Speaker 1: But I think you look at a guy that has,
Speaker 1: you know, excellent bats of ball skills, really good on
Speaker 1: base ability, works at bats, is really cerebral about his
Speaker 1: at bats, and.
Speaker 2: He probably has more power than Breckman does.
Speaker 1: Time to at the Saint Louis Cardinals top prospect. This
Speaker 1: is your BA prospect profile. The name is JJ Weatherhilt.
Speaker 1: It's Scott bron with JJ Cooper and Jeff Pond's from
Speaker 1: Baseball America. But Jeff, you start by telling us about
Speaker 1: the JJ that the Saint Louis Cardinals have and felt
Speaker 1: very fortunate to pick.
Speaker 2: In last year's draft.
Speaker 1: Some thought he could go number one overall and the
Speaker 1: Cardinals were like, whoa, We're at seven and we land
Speaker 1: this guy. Yeah, this was one of those kind of
Speaker 1: all time draft slides. I think, I mean, we'll see
Speaker 1: if the proof is in the pudding here, but this
Speaker 1: is almost like a guy that could have gone number
Speaker 1: one in the NFL Draft. But think about like Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers sitting in that room forever in that draft and
Speaker 1: Smith going on and then him dropping drop and dropping
Speaker 1: down the board. It kind of almost felt like that
Speaker 1: with Weatherhole. We had heard us prior to the draft
Speaker 1: as early as that morning that the pick could be
Speaker 1: weather Halt instead of set of Bazaga at one. I
Speaker 1: think you kind of look at some of the Guardian's
Speaker 1: tastes and weather Hal fits that, and what do I
Speaker 1: mean by that? Weather Halt has a great combination of skills.
Speaker 1: He's an outlier sort of bat to ball guy, has
Speaker 1: excellent approach, and there's some impact there as well. But
Speaker 1: this is a guy that you know, was the the
Speaker 1: batting champ of Division I baseball as a sophomore, dealt
Speaker 1: with some injuries as a junior. But I think we're
Speaker 1: going to really see weather Halt and sort of all
Speaker 1: of his glory again in twenty twenty five. This is
Speaker 1: a guy that was getting consistent fifty five to sixty
Speaker 1: run times from scouts across the industry. And I kind
Speaker 1: of circled back and pulled some guys that had seen
Speaker 1: him in the summer and sort of late fall and said,
Speaker 1: is he running better now? What's going on? And the
Speaker 1: run times were back up, which was great to see.
Speaker 1: But I think you look at the all around player here.
Speaker 1: It's somebody who could maybe profile at shortstop or multiple
Speaker 1: spots in the infield. Maybe isn't a shortstop long term,
Speaker 1: has the tools to profile at third base or at
Speaker 1: second base, certainly has the bat to fill in at
Speaker 1: third base, and the comp that I typically put on
Speaker 1: him is very similar to Alex Bregman in terms of
Speaker 1: the player. They're a different mentality, but I think you
Speaker 1: look at a guy that has, you know, excellent bats
Speaker 1: of ball skills, really good on base ability, works at bats,
Speaker 1: is really cerebral about is at bats, and he probably
Speaker 1: has more power than Bregman does, but maybe not as
Speaker 1: clean of barrels as Bregnant catches, which is kind of
Speaker 1: his superpower. But it's a similar type of player, and
Speaker 1: I think could maybe in the end, we could be
Speaker 1: looking back in five or six years and say this
Speaker 1: is the best hitter that got drafted this year.
Speaker 3: I think the other similarity you can pull here is
Speaker 3: when Alex Bregman was drafted is like, well where is
Speaker 3: he going to play? And in his case, it was like, well,
Speaker 3: you're not going to move Carl's career off a shortstop.
Speaker 3: I think the kind of the same thing applies here.
Speaker 3: Weatherholt should move really quickly. He's not going to move
Speaker 3: Mason Win off short stop either, because Mason Win that's
Speaker 3: kind of his calling card and that absolute, real gun
Speaker 3: of an all. But that versatility, that that batting ability
Speaker 3: that Weatherhold has kind of makes it where this isn't
Speaker 3: a problem because you would love to have a plus
Speaker 3: defender at third to go if a plus defender at.
Speaker 4: Short, that's kind of the dream scenario.
Speaker 3: Let's be honest. The Cardinals kind of have had a
Speaker 3: lot of guys in recent years. Obviously Aeronado is non
Speaker 3: example of this, but no, they've had a lot of
Speaker 3: guys kind of playing up at positions where they're a
Speaker 3: little bit stretched. You look at Nolan Gorman, you look
Speaker 3: at Jordan Walker, you look at a couple of these
Speaker 3: positions where you look at really at catcher with contraras
Speaker 3: last year or at least that's what they kind of
Speaker 3: clearly felt like afterwards that they need a little bit
Speaker 3: of help on the defense, and I think that Weatherhol
Speaker 3: fits in that very well, that ability to play third.
Speaker 3: I think he could probably play second if that was
Speaker 3: the position they needed. Probably is going to be more
Speaker 3: of a need at third in the short, medium, long
Speaker 3: term when the Cardinals are kind of clearly saying that
Speaker 3: Nolan Aernaudo is not their third basement of the of
Speaker 3: the future. I do think that he could move quite quickly.
Speaker 3: And I think the other thing that really does stand
Speaker 3: out is the Cardinals needed something like.
Speaker 4: This to happen.
Speaker 3: They need kind of guys, a new kind of young
Speaker 3: foundation to build around. When can be part of that,
Speaker 3: Weather Holp very much can be part of that. They
Speaker 3: do also have kind of some arms like a tink
Speaker 3: hence that really you're just hoping for the durability and help.
Speaker 3: But Jeff, I think that it really kind of does
Speaker 3: stand out that the youth movement that started last year
Speaker 3: in Saint Louis, Victor Scott hopefully becomes a part of
Speaker 3: that as well. We may see a lot more of
Speaker 3: that in twenty five, in twenty six, should.
Speaker 1: We You listen to some of the things that were
Speaker 1: coming out of the winter like warm up or whatever
Speaker 1: the heck they call it there in Saint Louis. I
Speaker 1: was kind of tuned in. They had some jaz they
Speaker 1: had Jordan Walker and some of these other guys talking.
Speaker 1: You know, Mazellak had kind of really really leaned into
Speaker 1: the Aeronaudo trade that it'd sort of priority won two
Speaker 1: and three. That opens up a spot for Weatherhul. I
Speaker 1: know that they kept them at Part Beach to start
Speaker 1: the season. There was no reason to sort of force
Speaker 1: him up. Some of that was roster restrictions. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: shock me if he starts the season at Double A springfield.
Speaker 1: Once you're in Double A, you can move pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: A mid season eta on weather Halt that they're able
Speaker 1: to move aeronauto and they're kind of leaning into that
Speaker 1: youth movement and a little bit of a slide back
Speaker 1: bridge rebuild type of year. It wouldn't shock me if
Speaker 1: weather Halt moves that fast, especially when you consider, you know,
Speaker 1: how advanced he is as a hitter. Kind of going
Speaker 1: back to this Bregmann comp that's how Bregman moved. If
Speaker 1: you remember, you know that first half of that season,
Speaker 1: Bregman was crushing the minor leagues.
Speaker 2: They had to keep moving him up.
Speaker 1: He kept on producing until you know, he forced his
Speaker 1: way into the major leagues by the end of that season.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be unremarkable to see whether Halt have a
Speaker 1: sort of similar trajectory and move next year.
