Episode 47: 2025 AL Central B-Side Selections

the end of October. Sounds right, we were saying off air here, and it's been a minute since I've watched a few of these guys, So draw the memory here and got some video.

who I'm going to go with mine too.

a nine point one walk percentage. The production took a little bit of a dip when he moved up to double A right but I don't know if you noticed, his last nine starts were pretty good though he seemed to adjust to double A.

looking prospect. One thing that gives me a bit hesitation with him is just like the stack pile of arms now that the white Sacks have gotten I can't imagine he's too high on the pecking order, but yeah, he'll be in the uppers. It's not that far away. Maybe in the middle third of the B side arms that I went with this year. That's fun.

I kind of agree with you. I think that the arsenal is more good than great currently. That isn't to say with a little bit tighter execution, you know, nine percent walk rate given the good not great, strick hit red that he's got is like a little bit of a flag for me for his arsenal, I think it would be better if he was I would be more excited. I'd say, if he was under eight percent kind of

walk rate, I could see that happening. Him tightening the command a bit, working on the execution like he kind of did to end the year. And if that's the guy that we see, then maybe he's one of the ones that's really in the mix. And while look at him and see a front end starter mix here, he could develop into a number four And I wouldn't be shocked right like, and that's a useful fantasy starter kind of no matter the league depth, then I can't say that about a lot of the guys in kind of

the middle tier for me. So he might be like close to top ten arm for me, maybe maybe around that tenth slot. So I could see that kind of middle third to nearing the top ten for my B set arms anyway.

So you know, that's kind of what I'm saying. With Like, even the volume of arms that they've gotten in trades over the past eighteen months or so, I still think there are lots of rotation slots to be had in Chicago, and has a puncher shot at them, and I think that's worth a flyer for a zero percent guy, especially in your deeper leagues or your leagues where pitching really matters,

like your points leagues. I would prefer Gowons to after doing my deep dive this offseason, I prefer him to some arms that I have across a couple of thirty teamers, and so he's going to be a late target for me and along with some of the other B side arms that I've mentioned in some of my FYPD and Unowned Prospect drafts this offseason, yeah right.

you familiar with mister Nishida.

The reason I picked him is one I love these underdog type stories where people write him off because he's a zero in the power department. He's short, he's skinny, he's like doesn't look like a big leaguer at all. But while it's not Stephen Kwan esque, he does have incredibly good contact skills. I continuously think in this dynasty world people really underrate the contact skill ability and especially depending on your format, that that can really really play.

And Nishidah is like the er example of this, right, like not going to hit for any power in the big leagues, like the as you said, noodle Bat, I mean, I don't have his exsiblos or anything, but this is bottom of a scale power. He's not even trying to hit for power. But he's really good at manipulating the barrel. He doesn't get beat often. His hands stay in the zone a long time, so if it's a breaking ball

or an off speed pitch he's fulled on. He'll just slap it the other way or pull it through a hole. If it's a fastball, like, he just doesn't get beat by heat very often. I love his style, you know, and it's very you know, he's Japanese and ancestry, and it's very evocative of the MPB style of play, which I enjoy stylistically, like, I don't think those make for the very best and most valuable baseball players often, but I think aesthetically it's super fun to watch him hit.

And this is another shout to really really understand your format. I play in a couple of funny points leagues that have really varying rules around contact skills versus power, and in a couple of my super deep like thirty team plus dynasty leagues, Nishida is never going to be interesting to me, even if he makes the BIGS and it's like a starting outfielder, I'm never going to roster him because those formats really reward power and it doesn't matter if you strike out. So my team is like every

power hitter I can get at every position. So nashidah not a fit for that roster. But I play in a couple of other points leagues where power is useful, but if it comes at that like strikeout costs hurts you a lot so guys like Ellie de la Cruz, who people put in the top five dynasty assets. He was like the twenty fifth overall rated hitter in that format last year. So like really good, but way off off of his kind of call it chalk dynasty ceiling.

