I'm talking about Arturo the Diesel Diesla Nice you watch him at all? Matt, Yeah, we're talking big boy. Yeah. This was shared with me and I was told I could share this. The story of how they landed on

Diesela here is pretty interesting. He was an NAI guy down in Texas and the Rangers international guy saw Diesela saw excuse me, saw the Diesel on Twitter and then had their like Ohio guy or Midwest guy go and watch him during the summer league that he was in, and then they signed him as an undrafted free agent to some twenty three drafts right, and then he went to the DSL because he's Dominican and then came over his state side. This was his first year playing state side.

can't watch any games in Downeast. And then Hickory just started broadcasting, but it's a crappy press box view and often they don't even update the what inning it is on the graphic and stuff, so trying to hunt around and find stuff is a nightmare. Yeah, but I cut up. I'll share on Twitter at pitching specs. I caught up his all of his broadcast home runs, believe, and we're talking.

I mean there are some bombs Mat, like the guy in the booth will even on a few occages like I've never seen somebody hit a ball out there before, Like there's some wooded area out there and he is just sending them. Dude. There's a nice look on the video of his swings slowed down. It's like yermin Mercedes type, just back of minor league pons.

does that didn't work out. And then the other one was a double steal where he basically gave himself up so the run could score.

destroy it. I mean, he's just like maybe a bit coldish to me, Like I just I want to see him succeed. I want to see a full season or I want to see it know his second year state side. You know, a right handed first base type is odds are long. I get all that, but yeah, if the Diesels mashing the shit ton of home runs next year, I'm not going to be surprised, and that would gain Dynasty attention, no doubt, totally.

all the way behind him. Yeah, big right handed hacks And yeah, and I had and like you said, the twenty seven or twenty six percent k rate in hi a as a twenty four year old or whatever he is now, It's like, yeah, that's a big red flag for a right handed hitting first place and only sure, but he I agree, there's some real power here. And he's a sneaky, decent athlete.

thoughts on him. But his video was so hard to cut down within the minute and a half time frame that I have met, because there were so many good pimp home runs and bat flips and stuff like that that I wanted to include in there, but I also wanted to get all the home runs in so nice.

a pro. Twenty three year olds old spent the whole year in double a slash two sixty four three twenty four thirty two, good for one o nine WRC plus And as you said, like that league was pretty good this year. He swiped fifteen bags, which is one caught stealing, and I thought he was pretty good at that. I would like to see him steal a little bit more. He's not a burner, but a good athlete for sure.

Popped fourteen homers, that's kind of been his mo is like at the kind of fifteen to twenty homer power at like major League peak. You know, he's popped thirteen, twelve and then fourteen in the last three years, so I think there's some power there. It's not elite. Do have concerns about the ground ball rate, like he does put it on the ground a bit too much and with not elite power, that's I think could be a

tough look. But what I do think he adjusted to this year, and the reason I ended up choosing him is it looked to me like he had an approach where he was trying to pull the ball more, which is the kind of approach that I think he'll need to do to succeed with. And he has good enough contact skills that this seems like he was able to execute and get a little more power to the pull side without really giving up much in terms of contact

or hits the other way. Roped thirty three doubles. That's a lot of doubles to go along with two triples and fourteen homers. That's pretty good some other of these kinds of guys, He's one that maybe he needs a position change to really be valuable for fantasy to get a shot, because I don't know if that's going to play at third. But the lucky thing is he's played all over the place. They had him as a catcher as recently as last year, so maybe he can catch

the innings and be a super utility. I don't think he was great back there because they moved him off this year and he primarily played third base, with a sprinkling of second base in there too. So Freeman, though, I think there's a He's a solid ballplayer all around and had some good swag too. I saw him get some big hits that he was pretty pumped about, and seems like the team liked him. So I don't know,

you do worse than Cody Freeman. Not one of my must go get guys, but he's my favorite in the B side range for the Rangers.

And like I think, like I said, last aast season, I think he could have taken a job and run with it if he had a season different because from what I did, the splits from the second half on, I think maybe from June on, or maybe even inclusive of June. I forget, dude ran a one fifty two WRC plus. He had like a thousand ops over that stretch, and of course this is the PCL, so you got

to do some adjustment for that. But he did that with a seventeen percent krate, twelve percent walk rate, twenty bombs, thirty three doubles, Like dud, Dude is good he is just such a good hitter. I'm so bummed. If he had flipped that production and had that production in the first half, I think he would have been the first

baseman for the Rangers all year. So yeah, blame crim Still by far the best in the system, and I would double tap him in a heartbeat, But I felt like we should talk about somebody new.