Speaker 3: The other thing I think that we do want to
Speaker 3: note here is that if you look at the Cardinals.
Speaker 3: It's not the best farm system in baseball right now,
Speaker 3: but it definitely weather Hold helps this a lot. Yiro Padilla,
Speaker 3: who's kind of a name to kind of file away
Speaker 3: a little ways away, but a really interesting prospect who
Speaker 3: will probably be coming to the States this year. They
Speaker 3: do have kind of some of these guys to kind
Speaker 3: of filter in where they've got a little bit more
Speaker 3: of a higher impact back. But concern I may have
Speaker 3: is are there the higher impact arms to go with
Speaker 3: that as well or has that kind of been a
Speaker 3: little bit of an issue for the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: Well, I think this is probably the first time that
Speaker 1: you can look at the top of that list and say, hey,
Speaker 1: there's some power pitching in the Cardinals organization. It's been
Speaker 1: a long time since you've been able to say that.
Speaker 1: Probably harken him back to the days of Jack Flaherty
Speaker 1: at this point. But you look at Quinn Matthews, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, our Minor League pitcher of the Year in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, the big jump that he took. There's
Speaker 1: not many left handers that have that fastball profile, that
Speaker 1: throw that hard, that also have two above average secondaries
Speaker 1: and have a track record of handling innings. I think
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good armed to have up top. You
Speaker 1: have tink Hens. He's got some durability concerns, but in
Speaker 1: terms of being electric, the man is an electric factory.
Speaker 1: When he's on the mound and things are right, he
Speaker 1: is exciting of an arm to watch as anybody in
Speaker 1: the minor leagues. And the sleeper here is to Coo Robi.
Speaker 1: He's dealt with some injuries, he's dealt with some ineffectiveness
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. I do think he's
Speaker 1: a guy that the organization believes in heavily. And if
Speaker 1: you look at some of the pitching development stuff that's
Speaker 1: going on in the background, some of the things that
Speaker 1: him Bloom has been tasked with, I think as a
Speaker 1: Cardinals fan, you probably have to enter this season with
Speaker 1: a little bit more hope regarding the pitching development and
Speaker 1: what could be coming up through this system, because the
Speaker 1: pitching is the issue. If you look at that lineup,
Speaker 1: it's all homegrown at this point and they're really just
Speaker 1: waiting for someone to take a step forward into superstart him.
Speaker 1: I want to end with this with a more global
Speaker 1: look at the team.
Speaker 2: JJ.
Speaker 1: I mean this might be a whole topic of its
Speaker 1: own that we hit at some point on Hot Jade,
Speaker 1: and I encourage everyone to watch the show. But I
Speaker 1: think the two things that bother Cardinals fans as far
Speaker 1: as development right now are one, Jordan Walker has not
Speaker 1: developed into anything close to a star yet. And to
Speaker 1: the report from Katie Woomen the Athletic about how they
Speaker 1: really dumbed down a lot of their instructional coaching, development,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff there, they used to be
Speaker 1: kind of a leader on that front. So your thoughts
Speaker 1: on that whole view of the Cardinal system and if
Speaker 1: you think that's going to change.
Speaker 3: I do think that's what heim Bloom's job is this year,
Speaker 3: kind of as his get ready to take over everything,
Speaker 3: but in first you need to help us fix this.
Speaker 3: And the thing that just jumps out with that is
Speaker 3: we talked about Nolan Gorman, Jordan Walker. You know, these
Speaker 3: guys who are kind of playing at the upper ends
Speaker 3: of their position, you know, defensive spectrum where they could
Speaker 3: possibly play, and that used to be the Cardinal strength.
Speaker 3: But if you look at it in recent years, it
Speaker 3: is kind of hard to say that the Cardinals have
Speaker 3: stayed on the on the front end on the cutting
Speaker 3: edge of player development.
Speaker 4: They have had a number of.
Speaker 3: These guys who in some case, I would say also
Speaker 3: the MLB development of these guys kind of seems to
Speaker 3: go backwards. Dylan Carlson was better as a rookie than
Speaker 3: he was in year two or year three, and then
Speaker 3: he's kind of out the door.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Again, maybe this is what Matthew Libertore is. But Matthew
Speaker 3: Libertor has not really taken a step forward since he
Speaker 3: reached the major leagues. Jordan Walker has not. Nolan Gorman
Speaker 3: had a pretty good twenty three and then kind of
Speaker 3: really took a step back in twenty four. They need
Speaker 3: to see some of these guys take those steps and
Speaker 3: get better in the big leagues. Victor Scott hopefully Victor
Speaker 3: Scott just really struggled in his debut. But they need
Speaker 3: some of these guys to kind of regroup and then
Speaker 3: get better, not just kind of keep getting worse year
Speaker 3: after year.
Speaker 1: All right, well said, And if you want more on
Speaker 1: the Cardinals, of course we cover them on hot sheet
Speaker 1: and encourage you to check that out. If you want
Speaker 1: more on a different team, we release one of these
Speaker 1: every day during spring training. So come back to the
Speaker 1: Baseball America YouTube channel. Get yourself a BA subscription as
Speaker 1: well at Baseballamerica dot com and we'll see it or
Speaker 1: another prospect profile.
Speaker 2: Which'all will hit for a high average.
Speaker 1: He's also going to walk more and as I said,
Speaker 1: this is a guy that does know how to elevate,
Speaker 1: doesn't know how to hit the ball hard in the
Speaker 1: air to his pull side. Matt Shaw is the top
Speaker 1: prospect for now in the CUB system, as he could
Speaker 1: be a big contributor to this team in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: That's hit a prospect profile.
Speaker 1: Scottie Brown along with Baseball America's JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Jeff Matt Shaw a Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year candidate in the National League. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I would say, you know the odds on favorite prior
Speaker 1: to probably rookie Sasaki signing, I would say that it's probably,
Speaker 1: you know, the two of those guys. Certainly from a
Speaker 1: positional player side, I think Shaw falls squarely into that category.
Speaker 1: There were some offseason moves made, of course. That Kyle
Speaker 1: Tucker trade not only added Kyle Tucker to this lineup,
Speaker 1: but also freed up a spot by trading Isaac Barredes,
Speaker 1: and then also Cam Smith, who was behind Shawn the
Speaker 1: packing order and in terms of when he would get
Speaker 1: to the major leagues, but competition at third base, and
Speaker 1: I think you can look at sort of this lineup
Speaker 1: right now. Roster resources had it projected as Matt Shaw's
Speaker 1: the potential starter for quite some time, and I think
Speaker 1: when you look at the upper minor success and just
Speaker 1: the track record of this player, it's pretty easy to
Speaker 1: see why the Cubs would be so invested in this
Speaker 1: player and believe that he'd be able to sort of
Speaker 1: handle it. We heard talk coming into twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: that Shaw was spending the offseason working out at third base,
Speaker 1: not at second or shortstop, or I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us had projected he would end up long term.
Speaker 1: This is also a guy who has a long track
Speaker 1: record of hitting against high level competition dating back to
Speaker 1: when he was in high school, dating back to when
Speaker 1: he was the Cape Cod League MVP, and really sort
Speaker 1: of ran the table from beginning to end in terms
Speaker 1: of the best player in the Cape Cod League in
Speaker 1: that summer, won a championship with Bourne. He's a big
Speaker 1: time player, ultra competitive type. I think in some ways
Speaker 1: probably compares to Alex Bregman in that sense, not the
Speaker 1: defender that Alex bregmant is, but I do think he
Speaker 1: has some other tools, particularly physical, that Bregman doesn't have.