And in a league like that, I'm super interested in Nishida and he's somebody that I might snag it with a late pick in our upcoming draft this offseason. You'd like this league too, Nate, because we can't do prospect pickups in season, and so you kind of have to like put your stake in the ground. We don't have many prospects slots either. I had a lot of success in that league last year, zagging when other people were zigging for like the big prospect or this particular eye.

And I ended up with a couple of guys super late in the FYPD draft that other people that overlooked because they weren't dynasty assets. But I was like, in this contact oriented format that really penalized a strikeouts. Give me the Javier Soinoyas, give me Xavier Edwards. And Edwards was a league winner. I kid you not. He was my starting shortstop through the playoffs and I won that league even though Corey Seger, my best hitter, was hurt for that whole run. And it's because of a guy

like Xavier Edwards. And now I'm not saying Riku Nishida is quite on Xavier Edwards level yet, but of anyone in the minor leagues, like, he's somebody that could put up that kind of a super contact heavy very few homers, but swipe a bunch of bags and be a pretty useful guy. So while this is a bit of a bit, I don't really think for a lot of leagues Nashida's going to hold interest. I do think that it's worth scouting for those kinds of prof files that really fit

your league well. And Nishida has one that is going to be super overlooked and you'll be able to get him. He's going to be zero percent at the end of next year. This is like a terrible B side game pick because I just no one's going to pick him up. But I'm putting a flag that this kind of profile is useful depending on your leak.

I'm gonna go with tim Alco.

handed first base profile listed at six to three. Who's a tenth round pick out Ole miss in twenty twenty two, three hundred and seventy one Double A plate appearances in twenty twenty four, and then two hundred and nineteen Triple A played appearances, which is nice, right, we get some stat cast stuff on the season. He popped eighteen home runs. I think that into year prior his home run total was higher than that, wasn't it?

it's kind of an interesting here. Like I wrote down here, Matt, when I was watching him this summer, it feels like he's a deadpool hitter in all field swing speed, Like when he does get out in front on the video, I think I have like one hundred and twelve mile per hour home run that he crushed, you know, I do. I wonder about him and how he does since velocity. I think he's late sometimes an opposite field percentage of thirty five point six percent, and I don't think all

of that is from technique or plan up there. I think he's a good enough hitter that, like I said, get to the bigs maybe five some home runs. I didn't really love a lot else in this system at this roster percentage, So yeah.

and pole. He's got the raw power for it. He's got a decent eye.

There's no surprise to anybody in the discord. But Jake miller Man good looking arm. Yeah, he's a lefty. Listed at six ' to two. He was the eighth round pick out of Vel Paraiso in twenty twenty two. Was in the AFL I don't know, twenty innings in there or something like that. So he had spent twenty twenty four kind of bouncing it around a ball and high a mostly just a ball. And then he didn't make

his double A debut. Right at the end of the year for a playoff game one in which he was very very good too, went five thought out, gave up three hits, struck out three five shout out innings, and sixty pitches on like seventy four percent strikes or something like that. But I is a fan as well, and he just shared that he had spoken with somebody who thinks that, you know, they view him as a major

league starter. You look at some of his numbers here in the season, like he only technically started three games, but he was starting to get longer innings, piggyback and that sort of thing, which might be why part of the reason at least why he's what he was zero

percent rostered in September. But on the season split between the three levels, twenty four games, eighty seven and a third innings, pitched one eight five ERA point nine to four whip a two point five six x fit, struck out hitters over thirty percent clip walked hitters five percent, threw strikes total at a sixty nine percent clip. I mean, that's some good numbers. Granted, I do think maybe, you know, the competition level is maybe a little bit below him

for you know, a lot of his innings. But talking about a guy who's got like having some pretty nasty secondaries curveball, he's got like a tighter slider, harder, a firmer, tighter slider. He's got like a slurf sweep. Change up looks really good.

