Episode 45: 2025 NL Central B-Side Selections

become our favorite dish every year Thanksgiving. Anyway, Like we were like, it's better than mashed potatoes and gravy, it's better than turkey, it's better than all the other sides. So we just made a couple of those and that was our Yeah, just quiet, quiet as quiet it can be with a two year old and a newborn in a house. But now we survived. It was fun. Had my son's birthday party here. So the house is as clean as it's ever been with at least since a

two year old arrived. But yeah, it was a good, good holiday.

the year. Like maybe if you're a mid draft and you like see somebody sign somewhere and it's a big change in value, like you care about that. But what degenerates are doing drafts right now? You know? So I the whole news breaking thing in basketball, baseball, football, Like, I don't understand it. It's really stupid to me.

of this stuff. I've learned that probably one of the big hurdles in that is defense contractors have bought probably rights to information. But these folks all believe there's definitely intelligence out there that isn't us. They testify as such, and that there are a retrieval program retrieving what I don't know, technologies that we don't have. But my point is like, why isn't this a big deal for folks? Am? I am I overreacting to this?

he's ranked on Pipeline. Nineteen year old second base, left field, left hand hitter listed at five ten national free agent

from Venezuela. Last year, he spent what time forty seven games in the Complex three with Myrtle beach and A ball eighty four a ball played appearances. He hit four home runs, walked thirteen percent of the time, struck out twenty four percent of the time two oh nine three fifty seven four seventy eight slash and that small sample good enough for a one forty three WRC plus in

that league. But Matt, I don't know if you've watched Escobar into him very much, but left handed stroke that I liked kind of a good bit reminds me of Pinango in a sense that.

think is the most underrated guy in the system. But for Escobar, we're talking like eighty four played appearances in a ball at which he ran a twenty three point five percent home run to fly ball rate, whereas he hadn't cracked single digits in the last two years on

the DSL and the complex. So while he did a really good job in a ball pulling his fly balls and getting some homers, and I watched all of those homers that were broadcast and they were good, like good pulled the ball, got it up in the air, and good things happened. But I'm a little skeptical that there's.

pulling the ball and putting it in the air. And that's good, like as we've talked about ad nauseum, right, and he should have. I don't know if the exit velows were if we got much out of that, but if you got any reporting on.

he's starting to pull everything together. I remain a little skeptical of him and his approach, but he's still pretty young and sniffed the majors this year and then kind of further down. But like some hype around your guys like Jefferson Rojas and Alex Canario is another guy who I quite like and thought he was gonna mash some homers in the show this year, but hasn't quite. I think injuries derailed him the last kind of year and

a half or so. So they've got a lot of guys that I think are really good on the hitters side, but the most underappreciated. And James Triontos too, I think he gets underappreciated for what he does. He's another one that's way too for our exercise, but his contact and speed combo. I think he's done really, really well the last couple of years, and I think he'll be a useful big leaguer as well. So that's like a lot of prospects already that are real pretty good man.

and we've talked about mister Long before, no relation to Jeff Long. I don't think I think Jeff would have mentioned that.

hundred plate appearances on the Earth. So that's like those are pretty solid rates like that poortends some twenty five maybe plus homer power I think at peak not going to be one who's going to run a high babbit, But I think if he can raise his launch agle just a little bit more, this has been the thing with him that like it's a little like you mentioned in this system, touched to ground ball heavy, and he's got the juice and the contact skills to make the

most of his flyballs. If he can just get a few more of those line drives into fly balls, there's a world in which he's a thirty plus homer bat with good on base and is a middle of a lineup Masher.

Generally speaking, there are guys who like, if you got a really flat batpath, you know, Alex Bregman or esk Paratus, and you're really trying to get it out front, like you're really kind of selling out for that kind of pulled flyball. But mostly you see pulled balls are on the ground. And that is one thing that he does pretty well is that he's not a huge worm burner.

He's just kind of a spray guy, right Like he'll go all over the place, and as you mentioned, his his propensity to go the other way I think does limit a little bit of you know, he's got the juice to leave the yard to center and the opposite field. But if he was more middle of the diamond, more like you know, Freddy Freeman esque, where it's all middle, it's all middle, maybe he would get some more of

those homers too. So one thing you know, he wrote, he wrote a pretty high Babby in double A and a lot of that was on opposite fields, hits doubles and singles the other way. He's not a high babbit guy long term for me, maybe a slightly above average guy. But I do think that he's got a above average slightly above average babby skill and the power to hit

homers to all fields. And at twenty two at double A, like, let's see him start the year keep crushing double A and make it up to triple A. And I mean, I think the Cubs have a real first basement on their hands here if he can keep showing this kind of stuff, and I don't think enough people appreciate it, just how good his season was. And last bit for

me on him is that he projects right now. Steamer thinks if they chucked him in the majors right now, he'd run a ninety nine WRC plus as a twenty two year old, and that's I guess age twenty three season upcoming. That's pretty good. That's a rare thing for one that young. That Steamer already thinks that he is

a league average bat. Now he's got to be a bit better than that to really play at first base, obviously, but that to me says that in a year or two we might be looking at a guy that is a real contenders first baseman in the making.