Speaker 1: He hits the ball harder than Bregman ever has. This
Speaker 1: is a guy that does have sort of twenty twenty upside.
Speaker 1: He's quicker and a better base stealer and actually has
Speaker 1: base stealing acumen that I think goes above and beyond
Speaker 1: just his sort of home to first run times, really
Speaker 1: knows how to read pitchers. He's a very cerebral player,
Speaker 1: kind of guy that you know, if you watch Cubs
Speaker 1: games every single day, you're probably gonna fall in love
Speaker 1: with this guy.
Speaker 3: I can't help but just think about the fact that
Speaker 3: when you look at the Cubs and you look at
Speaker 3: kind of one of the ways that they have had
Speaker 3: success over the last decade. They had the wave that
Speaker 3: obviously led them to the World Series, but after that,
Speaker 3: they've always kind of loved drafting their their productive college
Speaker 3: infield bats. Now, Ian Happ kind of always faced some
Speaker 3: questions about whether he's going to where he's going to
Speaker 3: play defensively, but he always could hit Nico Horner kind
Speaker 3: of followed after that. I kind of also view Matt
Speaker 3: Shaw's maybe a slightly better version kind of following in
Speaker 3: those footsteps where you're talking about these guys who have
Speaker 3: a long track record of production the upper levels of
Speaker 3: college baseball, you know, top level programs, who then go
Speaker 3: to the miners and do the same thing and just
Speaker 3: kind of earn that being plugged in, Like, Okay, you're
Speaker 3: the guy. We're not counting on you to be the
Speaker 3: star from day one, but at the same time, you're
Speaker 3: a regular from day one that you arrive, and let's
Speaker 3: see if you can blossom into kind of being a
Speaker 3: cornerstone piece and at worst kind of a very good
Speaker 3: complimentary piece. Jeff, when you kind of look at Shaw
Speaker 3: speaking of for Cubs fans, like comparing him to guys
Speaker 3: that they know that have been up on the big
Speaker 3: league club already, if you compare him to say, like
Speaker 3: a Nico Horner, how's he different, How's he better, How's
Speaker 3: he worse?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think we're ever going to see Matt
Speaker 1: Shaw put up the sort of valuable defensive seasons that
Speaker 1: Nico Horner had put up when he was playing shortstop
Speaker 1: prior Dancey sponsor coming over. Now, he's one of the
Speaker 1: best defensive second basement in baseball. It's a really talented
Speaker 1: defensive middle infield. So he's not going to have the
Speaker 1: same impact on that side of the ball the other side.
Speaker 1: The big question, I think, dating back to when Horner
Speaker 1: was at Stanford and sort of one of the last
Speaker 1: sort of remaining guys with that Stanford sling, he likes
Speaker 1: to go inside out. It's you know, keeping the ball
Speaker 1: in the ballpark, hitting them where they ain't. That is
Speaker 1: not Matt Shaw's game. Shaw can do that. Shaw will
Speaker 1: hit for a high average. He's also gonna walk more.
Speaker 1: And as I said, this is a guy that does
Speaker 1: know how to elevate, does know how to hit the
Speaker 1: ball hard in the air to his pull side.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, Wrigley is probably.
Speaker 1: The perfect sort of park for him where it's not
Speaker 1: super high fences, they're not super deep out there.
Speaker 2: There's certain days where the ball travels a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know, you're looking at a
Speaker 1: player that has more like twenty thirty upside when horners
Speaker 1: certainly have the stolen base acumen.
Speaker 2: We've seen that time and time again. Throughout his professional career,
Speaker 2: but is a.
Speaker 1: Little bit more of like a speed, contact and defense
Speaker 1: guy where I've used Shaw as you know, more of
Speaker 1: like a two three four hitter. Ultimately, all right, so
Speaker 1: I'll spin us to a global approach here on the
Speaker 1: Chicago Cubs farm system, JJ seems like it's pretty good,
Speaker 1: especially on the position player side, and we might even
Speaker 1: get ourselves a little bit of a log jam at
Speaker 1: some point if some of these prospects do work out.
Speaker 2: Is that fair to say? And do you feel like
Speaker 2: Matt Shaw.
Speaker 1: Will be the first here in a litmus test to
Speaker 1: see how that goes.
Speaker 3: I would say that's completely fair to say. And I
Speaker 3: would say that if you look at the outfield, I
Speaker 3: feel like that the logjams here we've seen Owen Casey
Speaker 3: is that.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying that one Casey.
Speaker 3: Couldn't use a few more at bats in the minor leagues,
Speaker 3: But Owen Casey's knocking on the door. Kevin Alcontra uh
Speaker 3: you know, is knocking on the door. So these are
Speaker 3: guys who have already reached the upper levels of the miners.
Speaker 3: And if the Cubs were earlier in this rebuild, that
Speaker 3: they'd never have called a rebuild. I would say that
Speaker 3: you might just say, okay, that they're just going to
Speaker 3: plug in it and get at bats. But you look
Speaker 3: at this team right now. I mean, that's why the
Speaker 3: Kyle Trucker trade was made. You've got Kyle Tucker, You've
Speaker 3: got Piker Armstrong, You've got you know we talked about
Speaker 3: have you've got, say a Suzuki. You've got a number
Speaker 3: of guys where I think Shaw is very well positioned
Speaker 3: here because he's kind they've kind of cleared out a
Speaker 3: spot for him just to take it. But now going forward,
Speaker 3: they have a lot of guys who already have double A,
Speaker 3: already have triple A time. But Jeff, I'll look at it.
Speaker 3: Who's the next guy up, Who's the next guy who
Speaker 3: can really like there's a clear path or who is it?
Speaker 3: Pretty much everyone else going to be waiting for an opportunity,
Speaker 3: whether it comes by injury, whether it comes by trade
Speaker 3: in effectiveness, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: It's probably you know, of course Shaw is number one.
Speaker 1: I think he's the one that has the clearest path
Speaker 1: the playing time, But when we talk about the more
Speaker 1: global picture of the system, it's probably Kate Horton.
Speaker 2: If Kate Horton can.
Speaker 1: Show that he's back, he's healthy, He gets, you know,
Speaker 1: some of that feel and shape back on his fastball
Speaker 1: and his slider, and can really be sort of that
Speaker 1: nasty two pitch guy that we saw.
Speaker 2: He could fit into a bullpen roll.
Speaker 1: He could be a spot starter guy, somebody that fills
Speaker 1: in for an injury on the rotation. I really think
Speaker 1: when you look at this logjam in the outfield, it's
Speaker 1: going to have to be an injury to one of
Speaker 1: those four guys you just mentioned. They made a big
Speaker 1: trade with Tucker, They're going to play that guy. And
Speaker 1: then you have a bunch of productive major leaguers and
Speaker 1: then a young, outstanding defensive center fielder and Pete crow Armstrong.
Speaker 1: It's tough for me to imagine that any of those
Speaker 1: outfielders are going to be up I think there's maybe
Speaker 1: even a chance that between now and the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season that we could even see the Cubs swing
Speaker 1: a trade and maybe move one of those outfielders or
Speaker 1: a couple for an upgrade somewhere else in the roster.
