Ninety five miles an hour riding two is him. He hopped down first with the lump on his face, and on the very next pitch he up and stole second face with greatst be he wasn't born, that he had a day. Yes, yes, welcome to prospect B Sides. We are getting there. This is the sixth installment of our divisional B side histories and selections for twenty twenty three. It has been a long trek through mud and griminess, but it is what it takes to find some B side gems and I commend
you. I am your host, Nate Handy be talking at you for a little while here, and as it is custom around here, we start off the show with a little Q and A. But this week I have a question for you, my lovely handy dandies. Do you believe in signs like signs from the gods, signs from the universe? Because I can't say that I ever did until last week, last Thursday night, on the eve of IL three Sport MLB DEVI Draft, whereupon you select first year players and unknowned
prospects. Mind you, it's a league that you cannot pick up prospects in season, so much juicier than leagues in which you can do such a thing. But on that eve I did something potentially reckless, and I traded four first round picks and Colson Montgomery for the first selection in the draft the following day, in which I selected Andrew Paynter, who I happen to think, or at least wonder if he is the number one prospect in baseball for fantasy
purposes. And a few hours later we got the news, which has been the news of no news at least up to me talking right now, that his elbow is injured or exploded or something wonderful. It quite fitting event in a week that was very up and down for me, both fantasy wise and personally. But needless to say, I was feeling pretty stupid and pretty down in the fantasy dumps. Now, mind you, this is a slow draft.
So the next day I declared to my league mates that I was going to make a giant Day two come back and redeem myself from a potentially horrible mistake. I likened this come back to Rocky three, whereupon a potentially cocky Rocky is defeated by clubber Lane and he works his way back, redeeming himself by defeating clubber Lane at the end of the movie. I figure a movie
from nineteen eighty two. I cannot spoil apologies if I did now. I didn't have a pick for a while, so my next turn wasn't until the evening when I was pulling into my work parking lot, put the car in park, pick up my phone to see if it is my turn yet. I'm on deck. I'm looking at some things in the draft room, and the fantrack's alarm goes off, alerting me it is my turn, and I
kid you not friends. At that precise moment, I of the motherfucking Tiger started playing on the radio, and I knew that I was back, that the fantasy gods held me in their favor. I had been converted. I am a believer of signs you shall see thy wonderful to two you shall see you a cow on the roof of gool Cotton House. The selection, if you care to know, was Sterling Thompson, so he's bound to be a
Hall of Famer. Get him everywhere to further my beliefs. A few days later, at the grocery store with my daughter, she's goofing off and knocks down some magazines off of the magazine shelf. I go to pick them up. The first magazine that I pick up is a Life magazine forty fifth anniversary of Rocky the Gods again letting me know that twenty twenty three is my year that Apollo won't know what hit him. You're gonna roll over, Ampo.
Ros The Al East holds some exciting stuff for us to talk about today, though, I think, much better than last week. So let's get into it, all right. The Boston Red Sox. Our initial selection was the Shelley V Special Shelley very Straight who wrote Pitcherless Top fifty Boston Red Sox Prospects for Fantasy back at the start of two thousand and twenty one, and she suggested Sedana Raphaela, and she sure crushed that one a year early, but
she saw the signs. It was a lot of fun before Asabase became famous. And I think this is a very typical, very typical ASA base moment around this hidden gems coming out of two thousand and twenty. Raphael didn't really do anything super remarkable in rookie ball in two eighteen and nineteen, but in two thousand nineteen he did it a three game stint in low Way, so being our two thousand and twenty one selection, he didn't really have a crazy
two thousand and twenty one in a ball. In four hundred and thirty two played appearances, he hit two fifty one three oh five on bass four twenty four slug. He did hit ten home runs and stole twenty three basses. Though, And as I was tuning in and watching a lot of Nick York at that time, I was seeing plenty of Rafaela and he fit the mold of the young, aggressive hitter that I like getting his swings in. And then of course twenty twenty two he exploded into a top one hundred prospect.