I'm still a little bit interested in my pick from last year, Grant Kip, who has heard a lot this year. He was in the AFL some but I landed on an undrafted free agent.

I think next year, Like, I think he's a big league arm. I mean, he's on the forty two. So I think Neely is going to be a leverage reliever for the Cubs next year. Whether the Cubs are good and whether he's getting holds and stuff like, I don't know, but Ne's Neelly's going to be in that pen. In my opinion.

sort of thing. So yeah, the Cub's relief situation next year is I think interesting for dinas or for fantasy for sure. But yeah, man, I went with Nico Zeglin. Familiar, Yeah, right on. Forgive me, I don't remember who it was. But somebody was chatting about having seen him this year in the discord, and I had to just like chime in a little bit and be like, yeah, man, I agree. Of course he's older. He's twenty four, maybe he'll be

twenty five at the start of the season. And he pitched just in a ball and High A this year a total of sixty six innings, so you know, perhaps he was a bit more of an advanced college arm from Long Beach State, and like, yeah, maybe he should be doing well in the lowers like this, but I don't know. Man, six ' four righty arsenal, Like I don't know the fastball I saw anywhere from like ninety to ninety six. He's got slider, curve, change up. You know,

he's got the full starter's kit. I think there's he's a righty, but I think there is a little bit of I don't know, maybe a little bit of funk to his release, maybe a little bit of a lower lower release point, do you think, yeah, a little bit, yeah, And twenty seven and two thirds innings in High A point three three era point eight three, whip thirty one point four, strikeout percentage eight point six percent, walk rate

swinging strike rate of sixteen point two percent. But I don't know, man, just video reviewing, I don't know a dozen guys from this system. Zegland was just kind of a no brainer for me that I that I liked the most is a long term potential. Maybe he gets to the bigs. Obviously it will depend on how it goes in the uppers. But you know, a full kit, decent enough stuff can execute it fairly well, Like, let's see what happens. I don't know, you Goozeglin.

stress and more pressure. Like the teams will have a lot of guys that they want to get like three hundred developmental innings too, so for an undrafted guy to push guy another guy out and get those innings, that could be a thing. The strike throw, I mean, he's sixty nine percent a ball, sixty six percent on the year. I don't think there's I don't think there's any execution issues as far as can he start or not. I think there's there's arsenal there to do it. I think

there's enough ways to attack different hitters. I'm just kind of leaning and wondering that like this was more about him just breaking through some guys that they maybe had some bigger plans for.

Bayo egg is also an under after free agent from last year from twenty twenty three who didn't pitch last year and then started sixteen games, twenty three total in a ball the whole year, ninety seven and two thirds innings, twenty six point five percent strike at rate, eight point one percent walk rate. You know, decent fIF decent average suppression. The issue was like, he's a funky, long levered guy

with a good fastball. Like this fastball looks like it plays, it's he looks like he's got a little bit lower release point but good extension. It runs, it rides, and hitters really seemed to struggle with his fastball. But all of his OSCR pitches I didn't really like. I don't think any of them was all that good. Seeing him with the like try and get guys out, like I mean, decent strikeout rate, but a lot of it was on fastballs up that a ball hitters couldn't really hang, and

he took advantage of that. And he's twenty two already in low A for the whole year. Like again, he's probably behind some guys organizationally, but he did enough to meet for me that I'm like, oh, that's an interesting ish guy, and he has a fast ball that I think is interesting. And the other guy, the guy that I'm actually gonna choose, I don't even feel good about it.

Is Juan Bao Bao great offspeed. I thought his slider was good, movement profile really got guys all flummoxed, lefties, righties. I thought it was good. His curveball might have been even better. And he runs them in different velocity bands, so they're like clearly separate. And when he was throwing his off speed, guys really struggled to make contact and

to hit the ball hard. But his fastball is eighty eight and it's not a like eighty eight with that, you know, I would defend you know what I mean, Like it's it's an eighty eight that's not getting whiffs, it's an eighty eight that's not getting grounders. No, no, not at all, or a red van scooter or a bunch of these other guys that we've like, I think eighty eight mile on air, Isaac Coffee and those kinds of fast can play when they're unique, when they have

some funky traits to them. BeOS is not that. So like if you paired Kent and Egbert's fastball with Jean Beo's offspeed, that might be an interesting picture. Unfortunately, there are two different guys, and I'm gonna go with the one that spins it a bit. I don't feel good about it, though, and I really can't recommend either of these guys that much.

good information. But what I like about him is that he's really smart on that of things, but he also like contextualizes it and like makes it makes sense with baseball,

and it hasn't been like baseball mine too. You know, I'm gonna paraphrase and summarize yere, but long story short, he's talking about different metrics numbers and how he's including different things and his projections and maybe some other people aren't blah blah and all this stuff right, But then he also is like, but like, still K minus BB percentage might really just be more predictive than any of this as as simple you might think it is or whatever, Like,

it really is one of the best predictive metrics out there, per Kyle Bland. And if he says that, I believe that Nico Zeglin K minus BB percentage this year twenty nine point one percent.