Speaker 1: I think the dark horse here though, is probably Moises
Speaker 1: Ballistero's if he takes a step forward in terms of
Speaker 1: his receiving and sort of catch and throw elements behind
Speaker 1: the plate. The bat is there. It's a mature hitter,
Speaker 1: a guy that doesn't give away at bats, bats of
Speaker 1: ball skills or elite. I mean, you could see it
Speaker 1: in game. But we were at the Futures Game last
Speaker 1: year when they were doing some of those skill competitions,
Speaker 1: and there was really nobody who had the level of
Speaker 1: barrel control amongst some of the best hitting prospects in
Speaker 1: baseball that had that level of barrel control that Ballistero showed.
Speaker 1: So I think just as a catcher and Billy to
Speaker 1: play some first base, maybe there's some opportunity there, but
Speaker 1: it is a true logjam with these outfielders. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're Kevin al Kintara, who debuted last year,
Speaker 1: owned Casey, who spent the full season in Triple A,
Speaker 1: you're kind of like if I was in you know,
Speaker 1: twenty other organizations, I probably am in the major leagues
Speaker 1: at this point and looking at entering the season with
Speaker 1: a full time job.
Speaker 3: One last question on that though, when we talk about Casey,
Speaker 3: when we talk about al Kantara, are those guys ready
Speaker 3: right now or is it like is there one of
Speaker 3: these guys who you would say is basically there's nothing
Speaker 3: left for him to prove in the miners because I
Speaker 3: kind of feel like with other than maybe Matt Shaw,
Speaker 3: all these hitters are guys who might benefit from another
Speaker 3: half season or more in Triple A.
Speaker 1: I think you can make the case for Casey. He's
Speaker 1: had a lot of upper Minors success. I think you
Speaker 1: saw how he sort of evolved last year, and particularly
Speaker 1: in a more challenging environment now, the strike zones and
Speaker 1: all that sort of thing. We can quibble about that
Speaker 1: in Triple A, but he's facing better competition. He showed
Speaker 1: improvements as a contact hitter as well as his approach.
Speaker 2: We know he has the underlying power.
Speaker 1: It's just a matter of sort of getting to that
Speaker 1: in the best possible way in terms of bad at
Speaker 1: ball angles, consistently hitting the ball in the air to
Speaker 1: his pull side and getting the most out of those
Speaker 1: big evs and that big power that he possesses in
Speaker 1: his body.
Speaker 2: He's a good corner outfielder.
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's a ton more experience that
Speaker 1: he needs at the Triple A level. I think it's
Speaker 1: really going to be the litmus test of how does
Speaker 1: he adjust once he is challenged by the best pitchers
Speaker 1: in the world. Al Kintara, on the other hand, has
Speaker 1: less time elite defender in center field. If it wasn't
Speaker 1: for pie Crow Armstrong, he would probably be the best
Speaker 1: center field defender in the organization.
Speaker 2: He's a great athlete.
Speaker 1: I still think that, you know, three hundred to four hundred,
Speaker 1: five hundred played appearances a triple A are probably going.
Speaker 4: To do him some good.
Speaker 1: So we know, at least for now, until that status
Speaker 1: goes away and Cubs fans are hoping that starts right
Speaker 1: on Opening Day where he becomes a big leaguer. Matt
Speaker 1: Shaw is the top prospect in the organization according to
Speaker 1: the smart minds over at Baseball America. We're going to
Speaker 1: keep doing this every single day. We'll release another top
Speaker 1: prospect video here per organization. So come on back or
Speaker 1: keep scrolling through if you missed any and we'll see
Speaker 1: you for the next one.
Speaker 2: Name anybody.
Speaker 1: This guy is really special and like I said, if
Speaker 1: he was an American, he'd probably be the number one
Speaker 1: pick in the draft going away. The top prospect in
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Brewer system is Hayzus Motte.
Speaker 2: Here you go.
Speaker 1: We're helping you out with the name, and now we've
Speaker 1: got some information for you too, as we hit a
Speaker 1: prospect profile Scott Braun along with Baseball America's JJ Cooper
Speaker 1: and Jeff Ponce. So let's dive in, gentlemen, Jeff hayesus
Speaker 1: Mota is the name that we might not here in
Speaker 1: the big leagues anytime soon, but I do want to
Speaker 1: remind everyone how much of an impact Jackson Cheerio made
Speaker 1: at such a young age in twenty twenty four. So
Speaker 1: do you have an ETA in mind and what do
Speaker 1: you think about this prospect? Yeah, I'm probably about us.
Speaker 1: It's excited about hey, Zusmadi, as I've been on any
Speaker 1: player coming state side in the last five to six years.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's really was elite stuff. In terms
Speaker 1: of what we saw last year in the DSL. I
Speaker 1: think it was a one sixty nine WRC plus sixty
Speaker 1: nine percent better than his competition. The underlying data is
Speaker 1: really good and we'll probably chat about that in a little.
Speaker 2: Bit, but I'm thinking, you know, we're probably.
Speaker 1: Looking minimum twenty twenty seven comes over this year, even
Speaker 1: if he sort of follows that Churio path of jumping
Speaker 1: both A ball levels and you know, skipping over the
Speaker 1: Arizona complexly, which I think is totally reasonable and probably possible.
Speaker 2: Then it's double A, triple A.
Speaker 1: The next year, maybe he signs an extension, and you know,
Speaker 1: we sort of see him in twenty twenty seven. I
Speaker 1: would say that would be the earliest. That's probably still
Speaker 1: somewhat optimistic. As his player, you know, a year ago
Speaker 1: was just sixteen years old and wouldn't be eligible for
Speaker 1: the draft as an American player until this year, so
Speaker 1: kind of puts into perspective just how young he is.
Speaker 1: But you know, I know, Jay and I have discussed
Speaker 1: this player quite a bit. He was a hot name
Speaker 1: during our top one hundred process, and you know, of
Speaker 1: course our number one Brewers prospect and a pretty dang
Speaker 1: good system.
Speaker 3: This is this is why we send someone to the
Speaker 3: Dominican Summer League and go to the All Star Game
Speaker 3: and all is to see guys like Hayesus Moday and
Speaker 3: to come back and say, man, everyone down there is
Speaker 3: raving about Hayesus Moday. This is really kind of how
Speaker 3: you draw it up. Like when we talk about it's
Speaker 3: hard not to compare him to Jackson Turio, even though
Speaker 3: Turia is an outfielder, although he was a shortstop as
Speaker 3: an amateur, but an outfielder, you know, for the Brewers,
Speaker 3: where as opposed to Made should stay.
Speaker 4: In the dirt.
Speaker 3: But the reason it's kind of not it's hard not
Speaker 3: to compare them is is that this is that kind
Speaker 3: of that ceiling, that kind of potential impact where you
Speaker 3: look at Maday and say, Okay, this is a player
Speaker 3: who really could have some pretty special back to ball skills,
Speaker 3: power for his age, strike zone, discipline, all these things
Speaker 3: that are usually kind of the the things that you
Speaker 3: add as you mature, as you kind of get more
Speaker 3: at bats, Made already has a lot of those. Now,
Speaker 3: I don't want to go over on this. He's a
Speaker 3: teenager who's yet to play in the US, So this
Speaker 3: is not something where he's knocking on the door and
Speaker 3: goes to spring training going I'm going to show those
Speaker 3: Brewers and find a spot in the big league lineup
Speaker 3: or anything like that. But it does kind of explain
Speaker 3: why he could be on a faster track than most,
Speaker 3: much like what we saw with with Jackson Turio, who
Speaker 3: skipped over went straight to a loway to Carolina and
Speaker 3: then kind of showed he was too good for that league,
Speaker 3: so he kind of earned a Midwest League assignment, gets
Speaker 3: to double a the next year turn around, he's in
Speaker 3: the big leagues before you know it, barring injury, if
Speaker 3: he keeps it up like we's done so far. That's
Speaker 3: something that you could also see kind of that kind
Speaker 3: of track with made. But the other thing I would
Speaker 3: say with this is this is how the Brewers. This
Speaker 3: is one of the explanations for why and how the
Speaker 3: Brewers have kind of managed to stay at the top
Speaker 3: of the NL Central year after year, even though they
Speaker 3: don't really have a whole lot of financial advantages or
Speaker 3: market advantages.