Wake up buss off Peking look good now. I know some folks have pointed out his twenty four point four percent strikeout percentage and his very aggressive, quote immature approach, and you know, whatever, that's fair. Rafaela went from a hitter who had nineteen home runs in I don't want to call them like
years or seasons because there weren't that many games. Let's call it two seasons, rookie ball and a ball to a twenty one year old who hit twenty one home runs in High A and Double A. Now, I think some of young hitters can mature and become more selective, but there are also some hitters that that's just them. Do you want them to not be that? I like to think of Tim Anderson, who's quoted as saying, no one came to the ballpark to watch me walk. And he does damage hits for
a high average. You can hit for some power hits doubles. He's a dangerous hitter. If you told Tim Anderson he needed to walk more, you would ruin Tim Anderson. Raphael is still pretty young, but is his approach immature or is that what is required for him to be as productive as he was? And I guess the beautiful thing about baseball is that we will find out if you can be Tim Anderson esque in these regards or if he's going
to have to make some changes. Now in the fantasy perspective of things, I just thought his value got a little bit more than I wanted to bet on him, So I have sold most of my shares, but I don't believe anyone who wants to stick around either his glove, I don't know. It's probably centerfield now. But he can play and has played like all over the place, could help him out tremendously getting an everyday job. Rafaela was
zero percent owned when he came onto the list Initially. Last night trecked he's on fifty percent of Fan Tracks rosters, and it turned out to be a pretty good call to keep him around on the list for two years. This will be the first season we'll have to replace him. We should probably also mention our Houston Astros twenty twenty two B side selection. That was Emmanuel Valdez, who was traded to Boston last season. Another Houston Astro's mystery to me
twenty twenty one. He led their system in home runs and still was only rostered in one percent of fan Tracks leagues. Veldez turned out to be just a little lefty home run mighty mouse. He's hit fifty three home runs over the last two seasons, and he's teetering on a big league job right now. Veldez isn't really the hitting profile that I dug, so another B side win that I have kind of flipped into other assets. Last sight trecked he
was owned in thirty three percent of leagues. Now, obviously he's graduated. So this season we're going to go a young hitter by the name of Maguel Ugueto. Two twenty two was his nineteen year old season. He's a right hand hitter six two, one hundred and eighty five pounds, currently rostered in
one percent of leagues. So two thousand nineteen international free agent from Venezuela who had a very productive two thousand and twenty one and complex ball hitting three thirty one, three seventy five, twenty eight and one hundred and thirty five played appearances. Two twenty two was obviously the first time I got to see him, but it was very brief. He started off the season as Salem's two whole hitter, but he got just twenty two games in as he had an
abductor injury and an illness that cut his season short. So another very small sample selection here, but I was intrigued. I think there's a good looking stroke with perhaps some budding pop to all fields. He had an eight point six percent swinging strike right in the very small sample. He was off to a three nineteen start with a seventeen and a half k percent. I think he's definitely a corner outfield tie. I don't think he's very fleet of foot.
I might have even read a coach saying that about him. So maybe a corner outfield DH type as he gets older. Fact, why do you take a laugh, Go run a lap. I'm timing you pick it up faster. You know, he's very young nineteen. Didn't seem to me to have the greatest pitch recognition at times, but yet he was pretty athletic enough to produce good results with mid pitch adjustments, reaching, getting off balance and that sort of thing. But I felt like Ugueto was really intriguing selection here.
I imagine he'll probably start off an a ball again. He'll be twenty years old, plenty young for that level, and I'm curious to see just how good that bat is, and a young red sock hitter producing in the minor leagues could definitely grab some fantasy attention. A red sock pitcher selection is Juan Daniel and Canar Sion, who in November when I put the list together, was owned in two per percent of leagues, but as more leagues have
come about and such, he's now back down to zero percent. Obviously not a true zero, but not enough to be one percent. He will be twenty two years old this season. He's a right hand pitcher listed at six two, one hundred and seventy five pounds. He's a twenty eighteen international free agent out of the Dominican He spent the large majority of his season in A ball, but did get a stint of High A at the end. Over one hundred and thirteen total innings pitched, only ten of those were in High
A. Two High A starts. He had a four point zero five er, a A one point two seven one whip and one hundred and twenty nine strikeouts to just forty two walks. Found it interesting that Knarcion only gave up four home runs on the whole season, one in his first start, one in his second start, one in the middle of the season, and then one in his first High A start. Now it is interesting to me because he's kind of a flyball pitcher, creeping up too close to forty percent fly
balls. He's a lead pitcher. There's definite only room on the frame to grow. I don't necessarily know if it will. He's not like Tristan McKenzie, skinny, but that kind of lean. The fastball velocity I believe is about ninety to ninety four and can pick up a smidge. He's got a sweeper and a changeup. Per his high a pitching coach, the changeup is the better of his secondaries in my views. His slider looks a little inconsistent in shape, yet I kind of felt he seemed to execute or command it
better than the changeup. He has a lower arm slot and man's He pitches with a little piss in vinegar, and I like that a lot. There's some really interesting ingredients here. You gotta eat a cake that sounds good, it's not. You have to eat the ingredients of a cake. And I did throw a tweet out there of his I believe it was his seven strikeouts, his last outing of the season. I don't know. The info is up there. And now that little highlight reel, like most of them,
makes the player look pretty damn good. But I think you could see some of the exciting potential with him, twenty one year old, commanding his secondaries fairly well. Looks to have some life on that fastball. Definitely curious about Juan Daniel Incarnacion. Going to ask some questions about him and keep an eye on him, all right. The Baltimore Orioles. You know that team Mecho's five hundred and everyone thinks is amazing. I'm just plained they should be better.