a little bit, folks. I think given Beck was kind

of interested in him.

corner outfield type. I don't know. He's listed at six foot I bet you he's not six foot tall, but a little strong, you know, looking what is he now? He's twenty not twenty one years old, or at least he was this last season, But I got I wasn't like super impressed. Man. I don't like I don't like the swing. It just seems like a worm burner, really kind of geared towards hitting ground balls. I think part of the reason why you don't see the slug or the ISO there or any home runs. I guess he

had a couple of hard hit balls. A one hundred and ten one hundred and ten mile per hour single on ground ball, one hundred and eight mile per hour sharp line drive, one hundred and six mile per hour line drive, one hundred and four mile per hour ground ball. There's not loft in this swing. Now, there was a guy that we talked about last year, Richie Pealacios, who was I think very much kind of a ground ball hitter.

I think the Cardinal's unlocked and may have helped him get some more loft in his swing or change that up some. I don't not saying that every Cardinal hitter now will be able to do that or they'll do that with him. But Patruce is probably bottom five six bat for me this year, and I kind of just didn't really like anybody else. But I'm like, hey, this guy's already getting a little popular. Like maybe I'll just kind of be a lame out and throw him out.

But there's not a lot of like really exciting even pretty boy names. Farther down the list for me in the card system, a couple guys we've talked about before, Nathan Church and says our Preeto both are this like slappy contact forward, some speed profile that the Cardinals seem to really like. Brian Torres was another one that's kind of an older guy that is very slappy, stole a bunch of basses, but barely hit extra base hits. I

guess he legged out a bunch of doubles. But guy had two homers in five hundred and twenty eight play appearances this year, and all three of those guys like, that's a fun profile. I like contact guys, think each of them brings something to the table. But I wasn't. Yeah, I couldn't quite bring myself to pick another light, small slap hitting guy. So I went with Matt Caperniac. You

watch a bunch of Coperniac this year.

the system and mostly performed really well. Like the only couple of times he didn't immediately settle in as an above average bat was his first stint in a Double A in twenty twenty one, when he ran a ninety four WRC plus, and his first stint at triple A in twenty twenty three when he ran a ninety seven WRC plus. So like, the guy's a good hitter everywhere he goes, Gonna be twenty seven next year. Probably is like injury insurance for some of their outfield in Saint

Louis is my guests. But as I mentioned, he led the International League in hits. He has kind of a funky, flat swing, but he still has enough juice in there to leave the yard to the opposite field. He popped twenty homers this year, stole five bags, and I think that that's probably right. He steals have never really been a part of his game. He's kind of hovered in the high single digits for the most part in stops in the minor leagues. So not a burner by any means,

but controls the strike zone well enough. You know, never has had high strikeout rates. Again, you watch him swing and you kind of see why. It's a flatish swing. He's definitely gearing up for contact. Has always run decent walk rates. This year was more league average ish, but still that's solid when you've got twenty homers in the bat there maca prettyek to me, is just like reminds me a little of Matt Krun last year when I was talking about guy who toiled in the minor leagues

for a decent while. Has kind of an interesting story. He played for Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic last year. Because he was born in the UK, I think American family, I think military family maybe, But he went to a small school, undrafted free agent and then has basically just done nothing but hit and do pretty well and plays all three outfield positions. Seems like a passable centerfielder without being exceptional to me, but can definitely

play the corners. And yeah, Matt Caperniac. I liked enough about the overall shape of his production that that seems like a big leaguer to me. And Steamer projects him as a ninety three WRC plus coming into the year, which is fine. You know, you don't really want to see that in left field or right field, and if he's playing center field for your team, it's probably not what you want to see. But as a serviceable backup that maybe he gets some run, maybe he does a

touch better than that, I could see that playing. So Matt Caperniac is my B side pick and I don't feel awful about it. He's somebody that I might look for in some of my thirties where I need a bench insurance outfielder kind of thing, and he's free. He's zero percent.

I'll talk about is Juan Salas. You watch Solace this year?

My one issue for him is that his fastball was fine, but I kind of it's not like an elite angle or anything, and it's I think tops out at ninety four, so bordering on playable for alrighty, And I really like his changeup. His change up is super fun, threw it a lot, threw it in fun counts, and his curveball was as better of the breakers in my looks. I don't know if you felt that way as well. I thought he commanded that one pretty well and could get

some whips with his curve. His slider was pretty mech to me. I don't know if you felt that way too, but that was the one that seemed like it had room for improvement. I almost wonder if he turned that into a bit more of a cutter, like, threw it a little harder, if he might have some more success. But one salce was super fun. I liked him a lot, and if if it wasn't for this other guy, I think I would have been pretty happy taking one sauce

like I would have taken nim over. I think any picture we've talked about so far.

zero percent when I looked, But Darlin Saladein.

five ten maybe. But the fastball looked playable to me, and that is always a good place to start. There's a curve that he really likes, and he goes to a lot which I also quite liked, and then a slider or a cutter. I couldn't really tell. It kind of a harder breaker that I didn't see a ton of positive things out of, Like I thought it was like maybe below average at getting whiffs for a cutter

slider thing. But then in an occasional change that I thought he could use more because it seemed like it played like he kept it below the zone one at that in particularly that I'm recalling where it was a three to two changeup that he shook two and dotted it just below the zone and got a whiff for the strikeout, which I thought was really nice. And I also liked his motion, like there's good flow to it's like easy. Everything about it is kind of easy and whippy.