I think if he's still available in your leagues. Josh Steven, who's having a really good AFL for whatever, that's worth three percent, Mitch Bratt three percent, Aiden Curry three percent. Everybody else in their system was I think one percent or less, maybe two percent.

This is not a knock on like the other three or four guys that I think we'll end up touching on. And I'm pretty sure my number two was the guy you're gonna pick, so because we've talked about it before, but I went with Jose Gonzalez. Dude is a little old for the level, so he was like twenty two or I think he ended the year twenty as a twenty three year old and spent most of the year in a ball so like a little old. As we've

talked about before. I care about that a lot less for pictures because pictures can come from anywhere and blow up and be good. The reason I went, and you can.

was like wild. And then you would see I think there was this one outing against Red Sox, maybe might have been the Red Sox is what I'm thinking of. And he threw for the first like three innings it was like ninety percent cutters and these guys weren't touching shit.

Then he switches up his approach and he starts throwing this four seam fastball at the top of the zone and these guys looked like it was one hundred and five every time because they were all looking for this like big moving cutter and it was this exploding fastball at the top of the zone. These guys were getting blown away, but it was hilarious. But he also he also has a bigger slider curvebally thing too, and as you said, a split change that he uses as a

change of pitch, which is also a good pitch. I don't know, man like he was second in came minus BB over the last ten years in a ball. The only one better was Travis Dakora also this year, So it's it's sort of historically good how good he was at a ball. Now caveats aside, this was like eighty sun the innings there, and he's old for the level, and I think we've talked maybe about that the Carolina League like wasn't the best this year, especially on the

hitting side. I think some of those teams were a little bit weaker than they've been in years past.

I guess he's listed at six three. I always thought he was more like six foot, but maybe he's a little bit taller. Just now is sniffing hi A. And so he got one start at HIGA to end the year and it was bade whatever. It's one start. So he's been you know, DSL complex for two years, a ball for two years and then now just now is getting up to HIA. I think he's Rule five eligible

this year. It says he has on fangrafts, which if he is boy, I would this is one of those guys like I think we might have talked about this before. International guys like this pop up and a rule five eligible. Some teams might try and look at a guy like this, pen him for a year and then now he's theirs for another three years or whatever it is, then keep developing him as as a starter. So I thought Hose Gonzalez was wildly impressive. I want to see it at

higher levels. I'm not sure that the approach is going to hold up how he kind of goes after guys, But there was basically no one more exciting in a ball for me this year.

really good slider or whatever. Right, And maybe that's part of why they haven't developed some of you know, more major league starters, but they got a slew of guys man like Bradon Mendoza. I liked a good bit too, as a twenty old who was an AIA. Yeah. I think Paul Benzogni is interesting. He was in Hi An. This guy Josh Trinidou who was in Single Way, Isaac Tiger, I think is really good. But did Tiger go down with Tommy John or an elbow or something.

he'll be twenty two this year. In high A. Stuff wise, probably nothing that's going to like super jump out off the page. The fastball is like eighty nine to ninety three, sliders like eighty. There's a curve ball, there's a splitter that's like high seventies. But this guy can really pitch man like you talk about at least in stretches, maybe probably not as consistent, but just talking about all four offerings,

just like dotted where he wants. And he has such like a great presence in command of everything going on on the mound, Like the dude is just in control out there. He's running the show, and he's doing what he wants to. Hitters at a pretty high clip, a lot higher clip than you usually see in High A. Sixteen starts, eighty innings in a ball, thirty innings in High A to close out the year, and I know there's like there's good competition for innings in this system.