Speaker 2: Over the Cardinals or the Cubs or.
Speaker 4: Some other teams in that division.
Speaker 3: But they've been really good on the international market, they've
Speaker 3: been really good at hitter development, they've been really good
Speaker 3: at picture development, and Jeff, I mean, you just put
Speaker 3: it all together, they're kind of rocking and rolling here
Speaker 3: as far as just year after year after year, this
Speaker 3: is putting him number one wasn't easy because this is
Speaker 3: a system that has a number of guys who are
Speaker 3: very plausible number one candidates.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, we have a task that we
Speaker 1: do during our Top one hundred coverage. Go and check
Speaker 1: that stuff out on the site. But one of my
Speaker 1: favorite articles that we work on every year is who
Speaker 1: could be the Number One prospect in twenty twenty six?
Speaker 1: And when I came to this, and you know, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about writing to this article, there was no
Speaker 1: other option for me. It was pretty much either Sebastian
Speaker 1: Walcott that I knew other guy who was going to
Speaker 1: write about.
Speaker 2: But for me, it was Jesus made.
Speaker 1: And the reason that I say this, I think, if
Speaker 1: you're going to put a player comp on this guy,
Speaker 1: it's probably like Ronald kun if you could stick in
Speaker 1: the in the infield. It's that sort of level of
Speaker 1: other worldly skills. And there's probably even a case to
Speaker 1: be made that he's more advanced than Akunya was. At
Speaker 1: this point there was one player throughout the entire minor leagues,
Speaker 1: and I think this really showcases his dominance that had
Speaker 1: this trio of numbers, a mis rate below twelve percent,
Speaker 1: a chase rate below fifteen percent, and a nine eighth
Speaker 1: percentile exit velocity of one hundred and four miles problem,
Speaker 1: which by the way, is major league gaverage. He did
Speaker 1: this when he turned seventeen a month prior to the
Speaker 1: start of the Dominican Summer League season. It's just so outlier,
Speaker 1: and I think it sort of showcases just how dominant
Speaker 1: he was. There was no player in the minor leagues that,
Speaker 1: from an underlying data perspective, was more dominant in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four against his average age of competition than Maddi was.
Speaker 1: That includes Christian Campbell, that includes Roman Anthony, name anybody.
Speaker 1: This guy is really special and like I said, if
Speaker 1: he was an American, he'd probably be the number one
Speaker 1: pick in the raft going away and setting like Bonus
Speaker 1: Pool records. He would probably beat Charlie Condon and Chase
Speaker 1: Burns numbers. It's just that outlier. We'll see how it
Speaker 1: translates when he comes over at first. But haven't looked
Speaker 1: at DSL data going back years. I've never seen anybody
Speaker 1: that approaches this, including guys like Junior Cameron Arrow.
Speaker 3: Okay, now I want to provide like that. I want
Speaker 3: to because we've got everyone very understandably heated up about
Speaker 3: Jesus made so now before we wrap this up, I
Speaker 3: want to kind of pour a little bit of cold water,
Speaker 3: just tamp it down a little bit. There's a reason
Speaker 3: he's not our number one prospect yet. Jeff, what would
Speaker 3: be a scenario where it's like, okay, because we know
Speaker 3: the DSL, the tricky part of the DSL, hitting the
Speaker 3: ball hard, not chasing, all these things are really good,
Speaker 3: but we also know that that league is much more uneven,
Speaker 3: I would say, than like a US, like a full
Speaker 3: season league especially, there's it's really hard to nitpickus made
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: Maybe he's not a short stop long term.
Speaker 3: But is there something, Jeff, that you look at and say, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what could slow him down.
Speaker 4: Other than injury?
Speaker 3: What could slow him down in twenty twenty five as
Speaker 3: he continues as a scent up our rankings.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, just probably optimize batted ball contact,
Speaker 1: and we're looking at how often is this guy going
Speaker 1: to put the ball in the air. How often is
Speaker 1: he going to hit the ball in the air to
Speaker 1: his pull side. Could get some bad batted ball luck.
Speaker 1: He does still hit the ball on the ground a
Speaker 1: fair amount. A lot of his hardest hit drives are
Speaker 1: still on the ground. You know, technically that leads to
Speaker 1: higher batting averages, but it could maybe call into question
Speaker 1: what the overall power upside is and put him more
Speaker 1: in like that eighteen to twenty two sort of upside
Speaker 1: range for home runs versus the thirty plus that we
Speaker 1: look at when we see a kid who's sixteen, seventeen
Speaker 1: years old hitting balls as hard as the average Major
Speaker 1: leaguer on a particular metric. So I would say that's
Speaker 1: probably the big one. The other one is, you know,
Speaker 1: if the defense does continue to slide down and it's
Speaker 1: more of a question of can he stick in the
Speaker 1: infield at second or third base, I don't think that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. I think it's really more of a
Speaker 1: question of is he an everyday shortstop, which you know,
Speaker 1: when you think about there's only thirty of those jobs
Speaker 1: in the entire world, there is obviously a very high
Speaker 1: threshold you have to meet in terms of defensive ability
Speaker 1: to stick there. So I think those are the question marks.
Speaker 1: There aren't many guys that I go into every year
Speaker 1: where I'm like, three years from now, this guy is
Speaker 1: going to be a superstar. And I really do feel
Speaker 1: that in terms of my gut but also my head
Speaker 1: when I look at sort of all the pieces of
Speaker 1: the puzzle on how it comes together.
Speaker 2: You know my job.
Speaker 1: My job is to take the class haf full listen
Speaker 1: to that and be like, did we just find the
Speaker 1: next superstar coming up to Major League Baseball who could
Speaker 1: be a Rookie of the Year a couple of years
Speaker 1: from now and show us, you know what Jackson Cheerio did,
Speaker 1: who will be a seasoned VET by that point, so
Speaker 1: it could be heyzous, my day, Jackson Cheerio. And if
Speaker 1: you actually spell that out without knowing how to pronounce
Speaker 1: the name, it would be kind of interesting. So anyway,
Speaker 1: this is going to be very very fun for Brewers
Speaker 1: fans if it pans out the way that they think
Speaker 1: it could. Okay, so obviously you need to stay locked
Speaker 1: on Baseball America coverage. Get yourself a Baseball America's subscription
Speaker 1: so you can follow this storyline and either say I
Speaker 1: knew about this a while back and expected this, or
Speaker 1: you know, you can get after us a couple of
Speaker 1: years from now too. So thanks for watching this one.
Speaker 1: That's the top prospect right now in the Brewers organization,
Speaker 1: and we'll see it for more of these as we go.
Speaker 2: Team by team.
Speaker 1: Chandler could really ascend to sort of that number two
Speaker 1: role behind schemes in the next couple of years. He's
Speaker 1: a bigger guy, he's super athletic. We're hitting the top
Speaker 1: prospect in the Pirates organization. According to Baseball America. It's
Speaker 1: called a prospect profile. It's a fun name too, so
Speaker 1: you want to see him thrive. Bubba Chandler in the
Speaker 1: Pirates organization, just pitching JJ, What do we have here
Speaker 1: a potential number? What in a rotation if it all
Speaker 1: pans out?