This isn't a smash the button go by this guy, Go try and acquire him. But I really liked what I saw. And you know, along these DSL guys that take a little bit to get going as arms, you know, he just doesn't have a ton of innings under his belt. He threw one hundred and twenty some innings and that like almost tripled his previous career high in the minor leagues,

and he's still just at HI. Maybe someone tries to scoop him and stuffs him in a pen because they think he can be a reliever for a year or whatever. But I think he'll probably pass through the rule five pretty comfortably and get another year and see what he can do with the mid to uppers for Saint Louis. But Darlin Saladin is my guy for the cards.

of his well, he got in a total of thirteen point one innings thirteen and a third innings in a ball and not all that was broadcast. I'm not even sure exactly. Maybe half of those I watched, but he was nineteen this year, righty listed at six ' three from the Dominican his thirteen innings. I don't know, what do you do? It only struck out nineteen percent, twenty percent, struck out twenty eight percent in the complex, walked eleven

and a half percent. Don't love that. Three strikes at fifty nine percent in a ball, but seventy percent on seventy percent on the complex. Small sample size, Matt, small sample size. This is UH turning on some video and getting a little bit on the edge of your seat, a little bit more excited than anybody else I watched down at this roster percentage. Well, he's a writing, he's got a little a little drop and drive a little bit lower release. I think to him maybe a little

bit of an oddity to his whole delivery there. According to Savant, through four seamer sinker those what average about ninety three. But you see there's also something that touched ninety six. Ninety seven. Curveball was his most thrown secondary through that seventeen percent of the time. Again, this is

this is a pretty small sample size. So there's a change up and there's a slider and I kind of thought all of the secondary the fastballs, all of the secondaries, and my little watch is like, especially for a teenager, seemed to be executed fairly decently. I thought like he was, he was pitching him mixing and I don't just really really caught me, really kind of impressed me for a kid. Last year, I went with a guy just kind of based on stuff and when that worked out, all right,

I guess maybe not quite as much velocity here. I don't think he's touching one hundred, but I don't think that this kid has fully grown here. And yeah, I don't know, man, there could be a real starter year. I think there's plenty, plenty of time to let this develop.

would they get drafted? I don't know, but I was into this. Nice let's go to the Pirates Mac because the Pirates have the guy that I'm most into tonight.

him a little bit throughout the year. He's another one that I think is, you know, maybe a twelve homer bat in the BIGS, but like could have thirty some steals and play really good center field. Still some production, but I could see him getting popped. The guy I am gonna pick is someone else that I mentioned a little while back, Nick Simeo, Yeah, Samilo Samo You and I talked about him when I meant that he was having just a hell of a power run down in

High Greenville, Greensboro, Greensboroboro, and in Greensboro. As you noted, they have a higher park factor anyway, especially for or especially for rightis, and that's worth noting. You know, overall it's like a slightly above average for hitters, but for righty's and especially for homers, it's it's quite high. And he was taking advantage of that. Right he was lifting and pulling.

Seventeen and in two hundred and twenty played appearances is nutty. Now, of course, I'm not saying he's like the next coming of Joey Gallo or whatever, but there's real power here. You know. He's a big right right first base Mnata Rutgers. He's going to be twenty five this upcoming year and was more league average at a double A than really great and that should give you, I should give you some pause. Al Tuna's like a pretty neutral park, so you can't blame a ton of it on the park.

I watched a lot of his double A games there for the curve. And the thing that I like about him that kind of sets him apart from some of the other right right kind of first baseman that you see around the minor leagues is I think his contact skills have actually improved as he's gone up levels. His swinging strike rate has gone down. He's I think, doing a pretty good job controlling the zone, walks in above

average amount. And while Steamer is still skeptical of his strikeout rate, like project him as a slightly worse than average strikeout rate guy, and with the can I just okay OBP and power, I think there might be a tick better contact skills there than you see. I've seen

him adjust pretty well. There was a really good at bad I saw late in the season in Double A, and he missed a slider like one one to go to a one two count like down and away, good pitch, and he swung and missed, and previously in that bat swung and miss at a fastball kind of up middle, but he adjusted, fouled off like four pitches, couple of sliders, couple of fastballs, and then Pitcher missed his spot and dude hit a nuke to center field like in Altuna