Let's just hope they don't go the route of perhaps the way my White Sox are going these days. But AnyWho, Our initial selection back in twenty twenty one was Elio Prato, who was another one of these powers, speed potential, sort of blind dart throws after a twenty nineteen that saw him go three hundred four h three with a three ninety six slug a sub fourteen percent k rate, three home runs, twelve stolen bases in two hundred and sixty
one played appearances. Pratto plays all over the outfield. I think he was and is currently owned in one percent of leagues believe this will be his twenty one year old season. He's right handed, listed at six foot one hundred and sixty. I think he's a little bigger than that. Twenty twenty two he played a ball. He's another young Venezuela. We've got lots of those. Prado is another hitter we just haven't seen much of. He did not play in two twenty two because of injury, so we moved on from our
list, But I'm not completely moving on from Prado here. But we didn't get much from him this season either. We got like sixty six games, so roughly half a season. He didn't get back until May from whatever injury it was that he was out the year prior, and then he spent even more time on the aisout later. He hit only one ninety seven three thirty five and sled two fifty two with a home run. And I do have to say, though the home run was a pretty well struck Appo Taco.
Strikeouts weren't too horrible twenty two point two percent. He stole three bases. But I'm not writing this kid off completely yet. There might be a nice combination of power and hit here. He just needs some time. Thirty eight percent of his badded balls went opposite field, thirty five percent we're pulled. Groundball rate was a little heavy. He's strong with I think some pretty good
looking technique up there. Obviously, he wasn't lighting the world on fire by any means, but was producing at a higher clip and just tailed off at the end there. I mean, we're talking about sixty six games in three years. But regardless, we had moved off him and put Daryl Hernaz on the list. Entering last season, we talked about him during the Oakland A's episode, well the al West episode. So this season, I'm gonna go
with some beef, some young beef. Hi Creed Willems, who is a catcher slash DH nineteen years old left handed hitter listed at six foot two twenty five. I think the beginning of the season I would have taken the over. I think end of the season, maybe that's right. He was owned
in one percent of leagues in November, zero percent. Currently he's a twenty twenty one eighth round pick Texas prep out of Odessa Exist, I believe, and the Orioles paid him one million dollars, which may sound kind of crazy, but I think you can maybe see why. It is a very quiet, compact, powerful swing. I mean, don't get too specific here, but I mean, are we talking like a Vogelbach junior here? Now?
On the season, he only hit one ninety two sixty four three twenty one with four home runs and a twenty seven point six K percentage in two hundred and forty six played appearances, which was about sixty eight games. He spent some time in the aisle, but when he came back at the end of July. From there on out he hit two seventy six with a three twenty
nine on base percentage and slupt four eighty seven with two home runs. I know one of those was a walk off, so I understand this is a iffy fantasy profile, whereupon, if things even go amazingly, well may not be too valuable of a player. But Williams is a fun guy to watch, and he evidently has a million dollars wing our Orioles pitching selection this season
is Juan de los Santos. This will be his twenty year old season, so he's pitching as a teenager last year in a ball He's a righty listed at sixty three two hundred and fifty pounds, and that sounds about right to me. But I mean, who doesn't like a fat pitcher, big sexy bartolo fat lance. I would say De los Santos might look a little bit like a young Michael Pineda. Boty Wise, so a future fat grade it's got to be seventy eighty at least, currently owned in zero percent of leagues.
He was a twenty nineteen international free agent out of the Dominican dal Santos got off to an extremely productive start of twenty twenty two. I reviewed him back in May for a Prospect Pitcher listing review. We're talking a young, raw power arm with two fastballs and a breaker showing potential. I didn't see a change up during my early reviews, but there was one showing up at the end of the year versus lefties, which might be a huge ticket for
Santos, who needs to combat lefties who hit well. The changeup looks to have a long ways to go. Execution as a whole is not where it needs to be, which has probably landed him a relief pitcher outcome tab. But I think it's far too soon to be talking about a nineteen year old and full season ball as having only relief pitcher outcomes. I mean, if that's the case, half the teenagers drafted in the first round are future relievers.