I don't know, I think his a ball members you'll probably see an average velocity of like ninety two ninety three, but you can see him hit ninety four to ninety seven on the broadcast guns take that for what it's worth from time to time, So there might be a little bit more heat in there than average savant numbers might suggest if you're looking at those. I feel like Miller just kind of really came into his own this year, and it's like, I think a legit kind of dude. Now, yeah, under the radar.

I thought I liked a lot of what he did this year as somebody that might be a kind of high probability back end starter. But I really did like Gabriel Reyis the looks that I got at him, another lefty in the system.

And like we just saw Travis Acora put up an incredible run at low a, but Reys I kind of think is of that quality. You look at his approach and he's got this like really low slot slagh in lefty fastball. You know that it comes from pretty low. I don't know exactly how high or what the exact vertical approach angle is, but to me, it looks really really tough to hit, and maybe this is just overpowering the low A hitters and we want to see it

at higher levels. That pitch, just from what I saw it do that looked major league quality to me in that it's a little bit out of the ordinary from a location and velocity perspective. I've seen that the fastball up to like ninety five from that low angle with what looks like pretty decent backspin to it. That's a plus to double plus fastball in terms of its effectiveness. I think. So that's a great pitch to start from.

His slider looked murder on lefties. I wasn't as convinced about it as how it's going to play against righties, mostly due to his kind of inability to command it consistently. I thought that that kind of came and went, and

he missed a fair amount against righties with it. And maybe that led to the you know, not elevated, but a little bit higher kind of homer rate and walk rate than I would have expected just watching the shape of it, because it looks really nasty and reminds me a little bit of Brandon Garcia in that way, just like it really moves and think is pretty nasty. And then the change up showed a lot of promise. Again, it's probably a pitch he needs to work on a

bit more. I'm not sure, you know, like maybe he can learn something from Miller this offseason, much like Brent Herder two years ago or last year. I really think that if he ups that usage into like the fifteen percent range, now we're really cooking. Like that's that's a guy that can turn over the lineup a few times. I'm wondering if he leans a little bit too much on his excellent fastball and he's not developing the change up as much. And maybe they do know how to develop.

But this is the one nit that I had with Herder last year too, that kind of stuck in my mind that I wish he would have continued to throw more and more changeups and he still kept it around the same kind of ten to twelve percent range, and I'd like to see Reyes throw his change up a bit more, but Giro Reys other than that, and wanting to see him do this at a little bit higher levels.

I was really really impressed. I mean, thirty one point one percent strikeout rate, seven point two percent walk rate, like those are both really really good numbers at a

ball or low. I knew he was coming back from an injury, so that's why his inning totals were down, but he started thirteen games, so they just plug and play to him at Starter and weren't really doing this kind of gaming the system thing that they did with Jake Miller and they've done with some of their other arms, so I think they might be developing him with that Starter in mind. So I'm really excited to see Gabriel

Rayis at high next year. And I think, well, Miller is a higher probability bet and I am loving a lot about what he does. I think Rayis might even have a higher ceiling. So yeah, a lot to like about rays and he's He's firmly in my top ten B side arms too, and that's even with like Miller would be there too. But for there's a couple of these a ball arms that I've got in the back of my top ten that I really really like.

cast stuff that I saw. I was I wanted to take up argument with some of the pitch Labille, and then I broke down that there was like an eighty five mile per hour changeup that he throws left on left.

have been good to us. We keep the street going here, Gider, Montero Brand Herder, Jane Hamm. It's a good group, so Jake Miller and Gabriel Reyes's great.