like deep and has like that's just a really good at bat and I think demonstrated some of the Like you know, he ran an eight point five percent swinging strike rate in double A over you know, one hundred and eighty five played appearances, Like that's a decent sample for your swinging strike rate and that's plus and this guy also plus power, Like is he a forty homer bat like he was showing in Greensboro? No, but could he be thirty and could the strikeout rate help him

get to that? Maybe he also was a flyball dude, which you know, I love for these power guys, Like he's going to get to his power and that didn't show up a ton in Altuna, but again it wasn't a huge sample size for the kind of home and a flyball rate to stabilize. So I think he's going to be a guy that is a corner masher and has has a real shot to be like a first baseman for the Pirates for a decent amount of time. Maybe not next year, but soon. You know, he's a really interesting corner power bat.

some degree. But I'm going with a guy that you brought up this year, young eighteen year old Xio Plaz.

percent of the time. Don't love to see that two seven three two four thirty eight slash two thirty one iso, and he ran a two thirty five babbit which was good enough for a one tow eight WRC plus hits it on the ground less than thirty five percent of the time, pulled the ball forty percent of the time. But mat to me, it's the compact, quick, powerful swing, dude. I pulled up his hardest hit balls this year. It's not necessarily the mile per hours that I like, but

the results right. One hundred and twelve and a half mount so one hundred and thirteen off the bat home run was his hardest hit ball the year. One hundred and twelve. It was a ground out. One hundred and eleven was a double on a sharp line drive. One hundred and eleven line out, one hundred and eleven home run, one hundred and eleven line drive, one hundred and eleven line drive, one hundred and ten home run, his top what would be his ninetieth percentile one ball hit on

the ground. He's hitting it hard and it's hardest hit balls are in the air. Obviously, catcher this young. Fantasy wise, I get hesitancy there. I get a guy who's striking out almost thirty percent. But mind you two, he's eighteen and this is what like a little over half of a season. Yeah, a ball like, I don't know, there's enough fump in this bat for him to be way more exciting to me than anybody else. Zero one percent with the Pirates.

here in Pittsburgh is really exciting. And you know, if i'm them, I'm probably trading a few of these guys to try and bolster their hitters because they're missing some pieces on the hitting side. But they, I think pretty quickly are going to have a rotation that can compete with freaking anybody. I mean, this is this is a good crop. Let me let me talk about Carlson read a bit because he was a new new one to

me in diving into the system. And when I looked, I think he was one percent, but again I looked kind of late. This He is fun. I mean he's tall, six or four, lanky, long arms, long legs, gets down

the mound. He's got a sinker, a slider, and a split. And I think when I was reading up on him doing some background, he mostly had been a reliever and people thought he was going to be a reliever, but Pittsburgh popped him in the fourth and we're like, we're gonna out of West Virginia, I think, and he's like, we're gonna try and make you a starter. But maybe Baseball America or somebody was like exciting stuff up to ninety nine. But it's two pitches, and really one of

those isn't very good. I don't think that's true at all. It's a nasty sinker. He will throw a four seamer as well. The slider is really good and he'll go to it a lot. And then the split was nasty, and that's new, I think. I don't think he had had that before. But it's pretty good. The one knock on him is that the walks trended a little higher than I like, you know, approaching that kind of twelve

percent mark. That's really my no go. But there were a lot of outings where it was like one or two walks, and so I'm it seems like when he's got it, it works really well. His arm swing is a little long for my liking, like he gets kind of behind himself, and I think that that might be why he can sometimes lose it. But the pure stuff and execution of that stuff is up there for among the best arms in the system. Like I'll put him right up there against Solometto and Ashcraft and you know,

maybe a half step behind Chandler for like stuff. And he's twenty one, gonna be twenty two. Made it up to double A this was this was like, I guess he made it up to high. Maybe he didn't quite make the double, but he was so exciting to me. I loved my watches of him, and I think he's he's a really fun one. But I'm going to try and get some shares of soon.

You can dive a little deeper. Like my TLDR on him is that he is a solid lefty with a really nice slider fastball combo, and I think there might be room for some additional growth in here. But I liked a lot of what he did. You know, he's a small college guy, late round pick. This is like our fodder year for B sides. But the walks ticked up a bit when he got up to double A, but I think the skills were still there and it was just a bit of a blip. And his era

balloons too. But he's one that I think a savvy Dynasty person might target as a throw in in some trades, and that might be profitable really soon, as like a pitchability, solid stuff lefty that has a chance to be in a back end of a rotation. So I liked him quite a lot. I don't know, what did you like about Paracchi.