On the season in a ball he pitched seventy nine and two thirds innings with a four twenty nine ERA, a one point four something whip and eighty four k's with a four point seven walk per nine rate, but down the stretch unsure if it was inning management or not the outings did shorten, but over his last twenty five and two thirds innings, which was nine outings, he had a three sixteen ra, a one point three five whip, twenty
two strikeouts to fourteen walks, while I believe he was incorporating a new pitch or using it a bit more often. So this year our Oriole selections are both a little beefy and all about power. I think I failed to mention Dlo Santos's fastball gets up to I think ninety eight roughly. I know the Orioles are a truck full of a lot of young talents, but both of these selections are far from even being part of any sort of conversation about the
big leagues yet. But I think there's some exciting skill here to watch, all right. The Toronto Blue Jays are the Great White North aka Canadian Corner. How's it going? A Bob m Kansas pen brother Doug. Admittedly a tough organization to go b siding. Well, it got easier this year as Vancouver, their high A affiliate, started broadcasting, But prior to that, the Low Miners were really tough for a guy like me just watching TV. As we know their low way affiliate played in the league. We're only one
team broadcast that was Bradenton up until last season. Vancouver played in the Northwest League. That league got nice this year because two other teams started broadcasting. Blue Jays are also interesting because they will more so the most organizations I think. I want to say the Mariners do this little bit that I've noticed anyways, but they'll like to send a young guy up, a teenager to an upper level for a little brief stint and then bring him back down to rookie
ball. Now, I know that can happen and just be fill in stuff, but I think there's several options, several ways that a organization could fill in for a roster that was a little short for a small time. But it really seemed to like to send up some teenagers. Our initial selection was Leonardo Yemanez, who I think just goes by Leo Yemenez. Now, he's a middle infielder and someone who was added to the forty man roster after the twenty twenty one season, so I think that's a b side success. But
he's starting to fall out of dynasty owner's favor a little bit. I see his roster percentage on fantracks has been as high as eight percent and is now down to five percent last Sight tracked. Anyways, but I guess that makes sense a little bit. He'll be turning twenty two this season. He's a right hand hitter, listed at six foot two hundred pounds or one hundred and
ninety five pounds. He played high last season. He was a two thousand and seventeen international free agent out of Panama, signed for eight hundred and twenty five K, which I think might have been the blue Jays highest signing that year. Don't quote me on that, but one of their higher ones at the very least. Now, his twenty twenty one was cut to just fifty four games in a ball due to an injury, but he hit three fifteen with a five seventeen on base percentage, which, like I said, led
to the Blue Jays adding him to the forty man. You know, Injury just a very common theme in our B siding endeavors, which makes a lot of sense, right, Guys who get hurt might go under the radar. But yeah, two twenty two was also cut short, only sixty nine high A games, nice where he hit two thirty three forty on base percentage and slugged three eighty five. But here's an interesting part to me is he hit
six home runs. He had only hit one pro home run previously his whole career, not like whole career is super long, but he was tabbed early as a soft, hitty, high contact, high on base guy. Jemones is a strong looking player, and I think he just might be proving those thirty power grades wrong. But it'd be nice to see him actually play it for more than a few months at a time. Yemenes has been getting into some Major league spring training games the last couple of weeks and getting on base
at a high percentage. Shocking, But if Humanez is going to be hitting some home runs, see him again regaining his spot in the Blue Jay's top ten prospect list. He has a reputation of being a good defender and can play you know, middle infield, but could probably play all over the place, so perhaps twenty twenty three it's a little bit of a Leo Yumanez renaissance.
Regardless, we had to move on because he was owned too much entering last season, and I went with another very small sample look as he was playing in High A which wasn't broadcast very much at all, and that was Sebastian Espino, who's a corner outfield type. I think he played a little bit of corner infield spots too. Some say he has the best outfield arm in the system, currently owned in zero percent of leagues. He'll turn twenty three this season. He's a right hand hitter, listed at six two,
one hundred and eighty pounds. He's strong, though I might have to take to over. He played Double A this season and statistically it wasn't super great. But Espinho is not without a little bit of I don't know if it's
buzz pedigree from you know, pre end of the world. He was initially signed with the Mets in twenty sixteen out of the Dominican and despite a little bit of buzz about a potential, you know, real powerful bat, he didn't really produce too much for several rookie league seasons and the Mets let him go. The Blue Jays picked him up prior to two twenty one, and he had some pretty impressive production in sixty games at HIGHA as a twenty one
year old. He had two ninety five three fifty eight with a five eleven slug eight home runs, so that was my draw. But then twenty twenty two we saw a twenty seven point four k percentage from the year prior blow up to forty three point seven seven percent. The goddamn plane has cleft. His three hundred and eighty Double A plate appearances, he hit one eighty one, two thirty four, three sixty four, but he did hit fourteen home runs and last I checked these one for five in spring training and hit a
home run off of a Mark Appel sinker. He's interesting that. Now he didn't hit either well this last season, obviously, but he's always been a righty who has hit right He is better than lefties both average wise and long
ball wise. Now, obviously we're not going to have very much interest, and a guy who's striking out forty some percent of the time, but he was twenty two years old in Double A, hasn't had a huge amount of plate appearances since the end of the world is getting some major league run in spring training. Does have some exciting potential defensively, so I'm not completely writing Sebastian espino off. I think there's a powerful swing in there that you don't