are familiar or not, but I don't think I am speaking. I'd say he's a really good glove that I think could be hit enough. That was zero percent rostered. He was a seventh round pick out of Pepperdine in AY twenty three draft. He was twenty one years old, so he's pretty young young college pick for twenty twenty three. He played forty nine games at Lakeland and then eighteen in the Midwest League, so you missed some time because

of injury. Three hundred total played appearances. He hit three home runs, stole thirty three bases, was caught six times, walked almost ten percent of the time, struck out not just under twenty five percent of the time. Slug in the ISO isn't going to press you too much four or two and one twenty one Maybe kind of more of like an all fields line drive sort of hitter. But the glove, man like, I don't know, he's pretty

pretty damn good shortstop, you know. I think the bat might have been coming around a little bit when he came back from injury. From July twenty six to eight thirty five, games, one hundred and fifty plate appearances. He went three thirty one, four oh seven four ninety six, hit all three of his home runs during that time span. Just maybe, you know, an abbreviated sort of first pro season. But not a guy that I'm going to draft a

roster right now. But I gay that's kind of definitely a priority watch for me to start the year.

Carlos Mendoza. Have you seen any Mendoza doesn't mean a bell? No, Yeah, I can't really recommend him very strongly. You know, he ended the year at double a played some second base, some third base, some right field, So a little bit of utility action in there. Two sixty four, three eighty eight, three sixty three. So again, when your obp's higher than your slug he tells you a little something about the

shape of the production. You know, he hits doubles and triples, only five homers on the year, but swipe thirty three bags. So he's got some speed and some ability on the bases. This is not a guy that I'm excited about. This is like in the bottom half for sure of my b side bats. It's more like there's a utility profile here. Maybe he gets a run at some point, and again in more contact rewarding leagues, is a name to remember

if he gets gets a shot. But again, he's got some defensive utility and versatility, but it's not good enough that it's going to keep his bat in the lineup in the bigs. I don't think, and I just think that there's really limited power. He just like he has really slow hands, and I mean that in a mostly complimentary but it just means like he makes a lot of contact at the expense of some explosivity in his swing.

So Mendoza is good and sort of a fun all round player, plays the game pretty hard, but I don't see there's nothing exceptional about him in the way that there is with Nashidah and so I think it's a little bit less likely that he cements himself as a big league regular.

going with guy Lipscomb, you know, lipskimb and all. You watch any of him? Yes, yeah, So he's a was twenty three last year, made it up to double a college bat, drafted a couple of years ago out of Belmont University. Very low power plus contact plus speed. Again like rip and replace a lot of the things that

I said about Mendoza with Lipscumb. They have a lot of things in common, even down to the fact that they both I had like more triples than you would expect, almost the same number, sixteen doubles versus seventeen doubles, four homers to five homers, thirty four bags to thirty three bags.

Like on the surface, their numbers are super super similar and overall shape or production really really similar Lipskin, though I'm maybe slightly more intrigued by partly because he did that in a lot fewer play appearances, so I think there might be a little bit more juice under the hood there. And he has even slightly better contact skills, again not quite to the n Sheeta level, but a fifteen percent strikeout rate is really really good, especially in

the mid to uppers. He's a guy that I find a little more interesting from a visual scouting perspective because you look at him and he's like not small. I mean, I'm not sure he's listed at six foot maybe, but it's a pretty well built six foot yeah, six two, I mean like six two one ninety five is what fangrafts listen at and watching his games, like, I buy that he's a big athletic guy. So it's a little weird that he really isn't getting to the power there.

And I don't know if Cleveland is the right org for this, but I do think that they're there's some swing change potential here. There's while you've heard me talk about how I'm a little skeptical of guys changing their stripes, and it's pretty hard, especially coming out of college, to change who you are, to add exit velocity, to add something different about your swing, you just kind of are the guy who you are. I don't think, but.

pretty good defense. He has some nice highlights on MiLB dot com if you want to check some of them out. Some good plays. His bat a ball profile is fine at thirty five percent ground balls, forty two percent fly ball twenty three percent line drives, you know, like a fairly MLB quality battered ball profile. So I don't know.