That's that's pretty phenomenal. So he got my to I actually picked him up in a few spots, but then you know, promotion came to double A where he got in ten games, eight starts, forty one innings and kind of I mean, I don't know, cliche, but guy's doing really well in low A in the lowers, right, But like, is this stuff good enough to play in the uppers, right? That's a huge question, and I think Paracchi just kind

of fell victim to that. You look at his arsenal, it's a low nineties fastball, right, a low eighties slider, mid eighties change, and I think all, like you said, there's a curve ball in there too, But I think all of it's just like bit and bit lacking a bit vanilla. I don't know if he was necessarily like

executing his pitches any worse or anything like that. From yeah, I didn't think so, no, no, no, I think it's just like really kind of a matter of like this new level, your stuff needs to be a little bit better. So that's my that's my hope with him. I like I like the frame six ' three, I like delivery, I'm sorry, six four, like all that stuff. I like him as a picture, but it's I think it's just gonna require an uptick in Arsenal to really kind of take off and be good and be a more legit

major league candidate. But again, Matt, like, I don't mind thinking that needs to happen with guys, because it happens with a lot of guys these days.

gonna be quite interested. But yeah, Dominic Paracci, I probably in all my NL Central arms, man, I just kind of loosely kind of ranked them them all, and they're all my NL Central guys are just like all clumped up together. I don't know if there's anyone that I'm talking about tonight that I love significantly or like significantly more than any of the others on the arm side.

or something like that. Like I kind of felt like he like just kind of lost his moxy a little bit, and like that stuff kind of kind of bothered him and things started to like snowball on him in that way. I don't know, There's there's a few times where I was just like, well, well just just slow down, man, You got like a you got like another couple of innings.

You got to finish this thing off. And I thought it was interesting because I think there were times where his velocity was like ticking up a little bit, maybe the fourth inning and stuff like that, and I'm like, well, that's interesting. But at the same time, I felt like he was weaker production wise and didn't pitch quite as well later in some of his starts.

want to start there. Okay, young Jose Montero, are you familiar? No right hander six ' two strong too, like dud Dude's got some muscle. These Venezuelan zero percent roster spent the whole season Florida State League twenty five games, sixteen starts, ninety six innings, three four seven ERA, A one point three eight whip, a K percentage of twenty one point seven percent, a walk percentage of eleven percent, which you know,

neither of those are super appealing. Swinging strike grade of thirteen point one percent, three strikes at sixty two percent. But Matt, I went back and I watched some Montero from last season, and this is the guy who's fastball went from like eighty eight eighty seven to like maybe touching ninety to mid nineties on the regular this year. Oh interesting, Yeah, he added a lot of velocity there.

I think the changeup was looking pretty freaking nasty, and I don't even think he was I don't even know if he was throwing one last year.

walks were higher. But there were some looks, there were some outings that I was just like, now, this is like a good developmental sort of like case study for the Reds here and this guy has really ticked up. What are they gonna do with this guy?

Maybe a little fairal relieving could very well, you know, be the future, but he's got a starter's kit and I don't know, man I was he might be just a smidge more interesting to me than the other four guys here, But like I said before, it's all pretty close. But Jose Montero and I'm interested. I'm excited to see what happens with his just I think across the board improved arsenal and if you can rain that in some might be a dude.

Nestor Laurent. Can you watching Nestor this year?

you know, he got a bump. His last couple of games were up in high but his dominating stretch in low A was a repeat from twenty twenty three, and he was pretty old for not like crazy old, but definitely old for the level for that being where he was all year. And I think the reason is because he's another guy with eighty eight to ninety one mile an hour fastball, and as a righty, that's tough to see that playing. He's Rule five eligible this year again,

kind of rip and replace what I said earlier. I don't think he's getting picked, but I do think that he's somewhat interesting. As his change up is awesome. It really dives off the table. It was way too much for hitters at a ball. He ran like a seventeen point eight percent swinging strike rate. I think largely because he would go to his change up a lot and it really played off of his fastball. And then he's got a curveball that I thought was pretty good. He

would spend that one below the zone as well. Command pretty solid too. He was throwing those pitches to different quadrants, missing below the zone when he intended to and hiding his fastball up in the zone when he needed to and made it work. I think he can do that at a ball, but I don't think there's the outlier traits for eighty eight to ninety one to play as he goes up higher. That's why I'm not that excited about him. Gave up like what one homer this year,

which is pretty impressive throughout the whole year. Three over almost one hundred innings this year, so that's that's pretty good. But I think that's going to tick up if he's really just sitting eighty eight to ninety one. If the stuff does stick up tick up. Though, I really like the rest of what he has, so I thought there was plus to maybe double plus pitch in the change up. The curve ball was maybe average, the fastball was just way below average, and like off to see that working

in the huppers. But I want to see it. I want to see him really get some run at high A and maybe double A next year and see if there is a real pitcher here. Otherwise it's probably just or depth because of the fastball playability.

former b Sadder. You only ag you are. It's thirteen percent of using the Biggs Ty Floyd Chase Burns of course, first year player, second pick in the draft, Connor Phillips, Line Richardson Adams Ronowski. I thought maybe you were gonna pick him, Matt, but he was two percent. I guess were you talking about him?

some teenage hitter that I watched him in a ball that I was like, Hey, this guy kind of looks good sometimes. S Smith pineda nineteen year old corner outfielder, right handed, maybe about listed five to eleven. He's from Panama. Four hundred and twenty seven played appearances this year, nine home runs, nine stolen bases, walked twelve percent of the time, struck out twenty seven percent of the time. Not great.

