Speaker 1: Switch to high.
Speaker 2: Understanding, jem to center field and it's gone, Wow, his
Speaker 2: first big league swing is gonna be a grand slam,
Speaker 2: the home line swing.
Speaker 3: Good time to look him to them.
Speaker 1: So welcome back to the Call Up, your go to
Speaker 1: podcast on the future stars in Major League Baseball. You
Speaker 1: got arm Late and Elijah Evans, we got a heat sheet.
Speaker 3: I'm coming to.
Speaker 1: You live from Dyersville, Iowa. So this has been pretty cool.
Speaker 1: We'll talk briefly off the top about the Field of
Speaker 1: Dreams game, the minor league portion that we had on Tuesday.
Speaker 1: It was really cool, my first live look at like
Speaker 1: Owen a Ers, but we also got to see Walker Jenkins,
Speaker 1: Manuel Rodriguez several other parts.
Speaker 3: But it was kind of the lesser.
Speaker 1: Named I feel like I feel mean saying that, but
Speaker 1: the not top one hundred prospects that kind of stole
Speaker 1: the show. Also, of course, this is a heat sheet,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna be talking about a lot of the
Speaker 1: minor leaguers that are performing right now. A bunch of
Speaker 1: names as always, some new ones, some that we've talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about, and everything in between. Elijah, this
Speaker 1: this event, I'm excited tomorrow as we're recording.
Speaker 3: This is Wednesday night, sixth Central, seven Eastern.
Speaker 1: As we're recording this, I'm getting I'm excited for tomorrow's
Speaker 1: game the big league side, but the minor league game
Speaker 1: was like the perfect appetizer.
Speaker 3: I thought that.
Speaker 1: I thought they did an amazing job, Like the production
Speaker 1: of it all was amazing. Two fun teams as well, also,
Speaker 1: like you got big league arms, you've got Kendriy Rojas
Speaker 1: opposite of Jordan Wick, so like that made it fun
Speaker 1: as well. And again my first look at like Owen
Speaker 1: Air is catching a healthy Emmanuel Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: I'll talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 1: He still looks kind of out of whack, but Walker
Speaker 1: Jenkins looked great, and it was just an unbelievable experience.
Speaker 3: I can't wait for tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm sure the actual atmosphere there must be pretty crazy.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you're enjoying just like like did you just
Speaker 4: walk around and like I just want to see it,
Speaker 4: like it's so cool to imagine.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try so I try to do like the
Speaker 1: like hold the phone, like just I want to take
Speaker 1: everybody there. So we're gonna do like a social video
Speaker 1: after Thursday's game, just to kind of show everybody because
Speaker 1: when you enter the ballpark, like you go through a
Speaker 1: cornfield where the old TV set was, and then you
Speaker 1: go into you know, the ballpark area, so like that's
Speaker 1: super cool, and then you gotta go back through the
Speaker 1: cornfield to exit.
Speaker 3: There's all these different little quirks.
Speaker 1: I think they did an incredible job of just making
Speaker 1: it feel like you are at the Field of Dreams,
Speaker 1: but also still having it be like a stadium that's
Speaker 1: not made out of like wooden planks and you know,
Speaker 1: just hammered nails, so like it's it's it's nice, but
Speaker 1: it's also he still preserves kind of that feeling. And
Speaker 1: I've obviously never been out here. And then took the
Speaker 1: opportunity today to go to Cedar Rapid Sawu's paying Ya,
Speaker 1: saw a few other guys, got se Edward, Eduardo tay
Speaker 1: get some good swings off. I wish Van Lackey was
Speaker 1: up here. Unfortunately still still in low A, but that
Speaker 1: was fun as well. And then yeah, geared up for Thursday,
Speaker 1: but really cool experience. I definitely encourage everybody to watch
Speaker 1: on Thursday, even though it's a regular season game on Netflix.
Speaker 3: But like it's a very very cool atmosphere and.
Speaker 1: Definitely something it was impossible getting here, but I'm glad
Speaker 1: I did so it was it was cool. But I'm
Speaker 1: also very pumped to do the heat sheet because again
Speaker 1: a bunch of different names that we haven't talked about yet.
Speaker 4: Yeah, before we get into the heat sheet, I you
Speaker 4: got to ask you about a couple guys you mentioned
Speaker 4: it off the top here, but one I wanted to
Speaker 4: particularly ask someone that has been on our heat sheet
Speaker 4: a lot last year was Jackson Wiggins, who was coming
Speaker 4: out of the pen in that game you saw too,
Speaker 4: which is interesting because I'm very curious that seems like
Speaker 4: a guy where it's like throw him in Chicago, let
Speaker 4: him let it rip out of the pen. If he's
Speaker 4: doing what he if you hopefully get a couple more
Speaker 4: starts at the then see how it looks.
Speaker 5: Maybe, but that'd be fun.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that was the first time this year that Jackson
Speaker 1: Wiggins has come out of the pen and only the
Speaker 1: second time as a pro. And so I thought that
Speaker 1: was interesting, and I thought that might be, you know,
Speaker 1: indicative of something that the Cubs may have kind of
Speaker 1: up their sleeve, or at least just to see what
Speaker 1: can happen since he's come back from injury, he just
Speaker 1: really hasn't been able to throw strikes at the same clip,
Speaker 1: and so they I don't know if they're completely shutting
Speaker 1: the door on him as a starter, but like I think,
Speaker 1: I think for now, it's like, hey, you got a
Speaker 1: late start this year. You never got to really get
Speaker 1: your feet back under You've only thrown thirty innings this season.