I like Lipscum the most of this trio, even though he doesn't have the extreme contact skill of Nishida, but they're to me like there's at least some possibility that he turns into a major league quality outfielder and hitter. So lipscum. Of these three, while they're all have a lot of similarities in them, I think Lipscomb is the one that I would actually recommend you take a look at. And as far as I know, he's really traveled under the raider. I don't recall ever hearing anybody else talk

about him. Kind of my my one diamond in the ref of this this trio here, And yeah, I actually would recommend people give him give him a look again, especially in the contact type leagues, in your deeper leagues, or at least put him on a watch list, because if he comes out and has actualized some power, this is a really really good player overall, and he's still young enough that maybe we see some some of those development games happen. Guy Lipscomb, I actually think it's quite interesting here.

hoping for. I think with a lot of these this kind of this quality or caliber of player.

If I'm not mistaken, then man I turned on a first year player who got in a whopping thirteen games in a ball and I chased him wine, I'm gonna

google with Ryan Cesserini. I don't know if you were familiar. He was a Day three college fourteenth round round.

confident about either. Video wise, eyeballs just like this. I don't know if you've seen the video at all, but there is a side view of him hitting a double off the wall where you can kind of maybe get the best of his swing. But Ryan Cecerini didn't really love a lot of my other options, and I just kept one to watch him, and I'm curious to see how his twenty twenty five goes.

Justin Campbell, Ethan Hankins, Austin Peterson at four percent. And then there could you take last year Jackson Humphries did not have the year that I was hoping for. He was still at one percent a year before I went

with Aaron Davenport, who was at one percent and I thought had a great year, like really took a jump. I think, I know he's like repeating a love one whatever, but I think he just got a lot cleaner with all of it, the motion and the execution. I think he's kind of back on the map as a guy who has a shot.

Dude put up one hundred and forty two innings on the back of one hundred and seven two years ago and one hundred and fourteen last year, So that's like three hundred and sixty plus innings over the past three years. That's got to be near the top of the minor league. So the volume I really like, and he showed some of the skills that I think you were identifying out of the draft. Like it's a bit of a kitchen

sink mix. He's not a power guy. He's not None of these pitches are going to overwhelm, but it's the curve ball is good. I liked the cutter too. I thought he used it well against lefties and a change up rounded it out. Yeah, I mean it's like ninety two on the heater, and there are definitely some worts with this, Like he still probably walks a few too many, and he's done that really his whole career. You know,

his walk he did. This is his best year and it was eight point nine percent, so like step forward for him, and you know he punched out twenty three percent of batters. That's okay, but for the kind of picture he is, I'm a little worried that the walks are gonna like he needs to be even more precise with the execution and get a trim a little bit more off the walks because the striker, he's not going to keep striking guys out over twenty percent of the time.

I mean, this is a guy who's going to run like a sixteen percent walk rate or something in the bigs. I think, oh yeah, and that's what Steamer projects for him this year. So you know, I really like him. I think there's a lot about him that is an interesting kind of back end starter projection. I'm not really excited, but he also looks to me like somebody who is almost certainly going to make the majors and be a

starting picture. So that is definitely worth something in your deeper points leagues for sure.

and we I don't think maybe maybe we did talk about one, but we were like, so Miami Hurricane heavy last year.

funky lefty in Schlessinger. I feel like this is almost like a classic Guardian sort of picture in that I think there's like some I think the secondary game is really good, and maybe the hope is to help the fast ball. I think we've seen them do that with several pitchers in their history. Definitely, you know what I think the fastball is like probably was in these three outings. Probably I guess would average like eighty nine to ninety but you do see him get up to ninety three

ninety four at a time. Like I said, there's real I don't know if you're looking at the video at all, but you agree that's a funky low armslaught, right, Yeah.

a fun guy, has a good attitude. I think my hurricanes on the pitching side at least there. I don't know how true it is. I don't necessarily hold it, but a reputation of their pictures maybe not having a ton of instruction when they're in college. So let's me with some professional coaches and things the program might might do for Rafe here. I like them a decent enough amount, right, Like they are kind of different, funky lefties, so I want to Yeah, RAF's.