Slash line not great two thirteen, three, sixteen, three, forty six, one thirty four ISO two eighty Babbitt it was a ninety five WRC plus pulls the ball some. I felt like, maybe though that season line I don't think represents maybe kind of how good he was looking towards the end of the season as the season progressed. But in the savant sample hit a ball one hundred and ten miles per hour off of elizer Dishmy, which was a ground out, but I had some decent evs. I don't know, Matt,

just a young guy. I thought maybe it wasn't nothing, that's all.

guess he was alright for Kyle's guys stole thirty bags, but he wasn't nearly as good as.

it's it was some bags. It was I don't know, maybe there's an approachier, but the strikeouts ticked up, and I don't love the profile personally, like he's pretty low down my bat list. But no, I thought it was a good pick by you last year, and I was going to give you some kudos and double tap this year.

pitching side first. Okay, so they're pretty boys. They got Miserowski at forty eight percent. We've talked a lot about him and his future as a reliever. Robert Asser thirty eight percent. Guess you're still wait is guys, you're still with him? Okay? Uh? With Krowsky eighteen percent? Your boy Thatch was a great call last year. Logan Henderson's at twelve percent, Coas Rodriguez eleven percent, Josh Note eleven percent, Casey Hunt seven percent. Who is uh you know has

definitely has his stand specially in the discord. Shane Smith is three percent, Bishop Letson was two percent, and then everyone else was like zero maybe two guys at one. But who did you go with? Matt?

arm this year. There's a couple that might challenge him for this, but like he was the one that I was like hell, yeah, okay, Chad Patrick, I'm so in Yeah. So he got added to the forty.

pitch and it is good. He's got a four scene with plus ride and I think a decent release point, so I think it plays up from his like you know, ninety four or like ninety two to five kind of range on the four seamer, but it's like twenty four hundred RPMs, which is plus given that velocity, and a distinct two seamer that has a totally different shape and he uses it differently. He uses it into righty's and runs it away from lefties like he I mean, I

love that, Like that's three hard pitches. That he pitches off primarily. He has three more pitches that he'll throw, his change up, his slider, and his occasional curveball. I think his slider is really nasty. He just doesn't really have great command of that pitch. His command of his other pitches is really good, but his command of his slider is not great. But nobody fucking hits it. He's got like a fifty percent with rate on that slider. He just you know, sometimes has a zone rate of

like ten percent. Like I went through a bunch of his statcast data and every game it was like ten percent sliders. Four of them were in the zone and two got whiffs. The other ones they spound because like they weren't going to swing it at him. So you know, he's he's got a really really interesting arsenal. I think he should throw the slider more. But other than that, I'm I'm just like, this is a big league pitcher,

and I think quite a good one. Like I could see him slotting in as their you know, number four or five starter and outperforming a bunch of guys in in the major leagues as a starter, and at b side levels of roster ownership. That's like, sound the alarm, go get this guy. He I think is going to be a good major league starter and not surprising that Milwaukee just like turned you know, he has been traded twice, has been around the league. Was a small school guy

like he's you know, Perdue University, Northway, US. What the fuck even is I don't know, Like I watched a bunch of.

thing on him. So his last five starts in the International League were against Baltimore, you know, so like a bunch of those like baby Oh's had graduated but that was still a pretty good lineup the Cardinals, who are already talked about that triple A line up was quite good. A lot of major leaguers and major league talent in there. The Braves and the Marlins. They're they're fine whatever. The

Braves twice and the Marlins twice. And in that run, the last five starts, he ran a thirty nine percent strikeout rate, five percent walk rate for a one eight eight fit. It was nasty to watch, and that included one like kind of shaky outing against the Braves. But he came back, you know, five days later against the same essentially the same lineup and went sticks one hit, one walk, eight punches against the lineup that had just

tagged him for four runs the five days before. Like, this guy can fucking pitch and it is so nasty, Like this guy's How was this guy not more owned? Is my like question?

is so good. And you know some of that is because they think he might relieve some so that usually depressed it, like it brings down the era a bit. But but I think I also saw you know, Sarahs in his stuff model really liked him too. So yes, man, I'm telling you this guy is Chad Patrick. If he gets some run, and I'll tell you, like the Milwaukee starting pitching, I think they're gonna have some openings. You know, they're they got Peralta at the top, maybe woodruff shoulder is.

run this year. Patrick is a more complete pitcher than Henderson Henderson. I think the fastball change up combo is is elite, but his slider still isn't quite there. And he was obviously hurt for a decent check of last year too. But man, that that Patrick guy so in it is so good.