Speaker 3: Okay, you could say a two. This is the Pirates,
Speaker 3: So like, I think the Pirates will be thrilled. I
Speaker 3: feels their number three this year or their number four,
Speaker 3: even because let's give credit to the Pirates on this one.
Speaker 3: Paul Skiing is Jared Jones, Mitch Keller. If Bubba could
Speaker 3: be their number four, that's a really good rotation. Okay,
Speaker 3: It's maybe not Dodger's rotation where it's like, if you
Speaker 3: might you must have cy Young votes to enter this rotation.
Speaker 3: But it is really good and Bubba fits very well
Speaker 3: in that. Like, it is not something where when we
Speaker 3: talk about those guys that you would say, oh, Bubba
Speaker 3: Chandler is the kind of the outlier of that group. No,
Speaker 3: I think if it all comes together, it wouldn't surprise
Speaker 3: me at all. He's not gonna be Paul Skans. If
Speaker 3: Paul Skins is healthy, that's your ace. But if you
Speaker 3: told me that Bubba Chandler ended up being the number
Speaker 3: two on this staff and Jared Jones.
Speaker 4: Kind of slots behind him, wouldn't shock me.
Speaker 3: You got to give Jones the credit for he's already
Speaker 3: done it at the big league level.
Speaker 4: Bubba hasn't.
Speaker 3: But Jeff, when I look at Bubba Chandler, I see
Speaker 3: a whole lot here to think this guy could be
Speaker 3: a rotation fixture and a really kind of impactful rotation
Speaker 3: fixture for years to come.
Speaker 1: When I was sort of going through the process of
Speaker 1: doing my annual best pitches in the top one hundred,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of candidates for best fastball. Guys like Chose,
Speaker 1: Chase Dolander and others that throw really, really hard with
Speaker 1: great movement, had great results throughout the season. When you
Speaker 1: look at the combination of factors on Bubba Chandler's fastball,
Speaker 1: ninety five to ninety six can ramp it up to
Speaker 1: one hundred miles per hour when he needs it. He's got,
Speaker 1: you know, above average induced vertical break. He's getting above
Speaker 1: average horizontal break, and he's doing all that from a
Speaker 1: really low release height.
Speaker 2: It's almost similar.
Speaker 1: To like a Garrett Cole sort of fastball in terms
Speaker 1: of the movement profile. But also those release traits, and
Speaker 1: those release traits are important because they pore ten deception
Speaker 1: and the ability for hitters to not be able to
Speaker 1: get on plane with that pitch. And oh, when it's
Speaker 1: sitting ninety six to ninety seven and can touch ninety
Speaker 1: nine one hundred miles per hour, it takes them even
Speaker 1: longer to adjust to that. There's probably some stuff that
Speaker 1: can come along In terms of what the slider is.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a hard cutterish slider. There's been some
Speaker 1: questions from scouts as to how well he manipulates that
Speaker 1: pitch and how frequently he land. That will be a
Speaker 1: question that will be answered at the major league level.
Speaker 1: And then he has a pretty good change up as
Speaker 1: well that plays well off of the fastball, so it
Speaker 1: might be more of a fastball change up sort of
Speaker 1: first profile, which obviously is going to put him in
Speaker 1: a good position to handle heavy left handed lineups. But
Speaker 1: he does have the smoke and you know, a good
Speaker 1: enough sider to still get right handers out consistently. We
Speaker 1: saw great results when he was up in Triple A
Speaker 1: last year, and I think when you just you look
Speaker 1: at a player like this, he kind of fits directly
Speaker 1: into that Pirate's window of this like elite rotation that
Speaker 1: they could potentially build. And I even think pound for
Speaker 1: pound when you think about the body, some of the
Speaker 1: durability concerns that you might have with a guy like
Speaker 1: Jared Jones, which I think are totally reasonable, and just
Speaker 1: even looking at some of the comparable arms to Jones,
Speaker 1: like a strider, you know there's going to be some
Speaker 1: injuries and some wear and tear and some shutdowns over
Speaker 1: that period of time. I think that Chandler could really
Speaker 1: ascend to sort of that number two role behind Skens
Speaker 1: in next couple of years. He's a bigger guy, he's
Speaker 1: super athletic, he can handle some innings. He's proven that
Speaker 1: he's been able to do that. I think it's really exciting.
Speaker 1: I would argue that you know this, this guy is
Speaker 1: every bit up there with Jackson Job and Roki Sasaki
Speaker 1: and some of the other Andrew Payn or some of
Speaker 1: the other top top pitching prospects and that's why he's
Speaker 1: inside our top ten. That sounds promising and also kind
Speaker 1: of leads me to think about why the pirates want
Speaker 1: him to just pitch. But JJ, you can tell us
Speaker 1: more as I'm coming in here as the No Fund
Speaker 1: Police to try and bring more fun to our sport,
Speaker 1: which means more two way sensations. Bubba Chandler can swing
Speaker 1: the bat. Why can't we see him continue that.
Speaker 3: Because unfortunately we haven't proven that anyone in the US
Speaker 3: knows how to develop guys like that as pros. I mean,
Speaker 3: I wish that was the case. It'd be a lot
Speaker 3: of fun. But Mason Wynn was a two way guy,
Speaker 3: and they're like, wait a second, we got to figure
Speaker 3: out how do we get him to pitch and not
Speaker 3: shn eng Linn got to remember who is kind of
Speaker 3: still a two way guy for the reds Now but
Speaker 3: he's also again kind of coming from Asia. Shoeyotani has
Speaker 3: proven you can do it. But go back to Brendan
Speaker 3: McKay with the Rays a few years ago, who was
Speaker 3: a top five pick, and they're like, oh no, no,
Speaker 3: he can hit enough that we're going to use him
Speaker 3: as a picture slash first base with slash DH and
Speaker 3: he broke he couldn't do it. He could not do both,
Speaker 3: and it ended up they could do neither because of
Speaker 3: it because he kind of broke down his shoulder injuries
Speaker 3: and all, and and Brendan McKay's kind of been bouncing around,
Speaker 3: but nothing like the prospect he was a few years ago.
Speaker 3: I think we're going to see it with the Royals
Speaker 3: with Jack hagleone where we had Jack on the Hot
Speaker 3: Sheets show a couple weeks ago, and I think we
Speaker 3: tried to ask every way we possibly could about the
Speaker 3: two way, and he really didn't want to answer it,
Speaker 3: which I think can translate to the Royals aren't closing
Speaker 3: the door, but they're really saying, we want you to
Speaker 3: hit home runs, we don't really necessarily need you to
Speaker 3: be striking guys out in the later innings.
Speaker 4: I just Michael.
Speaker 3: Lorenzen's another guy. There have been guys like this, but
Speaker 3: it's just really hard to figure out in the US
Speaker 3: system how to get a guy to develop as a
Speaker 3: hitter and a pitcher at the same time. And I
Speaker 3: really struggle to come up with an example of anyone
Speaker 3: other than Shoeyotani, who's pulled it.