I really I was pretty excited about Olivar, Like, this is a one that I actually think has a pretty good shot at being consistent multi year major leaguer with it has holds fantasy appeal. I'm pretty into Olivar after diving in. I had a good year, man, you had

a really good year. Did so in a way that I find believable, right, Like twenty percent strikeout rate as a twenty two year old, ended up in double A when two seventy five three point eighty one four forty one triple slash on the year in four hundred and thirty three plate appearances, nineteen doubles, three triples, twelve homers, and tossed in a couple of bags six bags, and I don't think was caught. He's not super fast. He's played catcher and outfield. I'm not sure he's great at either.

But I think there's real thump in this bat. Like I watch him swing, and there's a couple of things about it that I don't love, Like he really clears his hips out pretty early and then has like a lot of batlag that comes with that. But he's got the contact skills to make it work. And I think he's got a pretty good eye up there at the plate. You know, he had a fourteen percent walk rate this year.

That combination means that even if like maybe because to me, that combination looks like he's selling out a little bit for some power at times. If he's if it's not coming with the strikeouts and he's making really good swing decisions, like it seems like he is. I think he's going to get to even more power than he showed this year. So are I actually think is like an underrated bat and is one that I think should be rostered in

most dynasty leagues at this point. I mean again, maybe not like your shallower leagues where you're only rostering one hundred or fifty prospects, but your deeper dynasty leagues like Olivar absolutely should be rostered. And I think is I haven't seen him get a lot of love, but I really really like him.

love Carson Benj. I think BENJ is going to be an interesting guy to watch, but like Ricardo Olivar just did what you hope BENJ does and nobody's really interested in him. And Benj is like a top twenty FYPD guy.

My Twins this year, noted in the discord, is like a fantastic Civil War era and the sure yeah, definitely led some troops over Summery River to kick some Red coats ass right, but oh wait, I guess that would be the Revolutionarya.

the season. It was thirty three point seven percent in his one hundred plate appearances at Triple A, what's seven point one percent of the time there nine percent on the season with Saint Paul, he went two eighty six, three point thirty seven, four eighty four one ninety eight. I tho, and that was on the back of a four oh seven babbit. Ground Balls are just thirty six

excuse me, thirty nine percent another time. The season fly ball rate at thirty one point six percent, so a lot of line drives, a lot of really hard line drives. Pull the ball forty four percent of the time. Swinging strike rate of fourteen point two percent. Watching some of his defense, he's a corner outfielder, but like outsair in the video, there's horrible camera work and we kind of

catch it late, unfortunately. But Rob's a home run. You know, the most guys over the wall for that one, he just had the right stand there and reach up like I like to look at the rity. He's twenty six, but I think he's got I think he's got a chance. I don't know how much, how much run he'll get or but I think we're gonna see Carson mc custer in the Bigs at some point. Twins love their home run guys.

Like that's the one thing. Watching the video and watching him a bit in Saint Paul, I thought that he did move the outfield better than I thought he was going to. So that's something. That's something as well.

Will Holland is an outfielder's drafted out of Auburn in the fifth round in twenty nineteen, so he's been kicking around the miners for a while and has been mostly not very good, like slightly below average hitter at like every level, really good defender though, played shortstop for a lot of his minor league career, and then they've recently had him playing a lot more outfield, a lot of

center fields and right field. Has an electric arm, He's really fast, plays good defense, so I think they've been trying to like, oh, is this a utility guy or whatever, and so they keep promoting him even though he isn't really hitting and isn't lighting the world on fire. And then this year swing change, almost certain of it that

he did a total swing change. He was pulling the ball, he was hitting fly balls, and he went from or three hundred and forty one played appearances in double A last year to the tune of a sixty five WRC plus. Like he was poo in Double A as a twenty five year old, right, Like, that's a nobody, that's org depth,