kind of fits that. I'm gonna go with Tate Coooner. I don't know if you're familiar. He was a twenty twenty three seventh round pick out of Louisville. He was mostly he was mostly a reliever in college, but I think he's on a bit of a starter track now. Like we like lefties that might have a little bit of a different arm angle. I think he's definitely got that. He's kind of, I don't know, three quarters side army,

sort of more upright guy, a little different looking. He spent last season one hundred and four total innings, thirty five of those in double A and sixty eight of those in HYA. His K percentage went from twenty nine percent to twenty two percent. His walk rate is not great. Was that twelve percent went to fourteen percent. And we don't like that, Matt. This is not like our kind of guy, I don't think, But dude, I think the

whole arsenal I think could be nasty as shit. He's no excuse me from that sort of different looking fastball. He gets that up there to the mid nineties on the regular. It's pretty good for a lefty. He's got a change up, He's got two different sliders, one that's more sweepy and one that's hard and firm that seems to be really tough on the hitters. I think there's

a lot of upside in the arsenal all Brewers. Obviously, the strike throwing and the execution is what you want to see and has to improve if he's going to be a starter. But in watching him, like man, there are stretches where I'm just like, there's no way that this guy is walking eleven percent, like just flowing through like Montgomery. Dude starting off the game striking well, I guess that game. I think he started off striking out

seven of the first nine hitters. The other two were walks, but like, dude, they were bogus walks.

some more innings. I don't know, but if there is an improvement in the execution, which is something that I don't like to bet on, I think this dude could really take off though. And he's interesting. I don't even think he made it on Clegg's Top fifty for the Brewers. Oh wow, I thought was surprising. I bet you're the pitch. The stuff plus stuff is high on this guy. Yeah, I don't know. Tay Kooner is already in the uppers. Let's see, let's see what happens here.

good pick who I liked when he was an a ball as kind of a unique profile in that he was a big guy, a big lefty. I don't know if he was primarily playing first base back then. I think he might have been. But steels, bags, hits home runs, and he can play center field, like he was actually playing some center field this year. I don't think that's where he like sticks. But I know the Brewers they signed him as a minor league free agent, re signed him,

you know. And I saw a little article at that time last offseason where they were talking about how they still feel like there's big league upside here. I know a lot of his development, there was a lot of injuries early on in his career. The Brewers said, I think for a minute now kind of struggled with the first base position. Looking for some guys. Point is like, I think there is a legit opportunity for this guy

to get a shot in the BIGGS. On the season all in Double A as a twenty five year old listed at six six, he one hundred and ten games, four hundred and fifty seven played appearances, hit thirteen home runs, stole twenty bags, got caught five times, and I saw him. I know at least two of those were him getting caught trying to steal third, and I did see him

steal third a few times. Walked nine percent of the time, struck out under seventeen percent of the time two eighty four, three sixty five, four sixty six, one eight to two ISO on a three twenty two babbit That was good for a one forty six WRC plus in the Southern League. I don't know, maybe probably more of like a line drive hitter, but he's got enough enough juice in the bat to hit some home runs. And I don't know, man just like kind of a different, I think, potential

fantasy profile. If he does ever get any run, the guy could trip in some home runs and some steals, And that just was kind of big been a fan and dude's an all dream I think is still still alive here. And I really love a lot of the other bats a zero one percent. So I'm gonna bust out or Neesto Martinez Junior again.

Like you noted, it's more of a line drive profile. He hits the ball pretty hard.

base sealer and two bags. So I think that the play here is he's a decent defender, maybe plays up the middle, maybe gets to seven homers, but chips in a bunch of steals and a decent average to go with it. He's an interesting one, and that his swinging

strike rate is more good. Like it's you know, nine point six percent at high A this year, which is is okay, but he only had an eleven percent strikeout rate, And it's partly because when he's got two strikes, dude chokes up like three inches up the bat and really shortens up his swing and makes a ton of contact with two strikes. And he's a fairly aggressive hitter too, like in the balls in the zone he's gonna swing.

Still still walked seven percent of the time this year, which was an improvement for him over the last couple of years. I'm this is not like a huge This is not quote unquote one of my guys. This is he's not doesn't have Durban's speed or level of bath to ball, but he is in that same kind of vein, and I think those guys get underappreciated, especially in your roto leagues where you need some cheap steals or in

your points leagues where you're really penalized for strikeouts. This is a guy that could could succeed in that way. He's still got a long way to go, but he's just so fun watch him hit. It's it's hilarious. Every single time.

Luke Adams who like Adams stilly running. They just have so many of these silly looking guys and I don't know, maybe silly's mean, but you know, just just goofy looking, goofy. Yeah, And they had all these goofy hitters in this line up wearing those goofy uniforms, and I was just like, what what's going on here? Man? This is this is quite the minor league view here. Yeah. Blow yeah. The Brewers, man, they don't shy away from. They don't mind if you've

got a little goofiness in your game. Oh, Tayton Hall was was one.

But yeah, next week, well, who do we have left? We have the Al East left too. I'm excited for that one. And we've got the Ale Central A Central. Yeah, maybe you want to do Al East next week or next time? All right, Ale East next that has my favorite B sider of the year. It'll be well and uh we'll talk to you next time.