Speaker 4: Off, Jeff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's just not anyone else on earth, or
Speaker 1: probably since Babe Ruth who is as dominant on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball with those with those jobs. And
Speaker 1: I think, you know, that is probably part of the
Speaker 1: reason that sho Heyo Tani is able to do this
Speaker 1: for as long as he is, because he is such
Speaker 1: a good pitcher, maybe one of the top fifteen most
Speaker 1: talented pitchers in the world, while being one of the
Speaker 1: top five best hitters in the world. We haven't seen
Speaker 1: anybody else that's been comparable to that, even coming from
Speaker 1: these American institutions that had track records like Brendan McKay
Speaker 1: or a guy like Jack Caglian cagnia One. It's it's
Speaker 1: a bat over pitch profile. He wouldn't have gone in
Speaker 1: the first round if he was a pitcher. Where we
Speaker 1: can sort of look at Shoeyo Tani pretty easily, he
Speaker 1: would have been the one to one pick as a
Speaker 1: hitter or as a pitcher or as both.
Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And I think it's similar with Boba, where the bat
Speaker 1: just wasn't as far along as how special he was
Speaker 1: as a pitcher.
Speaker 2: When you're the pirates.
Speaker 1: There's probably nothing more valuable than getting really good starting
Speaker 1: pitching on the cheap and controllable for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: That it was a prudent decision for the organization, even
Speaker 1: though it does sort of sap the fun out of
Speaker 1: a player like Bubba a little bit.
Speaker 3: I will point out that Paul Skins, Aron Jared Jones
Speaker 3: also were two way guys. Paul Skeens was was a
Speaker 3: college freshman All American for US for his catching in
Speaker 3: d H before he basically went to LSU and moved
Speaker 3: to the mound full time. So it's not just him, like, man,
Speaker 3: can you imagine Paul Sking. Paul Skins really had legit power.
Speaker 3: It's just hard to pull it off. But the other
Speaker 3: thing I do think that happens when you have these
Speaker 3: guys make this transition. Bubba Chandler's talked about it that
Speaker 3: he was a two way guy, which meant he really
Speaker 3: never kind of had that starting pitcher's mentality, that way
Speaker 3: of prepping for starts, and so a guy like Bubba
Speaker 3: kind of needed that transition to Okay, here's how you
Speaker 3: treat your week, Here's how you treat your days before
Speaker 3: the start, here's how you treat your day of the start,
Speaker 3: because he was a two way guy before, and so
Speaker 3: I do think it was useful that he's gotten a
Speaker 3: chance to kind of get into a regimen, get into
Speaker 3: a mentality of here's how I prep to start today,
Speaker 3: Here's how I go through my entire day to be
Speaker 3: ready to do this without kind of some of the
Speaker 3: other stuff like oh, I need to get some swings
Speaker 3: in the cage and things like that.
Speaker 1: And here I'll just summarize the conversation about the Pirates,
Speaker 1: which we can obviously cover on our weekly show more
Speaker 1: as this season goes on. It's called Hot Sheet. Check
Speaker 1: it out every Monday Live at three thirty Eastern time.
Speaker 1: Can the Pirates develop enough to make themselves contenders? Because
Speaker 1: we know they're not going to get the free agency support.
Speaker 1: It's just not in their playbook. They do not have
Speaker 1: permission from ownership to go after players. We talk about
Speaker 1: this year after year. It doesn't matter if they're in
Speaker 1: tank mode or right now where they should be in
Speaker 1: competitive mode. It didn't really change much as far as
Speaker 1: the final product last year. We'll see what a fresh
Speaker 1: slate looks like with Skeins at the start of the season. Obviously,
Speaker 1: this is very exciting to talk about what Bubba can
Speaker 1: bring to the mix eventually, but it is the lurking
Speaker 1: question with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Can they do this without
Speaker 1: adding much around them in Major League Baseball as far
Speaker 1: as free agent signings. So anyway, if you want to
Speaker 1: hear more on that, you can definitely check us out
Speaker 1: on a weekly basis so you can read more in
Speaker 1: Baseball America, get yourself a subscription. And if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of another team, we just want to hear about
Speaker 1: other prospects, then just keep rolling here. We'll go team
Speaker 1: by team on this series. There are some things that
Speaker 1: just don't come across on the radar gun or the
Speaker 1: stat sheet or you know, the track man device that
Speaker 1: I think make this guy, you know a dog. Let's
Speaker 1: hit the top prospect for the Cincinnati Reds. The name
Speaker 1: is Rhet Louder. It's a prospect profile Scott Braun, Baseball Americans,
Speaker 1: JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce JJ. The Reds have been
Speaker 1: trying to stack high end pitching talent. Rhet Louder up
Speaker 1: next here?
Speaker 3: What do you think I think that they've got another
Speaker 3: guy knocking on the door here I'd be shocked we
Speaker 3: saw Red Louder at the end of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: and I would be shocked if we don't see him
Speaker 3: produce quality innings for the Reds in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Although to the Red's credit, they've kind of loaded their
Speaker 3: rotation enough where well, we'll see, you know, through we'll
Speaker 3: see on opening day or in the lead up to
Speaker 3: opening day, whether he's going to crack that roster, that
Speaker 3: rotation from day one, or get a little bit more seasoning.
Speaker 3: But this is as we thought when he was.
Speaker 4: Coming out of a forest. This is an extremely polished pitcher.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I almost want to say, like almost apologize
Speaker 3: as I lay this out, because it's gonna sound like
Speaker 3: I'm kind of damning him with faint praise, and I.
Speaker 4: Don't mean it that way.
Speaker 3: There is no pitch for Rhet Louder that jumps out
Speaker 3: as like, oh, that's like a Paul Skiing's eighty, that's
Speaker 3: like a Rokie Sazaki splitter or anything like that. What
Speaker 3: really does stand out is just how all this fits together.
Speaker 3: He's got a good enough he's got this arsenal pitches
Speaker 3: that all are kind of like fifty five maybe it's
Speaker 3: a sixty. Maybe it's a plus pitch, an above average
Speaker 3: pitch if you'll really like it. But the key to
Speaker 3: all of this is you watch how he pitches when
Speaker 3: he's on, and he was on pretty much throughout his
Speaker 3: little MLB sin at the end of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: His command, his control is really advanced. He doesn't miss
Speaker 3: with bad misses. If he misses, he generally is going
Speaker 3: to miss in a spot where okay, ball two, let's
Speaker 3: do this again. He doesn't miss where it leaks over
Speaker 3: the middle of the play and gets crushed. He did
Speaker 3: that over and over. He's done that kind of going
Speaker 3: back to his college career at wake Forest, where if
Speaker 3: you do remember, he matched Paul Schemes pitch for pitch
Speaker 3: in Wake Forest versus LSU in one of the greatest
Speaker 3: College Rule Series games we'll probably ever see. You put
Speaker 3: it all together, and I would say that this is
Speaker 3: more like this is a kind of a some of
Speaker 3: the of the parts guy where maybe the stuff just
Speaker 3: keeps getting a little bit better.
Speaker 4: I look at a guy.
Speaker 3: Like the path that, like Aaron Nola had with the Phillies,
Speaker 3: where Nola doesn't have blow you away velocity, doesn't really
Speaker 3: have blow you away pitches, but it works year after
Speaker 3: year after year because he really knows how to pitch.
Speaker 3: He's really durable, he's really smart. That kind of describes
Speaker 3: Rhet Louder. I would say as well. But I will
Speaker 3: also say it agonized as we did this Red's list,
Speaker 3: because you could go Reht Louder, you could go Chase Burns,
Speaker 3: by the way, another wake Forest first round pick for
Speaker 3: the top of the draft. They've done it two years
Speaker 3: in a row here, and Jeff, I think, like again,
Speaker 3: I'm going with the guy who's basically big league ready,
Speaker 3: but I think you could also make the case for
Speaker 3: Chase Burns, who's yet to really pitch in pro ball.