that's nothing, like maybe he's a defense first guy. This year they promote him and he starts the year for one hundred and forty five played appearances the one fifty seven WRC plus legit almost triples his WRC plus at a higher level. And it's totally because the battle ball profile completely changed. He stopped hitting it on the ground, he was pulling the ball. He's pulling in the air,

and good things were happening. He doesn't hit the ball super hard, he does make decent contact, made better contact this year than he had in previous years. I don't

think all of this was sustainable per se. But Will Holland really really intrigued me early this year, and I had one league where I had a couple of outfield injuries and I was like very tempted to pick him up, thinking like he might go the Deshaun Cursey route, where Cursey, also in the Twins organization, kind of floundered in the minor leagues for a long time and then finally put

it together and got some big league run. I kind of think Holland is on that same track this year, and he might have gotten some run if he hadn't gotten hurt. And they said it was like a leg injury, like a hamstring, but a really bad one because he's been out for They put him on sixty day al and he didn't play after like June something, I think. So I was super interested in Will Holland, and if he'd been healthy and kept this up all year, I'm

very sure I would have taken him over Olivar. But I had to shout him out anyway because Will will Holland was doing some really cool stuff and I love a developmental story like that where he just changed out of nowhere and might be a late blooming like actual big league outfielder, because yeah, he's he's a super good defender and athlete as well.

they might have traded somebody here or whatever. But what did you find this to be kind of a fun deciding hunting ground for arms or not so much?

I look at. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's been some others that I've been interested in in the past, like Matt Cantino I was super interested in a couple of years ago, and he just has totally flamed out and is I think toast he's a reliever only, and not even a good one at that these days. Yeah, So I wasn't overwhelmed by the options at this roster percentage level,

and the guy I picked, I'm not super into either. With Ty Langenberg. We watched Langenberg, Yeah, he was on my shortlist. My notes on him were that is a bit of a Johnny right hander to me at like really long arm action. He's pretty tall, and I think he gets down the mound okay, but it's like he just stretches his lanky arm all the way back and seems to me that impacts execution sometimes, Like he's more of a control over command guy. In my looks, I thought, if you.

a right hander. That's why I kind of say Johnny right hander to me, does a good job with hitting the zone. You know, doesn't walk a ton of guys, not a lot of free passes. You know, most of his work this year was at low A, and you know, he threw a lot of innings, but it was more good than great, and I kind of wanted to see more. I wonder if he's going to struggle a bit if he goes up the ladder, if something doesn't take a big step forward. And I didn't quite see what that

might be, like the slider. I was not overwhelmed by change up. Maybe there's something there, but I don't know. I was not overwhelmed by Langenberg, but he's my pick.

who's maybe a bit opposite there and that I think the arsenal is really exciting looking. Well, we got to clean some things up here, right, but we're only at teenager. I'm going with Adrian Bejortez. No, you're familiar. It's nineteen years old to see her. Listen. At six ' one

strong kid out of Venezuela. He pitched thirty six Complex League innings and then just sixteen third in able six games five starts on the season three twenty three ERA at one point zero nine, went four point one two x fit, struck out hitters twenty eight point three percent of the time and walked them twelve point three percent of the time, which is not great. And that what we like Mac in the arsenal man I have a pretty good straight on angel of him. I believe that's

from Lakeland basketball. That's sixth ninety three to ninety five can get up there. More than that, I really like the look of his firm eighty six to eighty seven mile for our slider thingy cutter slider thing that just seems to drop off the table. He's got a high eighties curve of ball as well. I know, the walk rate doesn't look so great and the video you can see how he's loose and stuff can get away from him,

you know at times. But like that particular outing wasn't so bad and it was what his but like his strike percent is just matt and is out in sixty seven percent, seventy two percent, sixty percent, sixty four, thirty two percent, sixty six. Right, so you've got a real inconsistent teenager here. Click on other side. I trust the Twins organization. I liked them with their pitching, and I think this is a pretty electric teenager that.