write off too quickly. But that being said, I did move on to a new selection this season. And now bear with me a little bit, because this is more for fun or at least it just has my curiosity than any sort of hey, you need to pay attention to this guy for fantasy reasons. But I went with Robert Robert Tisse, who was owned in one percent of leagues. This will be his twenty year old season. Left handed hitter listed at five eleven, one hundred and eighty eight pounds. He played
rookie A and double A ball last season. But we'll get into it. It was a little screwy. He was a twenty nineteen international free agent out of Venezuela. Like we had mentioned earlier, the Blue Jays like to send some teenagers up to a level for a brief spell, and that's exactly where I saw Robert Robertise. A little shout out to Jeff Ponce, who I believe it was watching his double A debut or those first couple of games, and we were having some fun talking about Robert Robertise. At least on my
end, I was like, who is this guy? So now, last season twenty twenty two played complex ball then he got a brief five game stint in low A. None of those games were broadcast. He went back down to Complex and then he played the last five Double A games for New Hampshire, whereupon he took mick Abel yard in his second at bat and an outing. Mick Abel was pitching very well. He also doubled later in that game. Then he hit a three run home run. His second game added a
few singles. His third game went like O for six. The last two games he had a twenty percent k rate and complex ball. Then he had one strikeout in all five of his Double A games. Really hard to get a good sense of a hitter with no reports and only five games to watch. The technique at to play it leaves me many questions. Doesn't seem like the most compact motion and I'm not real soul that like energy gets transferred real well. But a fun guy for us to keep tabs on early in the
season. And I don't know, I didn't really have many other blue Jay ideas this go round. Maybe we'll get better with more to watch in the lowers and our blue Jay's pitching selection was a little tricky to find. There's a lot of good blue Jay pitchers, a lot of popular blue Jay pitchers, but we're gonna keep tabs on Michael Dominguez, who has currently owned in zero percent of leagues. Twenty two year old, righty, shorter guy five
ten but one hundred and seventy five pounds. He's he's a very solid, very stable looking five to ten. He was a twenty nineteen fifteenth round pick out of Florida, a prep selection. Twenty twenty two, he pitched eighty and two thirds innings between a ball and HIGHA. He had one hundred and four strikeouts with a five point zero two r a, a one point four one three whip, a decent three point four to six walks per nine.
But as I say, it's not how you start, it's how you finish, and Michael Dominguez had a pretty dang good finish to the season after promotion. His last three starts, which included two of the best lineups he probably faced all year in Spokane and Eugene, he went fifteen and two thirds innings with twenty three strikeouts and three walk It's giving up only ten hits and four
earned runs. He set a career best in strikeouts. His last outing of the season when he struck out nine of Eugene's hitters, minding Eugene was the best offense in that league. He ended up winning the Northwest League's Pitcher of the Week and clinched them a playoff. Berth that outing he's a four seams slider change guy. Not sure which pitch is really his best fastball sits like ninety three ninety four, and it's a fastball that gets a lot of swing
a miss up in the zone. Perusing some semi public savant stuff, he maybe was upping the slider usage more down the stretch. Perhaps that pitch had something to do with his more successful finish. Regardless of righty, I want to check in on early in the season and see if the trajectory is holding. The Blue Jays have been, I think, doing some interesting things with pitchers and it surely had some arms just take big jumps over an offseason.
Obviously not betting that Michael Demanez will be that, but let's just see what he's all about this season. The evil, evil empire that has been basically ruled over nothing or maybe one season over like the last twenty years. Alex, that's for you. Obviously a very storied franchise. They just haven't quite been dominant like that of late. Definitely not as dominant as Matt Vogel's Pom Last Night, Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him. You know, one
thing I don't hear folks mentioned often. Maybe it's changed a little bit now, but the Yankees system, I mean, definitely in twenty twenty one, across like all levels, was just much much older than the other teams. I don't know. I just found that a little interesting. In our twenty twenty one selection was a little bit of an older hitter, especially for his
level. That was Jacob Sanford, who we don't have to worry about in a fantasy sense anymore, but maybe if you have some like sporting equipment or something, lock it up. Evidently he was like stealing stuff from teammates and selling it or something. I don't know the Yankees really he's gone poor one out on that fantasy dream. But going into twenty twenty two, I think we did well. We went with Andres Traparo, who is making noise this
spring. I was just quite surprised that he was rostered in only two percent of leagues going into last season, and that was after an AFL appearance where he had some success and I know turned some heads with some ex of velocities and giant bombs. On Dress Severe's podcast last year, I had likened him to perhaps like a little Erman Mercedes type of hitter. I don't think it's too horrible. I'm a friend of Sierra Kano. I had also wondered if
Treparrow would get added to the forty man this last offseason. He wasn't, but he also wasn't taken in the Rule five draft. But this is a very powerful hitter, tremendous pool side power. But I mean saying that he could hit some some long Jack's opposite field too. But he's a pole hitter fifty two point five percent. Today, I think he hit his third in spring training home run of the year. He and j Tomnez went back to back double A last season. He struck out like sub twenty percent. Swinging
strike raid is like twelve percent. He hit two ninety six with a three seventy on base and select five ninety two. But now the Yankees are tricky to me. Their system isn't short, untalented, and you know fantasy dynasty excitement, but it sure can be a tough rotation or lineup to crack. I see Treparo's roster raid is up to fifteen percent. I don't know.