Three of his last six games starts for FQOS. Two of those were during his High A run. Probably not the biggest guy in the world. And I don't know what the story was. He was an international free agent signing of the Mets and they let him go for some reason and I don't know why, and I tried to ask, and they didn't really know why. But the Rangers picked him up I think two years ago. But let's see on the season his well, we're talking a twenty five point four strikeout percentage to a seven point

two walk percent. I don't know it doesn't really get hit up very much. I just I kind of feel like maybe something in the arsenal is going to have to tick up to feel better about his major league prospects. But I don't know, man, We see that kind of

stuff happen all the time. Like I'm willing to take a gamble on a guy who has this sort of pitchability and advanced like sequencing and stuff, and you could show up next year and he's throwing three clicks harder, like I'll ave Zebbie Matthews or something with that and totally take off now right now as things sit, is he like at the top of my B side armless for this year? No, probably bottom third to maybe middle, But yeah, I think you could do a lot worse. Like davl Leo is a good picture, man.

playing some third base. I know he has played some outfield in college. Good size, six ' three strong. I love a lot of his mechanics and things that he does in his swing, real balance, see a Washington boy, right. We talked about him with Connor a little bit. Connor didn't know him, wasn't there. We talked a little bit about him. Spent most of the year in the Midwest League High A. I was just like, just kept waiting and waiting for him to get promoted to Double A.

He finally did for the last eighteen games. I think he fared pretty well there. I hit a couple of home runs. He hit eighteen home runs on the season. Still a couple of bags. I don't think that's going to be like a huge part of his game. Strikeouts. I think, like we were talking about with Connor, or maybe a little bit on the higher side, but I mean not bad. Well. He was twenty four point five percent on the year with enough you know, maybe he's got can slug hit enough home runs. You know, that's

not that's not too bad. Two ten ISO one two WRC plus one fifty five in his little double a span. What I like about Simpson two I watched a lot of them this year, is like, I feel like there's sort of different periods of him as a hitter. You can see him, you know, it was like line opposite field, line drives going over second basement's head, like, seemed to

be hitting a lot of those. And then there was times where it was like, all right, he's definitely trying to hit the ball out in front and pull it more and you know, and then home runs will pop up a little bit more. I just kind of like that versatility. I don't know what he's going to sort of end up looking like in the end, but I think he's got like kind of all of that again in his good mechanics, can hit the ball hard when

he gets deep on him. I know, like I said, right handed first base, that could be a long shot. But for a B side type here one percent, I kind of like my man Simpson here.

Simpson too. I actually liked him quite a bit. I saw him live this year, one of the few.

thousand bonus out of like the seventh round. I think he was a seventh rounder.

without elite power, and I wanted to highlight that. I also, he seems reasonably fast to me, but he doesn't steal a lot of bases, so that might not ever be a part of his game. So to me, he's not like super exciting. I would prefer Malone or Simpson if you're looking for something. I think both those guys have

a little more upside. But nan kill is the kind of guy that I think could end up with a decent career in his like twenty six to twenty eight seasons in the major leagues for a team, perhaps after free agency, after minor league free agency. So anyway, Nate nan Keel, you could do worse. Not super excited about it. But he's he's my pick this year.

that's an interesting pitch to me. And of course over the top left you like him. He's you look at his splits. He's tougher against righty's then he is. Lefties don't hate to see that. Now. Man, I don't know if you saw this, but he was so he was only INAA for two starts, and I don't know if that includes his playoff appearance or not, but he was pretty dang good. But his last ten year, ten games on the season, forty three and two thirds innings, an e area of one point eight eight, a whip of

point eight eight. Strikeout percent is just under thirty four percent, what seven point seventy five percent through strikes at a sixty six percent clip. Gave up one home run nine earned runs. Not a bad stretch, especially considering that was also an intro to the upper levels.

tell what's coming and it really separates. So that tunnel, to me, I think is one that makes both pitches really effective.

Like he makes ridiculous play after ridiculous play, And you know, I liked his bat a bit, another of those abbreviated swing arieties. Not a ton of power, a lot of doubles, some speed, Like I like Ben Williamson.