it's a repeat from last year, I'm going it looks Aronde again.

the time. You know. I like the arsenal with that splitter that he has in there, the fastball velocity, and I think just characteristics and qualities from I think what Cleig was talking about the other day, like we're all kind of ticking up and moving in the right direction. I think he's just like ready for the next challenge. You know, it maybe wasn't like a huge leap in development, but I think he did develop some this year, and zero percent rosters still, and I didn't really love a

lot of their zero to one percenters. So if he looks Aronde round two.

with mine's going to super short too. I'm going with Evan Sisk. He's a reliever. I think, no doubt big league reliever, possible high leverage guy. You know, he hasn't gotten any of the pub of like a Yoho or somebody like that, but he punched out over thirty five percent of batters at Triple A this year. His stuff isn't like leap off the page electric, but you watch him pitch and it's ridiculous crossbody, low slot, lefty angle.

I just think he's going to crush lefties in the bigs, and even righty's like it looks like he's got the stuff to get right. He's out as well. So I think, no doubt big league reliever, probable high leverage reliever, maybe a closer. If he tightens up the walks a little bit and things play like I think they're going to in the majors, roles put him on the forty, So

he's going to be in the mix next year. Again, not hard to get super excited about relievers, but I think this is a name to file away for if you're you know, streaming relievers to help your ratios or pick up holds and stuff in leagues where that mattersw Cisk is going to be one of those guys. So cisc should be on your radar.

We're gonna drop some ecstasy and get the deep house music going and pump up the lights and where we're going with John Raved? Is that m m eedm em?

to be twenty seven this coming year. He just had a really good year in Triple A for Kansas City. Twenty one homers, seventeen bags went two fifty nine, three forty six, four seventy good for a one to eleven WRC plus. Hits the ball reasonably hard. You know, It's not like elite or anything, but it's above major league average. I think he plays good defense. He's a lefty, played all three outfield spots. Looks probably most comfortable as a left fielder to me, but he has definitely played some

center and looks okay. And it just liked the kind of quality production across the board. He outproduced all of their other outfielders, you know, like Ty Gentry, Gavin Cross, Drew Waters, guys that have had much greater prospects Shine Rave outproduced all of them this year and did so pretty comfortably. So Rave is one that you know if you're relying on MJ. Melendez for a full year, or you know one of the other outfielders in Kansas City.

I think Rave might be a guy who gets a shot if one of those guys get gets injured and is down for a significant time. Nothing elite across the board. Seems like just a bunch of fifties to me, like just major league gaverage across the board. But that's a decent player. So I think he's sort of a late bloomer that has a little bit of some some speed, can play the outfield. I think he's pretty good. John Rave, all.

talked about tonight. But my royal's bad. I'm going with Spencer Nivens. What the fuck happened to Spencer Nivens this year? Dude? Holy shit, I don't know.

twenty three. Good year from Missouri State, folks. Huh Baldwin, Yeah, yeah, he spent yeah, all of this year was he was hurt a little bit at a couple of complex games, but ninety nine games in high A. All right, But dude checked this out, So Matt. From April fifth to July fifth, fifty one games, Nivens had three home runs. He was slashing one sixty one, two seventy nine, two fifty six.

there was some injury stuff. I don't know how much that played into it, but I think we're talking about a guy who learned how to hit the ball out in the front and pull it and maybe get into the air somewhere. But in twenty twenty three he pulled the ball forty one point eight percent of the time. This season he was up to fifty two point eight percent of the time. And from watching him early in the season and later, I imagine that part of that increase

was from the back half of the season. Didn't necessary really hit the ball like in the air more than than last season. I think it's just about hitting the ball out in front more and the dude's just kind of like learned how to hit some home runs now on the season. His whole line isn't like super impressive, right, Like, what the fuck was that?