I've used him as a trade chip of late, not because I don't think there's major league potential, but he needs to trade to a different organization for me to get excited, Like, do we really think Treparo is going to crack the Yankees lineup? I mean, maybe should have seemed like the Yankees might be lacking in offense more so than perhaps ever in recent memory. Maybe I shouldn't have traded him. AnyWho, this season, we're gonna go with Taylor Aguar, who I first knew of as a prep in my home state,
Colorado. I believe his class he will was the top ranked or second ranked player in the state who ended up going and playing playing college ball a Grand Canyon. He was the first year player this season. Drafted last draft in the fifteenth round, signed for one hundred and twenty five K. Listed at six foot two hundred and five. He's a strong guy, strong left handed bat. He'll be twenty two this season. He's from Greeley, Colorado,
which doesn't smell the greatest, but Aguar doesn't stink up baseball. He got in twenty eight games this last year, hit three home runs, and he had a game spring training night game, maybe the only game on where he showed a little bit of what he could do. Believe he hit like a big RBI double and then he threw a guy out from right field at home plate with a just fantastic throw. But I don't know. His college
career was I think fairly middling. Not that I'm like followed Grand Canyon, but his name has been a guy that I was keeping semi tabs on. But then I think his senior year he really kind of took off. He had twenty three home runs, slugged over seven hundred with a sub nineteen in K percentage. Like I said, strong cannon of an arm doing some things in Major league spring training games. Yankees prospects are quite popular, but I
think Aguar is a college bat with some exciting elements. I think he could very much hang with some upper level competition. We'll see how far he goes this year. Then a Yankees pitching selection is Joe Sway panaqull p A n A c u A L. He is a twenty one year old Venezuelan right hander. Not very tall in stature five ten, listed at one hundred and
fifty eight pounds, but he has long arms. He's currently owned in zero percent of leagues, and when I reviewed him for Prospect Pitcher List and Review in June, he was not rostered by anyone because he had not been created in fan tracks yet. Split Time between a Ball and High a a twenty eighteen international free agent. I recently tweeted out his strikeouts from his June eleventh outing, which was the best game of his life, and I just happened
to watch it, and I got a little excited at the time. But watch that video, Watch that little thirty second video and tell me that isn't interesting to you. We're talking about a guy throwing just Frisbees and some hard frisbees and some soft Frisbees and was just painting the edges that whole outing. It's a very lively looking sinker change of slider combo. And we know the Yankees can coach some stink, I mean, up and down that organization.
They just seemed to have a little extra gear going on with some of their spin. But I reviewed a few more panic Wells outings and the execution never got nearly as fantastic as it was that outing in June. But the encouraging part is I still think, you know it's hard on video, but I still think the offerings held up still looked pretty nasty, And you know, that might be part of the problem as well, part of the difficulty of
executing and commanding, especially for a twenty year old. But over his seven low A starts, which was twenty nine and a third innings, he struck out thirty seven while walking fourteen. Now, his walk rate has never been very stellar. Through his young career. He had a three point three eight low A RAA with a one point two six whip, and then over thirteen high A starts sixty one and a third innings, the era jumped to four point ninety nine, a one point six six whip, forty one k's and
a whopping thirty four walks. The world is a nightmare. I do think there is some exciting strikeout paired with groundball rate potential here. The groundball rate on the season was sixty percent. That great outing, I don't think anybody hit the ball in the air. He didn't give up a home run until his last start in June. Now when he got to high A. He
ended up giving up four home runs on his last five outings. I believe the sinker gets up to about ninety four, I think, but it's lively and in terms of just execution, panak Well is interesting difference between his best outing of the season June eleventh, where he went seven innings, gave up six hits, no runs, no walks, nine strikeouts versus Jersey Shore, and probably his worst outing of the year beginning of August versus Jersey Shore,
where he went three innings, gave up nine hits, six earned runs, two walks, and three strikeouts two home runs. All of his offerings seemed quite similar, but the execution of the pitches were miles apart. I don't know. To me, that's how big of a difference. Putting the ball where you want to makes so Jassuay panic wall not without potential, not necessarily my type of guy. I'd prefer much better execution. But if that starts to tighten up, I mean, he's still very young, things could get
interesting. But like I mean, the Yankees have a lot of these guys that are interesting but kind of gets stuck. We'd love to see Randy Vasquez well, I mean, he made the forty man now, but it's just a tough rotation to crack. Maybe Clark Schmidt is finally cracking it this year. I don't know, but regardless, I think dress Way Panakwall is a
fantastic B side pitching arm to watch in twenty twenty three. All Right, the Tampa Bay Rays a system often given a lot of praise, and you can't deny they have created some good baseball teams, But I'm not so sold
that they are a great system for us dynasty owners. I think they do a fantastic job of I don't know, manufacturing some kind of plastic pieces, good parts, players with good parts, But on both sides of the ball, they just don't really strike me as chuck full of the kind of prospects I want to highly invest in players that seem to be quite functional in spurts, But I don't know. We'll get to more of that a little later, perhaps, But I do think it's been a decent place for us to
go B siding. I think we've had some success. Our original selection was a Sleivis Basabe, who is now on their forty man roster and rostered in thirteen percent of fan tracks leagues. Twenty two year old right hander six one, one hundred and eighty eight pounds. He split last season between HIGHA and Double A. Yet again another Venezuelan who was signed in twenty seventeen by the
Rangers. Actually, it's funny how baseball can work sometimes. He and Herroberto Hernandez were the gets for the Rays when they traded the Rangers Nate Low and for most it was Hernandez who seemed to be the biggest get there. But it's turning out that Bessave might be the better prospect. Besave graduated off the list after the first season. This past year, he played fifty five High A games and then fifty seven Double A games, where he arguably was better.