Speaker 3: But on the ceiling side, I would have one hundred
Speaker 3: percent agree that if Chase Burns hits his ceiling and
Speaker 3: Rehet Louder hits his sealing, Chase Burns's gonna end up
Speaker 3: being the better pitcher.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Yeah, I think you know, just
Speaker 1: as the resident stuffest in house here, meaning I care
Speaker 1: more about stuff than I do necessarily about it.
Speaker 4: I used to be that guy.
Speaker 1: You stole that from me, and pitch ability, I would
Speaker 1: lean on Burns. I think there's maybe some other elements
Speaker 1: of Burns with profile that we haven't totally seen against
Speaker 1: high level competition. Some of the talk around him, you know,
Speaker 1: in the fall and some of the workouts that were
Speaker 1: happening in Arizona where that he was only throwing with
Speaker 1: a major league ball. So this could be another player
Speaker 1: just like Louder last year that we see sort of
Speaker 1: streamlined right into that big league rotation as early as
Speaker 1: the end of this season. That being said, I do
Speaker 1: want to sort of give Brett laud to his flowers.
Speaker 1: When you look at execution, when you look at pitchability,
Speaker 1: and I think you sort of nailed it with the
Speaker 1: Nola comp of somebody who's going to go in there,
Speaker 1: they're going to understand their opponents. They're going to understand
Speaker 1: the spots and the zones that they need to land
Speaker 1: particular pitches, how they have to sequence certain guys. He's
Speaker 1: going to do all that work and sort of dating
Speaker 1: back to, you know, talking to his former pitching coach,
Speaker 1: Corey Muscara at Wake Forest when I was, you know,
Speaker 1: doing some sort of draft work for us in my
Speaker 1: early days here at BA. That was something even as
Speaker 1: an underclassman when he pitched here at Boston College that
Speaker 1: Corey really called out. This guy just has a very
Speaker 1: cerebral understanding of pitching that he doesn't have to have
Speaker 1: the biggest stuff because he knows how to hit his spots.
Speaker 1: He knows how to make everything sort of dovetail nicely
Speaker 1: within his arsenal. So he does execute, He does get
Speaker 1: those outs, and it can get through lineup sufficiently without
Speaker 1: having to just forcibly try to strike everybody out, which
Speaker 1: I think at times that can be sort of the
Speaker 1: knock on Burns. So when we compare the two, I
Speaker 1: think when you're looking at Louder, he's just a more polished,
Speaker 1: more major league ready. But that's not to say that
Speaker 1: he doesn't have upside when he finally does face you know,
Speaker 1: major league competition over his thirty plus starts and sort
Speaker 1: of gets his feet. Weapon, has major league coaching and
Speaker 1: access to all of the know additional things, nutrition, whatever
Speaker 1: it might be that could take his game up another level.
Speaker 1: I think that you could see that because of the
Speaker 1: type of sort of individual and makeup that you have
Speaker 1: with a guy like Louder. So there are some things
Speaker 1: that just don't come across on the radar gun or
Speaker 1: the stat sheet or you know, the track man device
Speaker 1: that I think make this guy, you know, a dog.
Speaker 3: The things that stand out for me, we saw it
Speaker 3: last year, like at the start of the season, Louder
Speaker 3: kind of got beat around for the first time. I
Speaker 3: would say, really, I don't know, maybe this life, but
Speaker 3: especially like his first time really as an you know,
Speaker 3: high level amateur.
Speaker 4: As a pro. And he made adjustments.
Speaker 3: He kind of realized, Okay, that four seamer that I've
Speaker 3: really relied on isn't kind of going to be my
Speaker 3: calling card, got the seat, start using the sinker more.
Speaker 3: I think that that's one of the things that we're
Speaker 3: going to be looking at with a guy Likerhet Louder.
Speaker 3: And that's what makes kind of projecting pitching so fun
Speaker 3: but also so challenging. Is what he is right now?
Speaker 3: Is what he is right now. We know that he
Speaker 3: had one of the best strike percentages in the miners
Speaker 3: last year. He throws a ton of strikes he can locate.
Speaker 3: But if you told me that three four years from
Speaker 3: now one of his best pitches is a pitch he
Speaker 3: doesn't throw right now, wouldn't shock me. Because I think
Speaker 3: as he goes through the hitters are going to show
Speaker 3: him what he needs to improve, saying Wather, He's going
Speaker 3: to show hitters what they need to improve at. And
Speaker 3: it's going to be kind of this point counterpoint. This
Speaker 3: isn't a guy who's just going to rear back and
Speaker 3: blow guys away. So if you told me that he's
Speaker 3: going to tinker, that he's going to add this pitch,
Speaker 3: maybe it's a cutter this year, or it's a slider,
Speaker 3: it's a little different, or you know, split whatever it is. Like,
Speaker 3: I think that he has the way to kind of add, subtract,
Speaker 3: do different things, and he has the aptitude to do that.
Speaker 3: We saw that again to take it to an extreme
Speaker 3: example because the guy he faced in Omaha, But we
Speaker 3: saw that with Paul Skeens last year, who kind of
Speaker 3: perfected and refined a pitch that he barely threw in
Speaker 3: college to kind of help, you know, take him to
Speaker 3: a Rookie of the Year status. If you told me
Speaker 3: the Red Louder is going to kind of keep tinkering
Speaker 3: over the next few years, he's smart enough that would
Speaker 3: not be all feeded that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're excited as a Reds fan about
Speaker 1: the rotation that you have, but you feel like you
Speaker 1: want a little bit more, especially of top end talent.
Speaker 1: And here we're talking about Ladder getting you excited, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about Burns getting you excited. And this helps
Speaker 1: to tell the story of why the Reds have been
Speaker 1: going in this direction early in drafts JJ. They also
Speaker 1: have trouble, understandably recruiting pitchers to Cincinnati as free agents.
Speaker 3: I will say also, though, if you're a Reds fan
Speaker 3: and you're saying that, and I'd say, like, well, Hunter
Speaker 3: Green is kind of like that's about as high octane
Speaker 3: as it gets, so like you got one, like you know,
Speaker 3: so now we're hoping to add two and three to that.
Speaker 3: But no, this is what the Reds are doing really
Speaker 3: well right now. They need helping the lineup. Ellie de
Speaker 3: la Cruz can't do it all by himself. But if
Speaker 3: you look at this rotation, it's going to be deeper
Speaker 3: than five man deep. A five man rotation with guys
Speaker 3: who should be very plausible starters. Nick Martinez can kind
Speaker 3: of do whatever they want with him because he can
Speaker 3: swing back and forth. And then you add go a
Speaker 3: year from now, and you add back in a Brandon
Speaker 3: Williamson and a Julian Agiar who kind of fit into
Speaker 3: that as well. As they come back from injury that
Speaker 3: the pitching staff wise, Red's looking up look looking pretty
Speaker 3: promising right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good news for the long term for this team.
Speaker 1: So if you want more on the Cincinnati Reds, you
Speaker 1: can obviously check out Baseball America. Get yourself a subscription
Speaker 1: if you don't have one already subscribed to this YouTube
Speaker 1: channel check us out weekly on our show called Hot Sheet,
Speaker 1: and we'll keep rolling out top prospects team by a
Speaker 1: team as we go through the offseason.
Speaker 4: Here