caveating this a little bit because it's not like gonna wow you with the tools. He's not gonna He's small, like he's five eight, you know, undersized spark plug that no one else really thinks is good. Fined as a twenty year old, I think the international free agency, and then the pandemic happened, so he didn't play. He debuted in twenty twenty one as a twenty one year old in a ball He has spent eleven hundred played appearances in the cow League over the last four years or

the last four seasons. Got promoted a couple of times to the Northwest League to hi A, but only for kind of short stints and was never like great, wasn't lighting the world on fire. And he made one Fangrafts list as like a footnote that the basically the whole footnote was nobody else thinks this guy's any good, but maybe he can play the outfield. I love this guy. He's he's best. I had gold Man like Cuban defectee to the Dominican, like I said, underside, but he is

so fast, legit, seventy grade speed caught it. I got him on a bunt at three five down the line, but bunted for a hit three five down the line and then swiped, second, swipe third. Love that shit so good. His swing is pretty fun. The knock on him at this point is that, like he might in the past, I would say, like the power has been bad. He had one pretty good season in twenty twenty two, where he popped ten homers in four hundred and fifty played appearances,

but that was at Everett. He's a lefty. He put a bunch over the short porch there and like nobody thought that power was real. And then last year he hit zero home run or maybe one home run in the playoffs, I think, but that was it. This year he hit ten homers and swiped forty nine bases. Do you know how many people swiped more than forty nine bases this year, be three little more than that, you know, Like there's there's quite a few in like the forty

nine to fifty five range. Like there's there's like ten guys that are all right in that range, and then there's like four guys that were at the top of the leaderboard. So he was like, I think nineteenth or twentieth in the minors in this year. Do you know how many ahead of him hit more home runs than his ten?

Exit velocity is just shy of major league gaverage. That's I think they listed to him at like ninety three point one and major league average is like ninety three point five something like that for ninetieth So that's pretty darn good. I might have the number strong. It might be one o three. I think that's what. He's one oh three point one and major league average is one

of three point five. I think that's right. Anyway, he's like just a hair shy of major league gaverage as far as power goes, which I think kind of matters. Like that means that you look at this underside guy, everyone's like, you're gonna hit for power.

knock on him is the contact ability. He's mostly run higher ground ball rates in the past, so like, even though the power is maybe approaching major league average, with the ground ball rate, he's probably always going to be a little bit under that as far as like production in the home run category for Rodo, but with the steals and the speed and the willingness to bunt for hit,

he's just a super fun guy. Hit. I think it was the playoffs last year he hit a grand Slam for Everett and again they were already up a bunch, but it was it was dope. He pimped it and it was it was super cool. So Victor Lebrato for me, super fun, not like top tier guy, just because I'm not sure that with the ground ball rate, the power is going to play, but the speed, the defense and the story give me. Give me lebron as my Mariners

b side. The other the other issue with him is that there are two other guys on the Mariners forty man that are exactly like him, Ryan Bliss and Samad Taylor, And so that's like, you know, I mean Bliss infield or Taylor outfield, but still really similar kinds of production, really similar players. But Lobratto, you know, he's fun.

their fourteenth round pick out of Appalachian State. By no means do I really like get this guy or nothing, But he was just a guy out of all those I wanted to see more of him than anybody else. Twenty one middle infielder played second base and choice stop. I think both in college and his three games stint here. It's probably about six foot. I like to like his kind of like his build and his swing, Like I think he's got a big swing, yet like still controlled.

He walked the same amount of times that he struck out in his three games here, but I think that was also kind of the case in college. I think he was a walk more than strikeout strikeout kind of guy. Cut up some video of some of his that bats. Obviously there's not a lot to look at, but like I said, he was just a guy that I wanted to watch more. I was bummed that there wasn't more video to see it because I was kind of getting interested.

That's it, that's it, all right, Mariners at this roster percentage, I just had a hard time, I don't know, getting down, but I liked I liked you shouting out Lebrato. I think that's a good call. I didn't realize that stuff about the exit velocities, and you had told me that information, I probably would have, you know, picked.

I was kind of surprised. Ryan Sloan's the first year player. He's already at two percent. Revan Scooter, who we were gushing about are fans of last year, He's at one percent. But yeah, I don't know, Matt, who'd you go with after that? Well?

year looks remarkably similar to his year last year. A couple of fewer innings, I think he might have dealt with some Yeah, he was out for a little while injury stuff. Yeah, so that held him back a little bit too. But I'm still a big fan of Van Scooter and think that he is a you know, number five starter waiting in the wings that isn't going to be a strikeout king, but gonna get a ton of ground balls. And still love him as a pitcher. He's

super fun to watch. Like him a lot, and as you mentioned, a couple of other guys in the system that I think are still really good. Your Logan Evans pick last year was awesome. Michael Morales is someone that I have flirted with in the past of like, he's had runs where he was really good, but his year this year was very good. I liked what I saw there, thinking him stepping taking a step forward, making it up to double A and pitching decently. Definitely a fan. There's

a couple other arms I like here too. Luis Cravello I think is going to be a big league reliever probably next year. Great slider and the mold of the Mariner's middle relief kind of pitchers. So I liked him the fair amount. But I'm going with Brandon Garcia is my pick. You watch much of Garcia this year.