In Double A. I think he was better on the season. He hit three twenty four with a three eighty six on base percentage and select four sixty three with four home runs and twenty one stolen bases. In HIGHA he struck out fourteen point four percent of the time, and then in Double A that dropped under ten percent six point nine percent swinging strike rate. I watched
a decent amount of Montgomery this past season. And now, granted, these four guys weren't all on the team at the same time, but I think they all took turns looking like Montgomery's best hitter, Curtis Mead, Brett Wisely,
Besave, and Kyle Menzardo. Psave's turn was in August, where over his one hundred played appearances he hit four twenty five with a four seventy five on base percentage and slug five ninety eight, and at five ninety eight slug was without any home runs, hit a lot of doubles, hit a lot of triples, twelve extra base hits, and stole seven basses that month. Boy. Now, of course, it might be hard to see where Bessave might fit in with the big league club, but the Rays weren't without some
pretty good options. They had a forty man crunch, as they usually do. Menzardo didn't have to be added, yet Mead made it, Besab made it, while they chose to trade Brett Wisely, who was our twenty twenty two selection and was traded to San Francisco this offseason, and I know we spoke about him already and all West episode, but Wisely not having a bad
spring training whatsoever. And some of the things Gabe Kapler is saying about him is his pretty complimentary and wisely just might be pushing for a spot on the twenty six man. I thought it was interesting that Kapler said they view him as a shortstop. First, he did not play very much shortstop because of Pisab in Montgomery and some others Besabe most lead well beside they played like twice as much third base as shortstop. But now Besabe like home runs not really
you know his game. And to circle back to Rafaela, you know, talking about his approach being quote immature, it's interesting to me when we think about hitters like so, fantasy owners might want Raphaela to be more mature at the plate, But then does that mean that he is putting up stat lines like Pisab And then Dynasty owners will be like, oh, that's not a very exciting profile. I want more home runs. Well, then maybe it
needs to look like a more aggressive hitter. So I don't know, maybe that's an interesting thought or not, but something I think about when thinking about raphael and save Yeahsab's restaurant thirteen percent of leagues right now. Wisely, I think is up to nine now has jumped a couple percentage points. He was at three percent in November. For regardless, I think we were two for two on our rays so far, but now I'm probably not quite as confident
in our selection for this season. Another very small sample sized selection, but we're going to keep our eyes on Edwin Barragan b A R R A G A N who played second base and third base, currently owned in zero percent of leagues. He's a smaller right hander five to seven, one fifty eight list of that, but I don't know about that. He seems a little bit, maybe not taller, but he seemed strong. Another young friend is
Way signed in the twenty nineteen period. Began had a nice looking DSL line from a contact standpoint, but slugt only three sixty eight with two home runs. But then this year, at eighteen years old, his first official Stateside at bat, he hit a home run. And I don't know, this isn't scientific by any means, but hitters who hit a home run during a debut, I don't know. There's just there's something special to me about that.
I'm sure there's plenty of hitters who have hit home runs during debuts that did not amount to great fantasy success. But like he and Robertise, I don't know, it makes me want to pay more attention, at least for a little while now. That home run was the only home run of Berrigan's season, but he only had ninety three at bats between A Ball and rookie His A ball stint was only thirty five played appearances before going back to rookie ball. But again, at eighteen years old, he was It wasn't like
a demotion because of lack of production. He was more than holding his own. He only had like a seven point four percent swinging strike rate, but the problem was over seventy percent of his batted balls were groundballs. He went back down for seventy seven complex plate appearances and the groundball rate dropped to fifty six point four percent. Well, the swinging strike rate dropped to seventeen percent.
Again, these are really small, you know, samples, But it was the quiet in his swing at the plate, seemingly advanced zone awareness and pitch recognition that got my attention. I mean, just don't see a lot of eighteen year olds with that kind of control at the plate in full season ball. I don't think Berrigan is like a burner or extremely fast or anything like that. But ultimately he got my attention. The feel at the plate,
I just got like right handed pinango vibes from him. I think the foundation of being you know, a solid, real legit hitter doesn't strike out a town, makes a lot of contact. Now, again, not going to know how powerful he might be, and obviously you don't want him to hit seventy percent ground balls, but this was a teenager getting his first taste. So I'm very intrigued to see if Bergen gets a whole season in at a ball this year at nineteen years old, what that just might look like.
And then our Rays pitching selection raise prospect pitching so much love, but as a whole, I'm really not a Giant fan at at all. Disputing that they develop and do what they need to do and get results at the major league level. I'm just again saying for fantasy purposes, not really my cup of tea, as a lot of their arms just seemed to lack diversity, or maybe a better way to say it is potential for multiple ways of attacking hitters, which I feel like is a characteristic for our selection. Ben
Peoples, who is currently owned in one percent of leagues. It's a twenty one year old right hander listed at six one hundred and seventy five pounds. He was drafted in the twenty second round of the twenty nineteen draft. He was a Tennessee high schooler assigned for three hundred and forty seven K. I don't recall where People's was committed to, but obviously they signed him away. Saved up a little bit of money in that draft to sign him away.
He spent last season in A ball and High over ninety four innings, ten of which were in High A, so he had two starts in High A at the end, and both of those outings were pretty productive, pretty good. But on the season, he had a three point zero six ERA, a one point two two whip, one hundred and twenty one strikeouts, made four point zero two walks per nine, but he did cut the walks down significantly down the stretch. His fastball is another one that plays really well up
in the zone. It's I don't know, invisiball esque or you know, I'm sure it's release point and in vertical break and all that jazz. It also looks to me sometimes like maybe it has Ashcraft esque cut to it. So I don't know, something like between a Tommy Romero and Ashcraft fastball, lots of bats swinging underneath it, and then there's and then off of that, he likes to play a breaking ball that looks like it gets some good lay. I don't know, two to seven o'clock break or something like that,
or two to eight o'clock. I guess it's how a clock works. There was a changeup that was spotted a few times but looks pretty unremarkable to me, interesting or maybe not, but left he's struggled versus him more than right, he's obviously those were some pretty good numbers on the season, barely over three r a, one point two two whip, one hundred and twenty
one strikeouts in ninety four innings. And that's the kind of thing that we'll get Dynasty owners attention, I mean, especially if he's producing at that level, you know, in double A at some point. And I kind of feel like maybe his attack quality of those two pitches, I mean, we've seen this act before in this system, and so for that reason, I think he's a fantastic B side. Now me personally it's just not really the
profile that I want to get excited about for fantasy purposes. Will it work well for the Rays potentially, but I don't think it works really well for me finding a starter in my dynasty league. But we'll see. Pitching can change quite quickly, and you know, maybe People's adds another offering or two, or adds more velocity, something that perhaps makes him a little bit more
excited, you know, twenty one years old, still quite young. I like the chances of him becoming more popular with dynasty owners, but not nearly as confident. He truly becomes more intriguing to me. All right, Episode seven and the last of the what would you call it? What's two trilogies? Trilogy squared? And I don't know, no, that would be like nine. Regardless, if you have made it through these six divisional episodes and the origin story, you, my friend, have earned your dirty muddy b
side stripes. I commend you crack a beer celebrate. We have discussed about one hundred and twenty players over these last six episodes. A few maybe household names now, most of them very much nat but a few of them very well could be relatively soon One that's getting more popular right now. This ring training who we spoke about in the AO Central episode is is Andre Elpsius.
Yesterday he hit his third home run of the spring training. It might be a guy very much pushing for a twenty six months, but three home runs. Man, he hit. I mean, as we discussed, he hit twelve last year and twelve the year before. Who knows spring training whatever, I don't even I didn't even look to see what the pitchers were location anything like that. But maybe they were just some meatballs. But you know,
you gotta hit the meat balls. But mind you, this is a hitter who was owned in what just last month in November four percent of leagues. He's up to six percent. Now. I've been keeping tabs on Jeremy Reeves, Young Jeremy Reeves or the Cardinals who we spoke about, and wouldn't you know it, today, bottom of the eighth, they're down a run, two outs. I believe he had two strikes on him, maybe it was two one, but he laced a two run single to center field line drive.
Shocking, right, But I think he's something like three for six in his you know, some late inning action. But fun to see him getting in there. But I'm just excited. I'm excited to start talking about some new news instead of all this old news that we've been going through. Next week, I will have a guest, Jeff Pons of Baseball America, going to hop On. I'm looking forward to that conversation. I have a lot of things that I want to talk to him about. We'll talk about some
B sides. We're gonna talk about some other stuff too. Hopefully I don't jinx it. We're both pretty busy, but I'll just make it right by saying I won't put an episode out until Jeff and I talk till then. I'll be watching some spring training, some World Baseball Classic. But I saw Jordan that Diaz hit a home run today while playing with the Columbia team exhibition game. Aren't they all exhibition games? Though? But I appreciate you all
trudging along with me here. Let Chicago farmer do his thing. Be well, Jeff, and I will touch you on Monday first, and now on the very next pitch, he up and stoves sack in face with greatest speak. He wasn't born, but he had a daddy as uniform