when I look, But I'm not surprised that he's kind of at that three percent range. Another guy who was a college reliever, and again like this is you know, trade on Browski last year, Tyler Guilfoyle, Michael Prosecci. These guys last year that I was really intrigued by that were college relievers turned starters and having some success. And

those guys I'm usually skeptical about the durability. Can they hold a starteris workload and the command because there's usually a reason that they're in the pen in college and it's usually one of those two things. Well, Brandon Garcia hasn't necessarily answered both of those questions yet, but you have to say that twenty twenty four was a huge

breakout for the eleventh rounder. Yeah, at a a M. He had kind of a bad walk rate last year only through fifty three and two thirds innings pitch last year, but this year across the levels through one hundred and sixteen innings, which I love to see, twenty seven percent strikeout rate and the walk rate was a lot on the year at nine point five percent, which is, you know, a hair higher than you would like. That's probably a

touch above average. Still pretty darn good and didn't tick up too much even as he got promoted for forty seven and two thirds innings at double A this year. So Arkansas for the Mariners is a pretty good place to pitch Texas League. I don't know, like you're more plugged into this than I am, but I feel like most of the other places to pitch are lean a little more hitter friendly. But then there's a couple of parks like Arkansas, it's a little more pitcher friendly.

a change. All the pitches can get it. And I think that one thing I really appreciated about Brandon Garcia is that he is unpredictable in his attack. He'll come at a two to zero count and it's a change up in the middle of the plate. It's two strikes and he's nibbled to get it to like three to two or something, and then it's just fastball out our half and he dots it in the corner. Again. The command is the thing that's holding me back from like this is a no doubt top five B side arm

for me. But I wouldn't be surprised if he's the one of the best of my B side arms this time next week year, because the stuff to me looks like major league play and he just needs to make sure that the control is good enough and that he commands the wide repertoire in order to be like setting himself up for success in the major leagues. But overall, boy, Brandon Garcia just looks like the real deal to me and looks like a really really good pitcher.

blast from the past. I'm going I'm bringing one out of the archives here and I'm I'm my twenty twenty three Mariner's arm was one Mercedes and I'm going back there because I think, all, well, I think my guy has kind of arrived. Now he's twenty four. He's twenty four this year twenty three twenty four, spent the whole season in Double A in Arkansas. Like you said, good place to pitch, twenty seven starts, one hundred and forty

four innings. You like to see that sort of horsepower, right, Matt, Yep? Yep. He had a two eight seven ERA, A one point zero nine whip, four point zero three x fit. Strikeout percentage on the season was twenty one point three. But put a pin in that for right now, Walkery was

four point four percent. Not too shabby, Mercedes. Back in what would that been like twenty twenty two, he was a young guy in Medesta or not in Modesto, And yeah, in Modesto, basically a fastball slider, right, and he still is basically a fastball slider guy, although you can spot him throwing some change ups from time to time, and he will throw change ups to righties from time to top.

to twenty eight point sixty two percent. Mind you, this is you know, pitching in the same league all year, whereas before that he was sub twenties twenty percent. So I can't say I totally know. Did something did the slider get nastier? Was there more velo? I don't know. He threw strikes at a seventy one percent clip over those last thirteen starts. A couple of those were in the playoffs, where I think he fared pretty well. Seven

home runs over the those sixty six innings. After you're finding this sort of success at double A like with the Mariners, like, what's the next step?

Then need a few of them for depth starters. And I think that certainly two or three of these guys in the Manner system are better than Emerson Hancock. They gave the most of their major league kind of six starter slots too. But again, you know, maybe the Manners don't have the same health luck that they've had with their with their starting pitching, so maybe there's more innings to eat here.

I don't know. It didn't really seem like he was pitching all that different to me, but he was just getting more whiffs.

That good stuff, man, it was nice to chat with buddy. All Right, you guys be well and we'll let Chicago Farmer take us out later.