Speaker 3: And we want you to potentially help us at the
Speaker 3: big league level.
Speaker 1: Like he's just he's kind of spraying the ball a
Speaker 1: little bit, and I think he kind of needs the
Speaker 1: off season to fully reset after the time he missed
Speaker 1: to start this year. So I think just for that reason,
Speaker 1: it makes sense to throw them in the pen. See
Speaker 1: if he can throw enough strikes in a single inning
Speaker 1: spurred and who knows. I mean with that fastball was
Speaker 1: ninety eight with life, he was spraying the breaking ball
Speaker 1: a little bit. But at the end of the day, like,
Speaker 1: I think this is a guy that could help them
Speaker 1: if he can snap into it and throw some more strikes.
Speaker 3: So it was it was like it was impressive.
Speaker 1: Seeing the fastball life, but then you also still kind
Speaker 1: of saw the scattering of pitches you know, the change
Speaker 1: up is the one that he's still think he has
Speaker 1: the best feel for. So if he goes fastball change
Speaker 1: up out of the pen, he could still be a weapon,
Speaker 1: you know, for the Cubs out of the bullpen, because again,
Speaker 1: fastball in the upper nineties with the life that it
Speaker 1: has shape wise is going to be a great pitch.
Speaker 1: But I am really interested. I think this is a
Speaker 1: sign of maybe what they're going to do the rest
Speaker 1: of the season with Wiggins.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the interesting to.
Speaker 4: See part of me was like, oh, maybe it's just
Speaker 4: because it's a field of dreams game you want to
Speaker 4: get him.
Speaker 3: In that it's also possible.
Speaker 5: It does.
Speaker 4: It does just like make sense though, to look at
Speaker 4: for the Cubs to consider one or two of those
Speaker 4: bullpen spots being rounded out by some fireball you know,
Speaker 4: fire broke flowers in the in the minors.
Speaker 5: Right, I could see it. I think it makes sense.
Speaker 4: The other guy I wanted to just pin you on
Speaker 4: as Walker Jenkins, just how he looked in it, because
Speaker 4: I know the injuries right have held him back a
Speaker 4: little from like really ascending, But overall has not been
Speaker 4: a bad season at all for Jenkins, right, He's had
Speaker 4: a good year. What did you think of him plate
Speaker 4: on the in center field too. I'm sure that's a
Speaker 4: unique thing to be playing me outfield there in the
Speaker 4: cornfields too.
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's moving really well. He looks healthy, and
Speaker 1: I mean most of the the bats were left on
Speaker 1: left and I thought like he only had like one
Speaker 1: single that he kind of fought off, but he also
Speaker 1: put a really good swing on the ball backside gap.
Speaker 1: Like what what stands out to me about Jenkins, and
Speaker 1: you can see this through the takes too, is like
Speaker 1: he's a guy that's I think gonna be able to
Speaker 1: hit left on left pretty well.
Speaker 3: Like I don't I don't.
Speaker 1: Have the splits off the top of my head of
Speaker 1: what they've been as a pro. But I just see
Speaker 1: him as a guy that's going to get better and
Speaker 1: better at that. And like he looks comfortable in those
Speaker 1: left on left matchups with which I think is huge
Speaker 1: for a player like him. And like in that game
Speaker 1: where you're facing you know, is Jordan Wick's the nastiest
Speaker 1: pitcher in the world. No, but he's a big league
Speaker 1: lefty that you know can really leverage the left on
Speaker 1: left matchups and make you uncomfortable here and there and
Speaker 1: I thought it was a really comfortable at bats in
Speaker 1: general from Jenkins all the way through and again moving
Speaker 1: really well, look healthy. Emmanuel Rodriguez looked uncomfortable in his abs.
Speaker 1: I know he's just come back and he's still kind
Speaker 1: of sorting through it, but just it was kind of
Speaker 1: the opposite where you saw some uncomfortable takes, like some
Speaker 1: some like half swing stuff like that. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like this guy that's still been
Speaker 1: performing since he's been on the field, and I know
Speaker 1: Jay again with how long he was out and then
Speaker 1: he reaggravated the injury, so then he came out of
Speaker 1: a game recently as well.
Speaker 3: It's good to just see him on the field.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it seems like he's still
Speaker 1: kind of working through some things and getting back into
Speaker 1: his rhythm.
Speaker 4: For reference, Walker Jenkins is rocking a he said in
Speaker 4: two eighty with a seven to fifty two ops against
Speaker 4: left enders this season. Last season was a tick below that,
Speaker 4: but around the same. There is some split there, but
Speaker 4: it's not like he's getting blown up by lefties. You
Speaker 4: see a lot of prospects, especially in those tough left
Speaker 4: on left where they're rocking a six hundred ops like
Speaker 4: he's he's still been perfectly solid against left enders, and
Speaker 4: I think it sounds like he might be able to
Speaker 4: even trend that better as he ages.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: That was the biggest thing that thought out to me,
Speaker 1: the body control, the comfortable takes, Like I think he's
Speaker 1: of course he's going to hit righty's better, but I
Speaker 1: think he's gonna be a guy that you don't have
Speaker 1: to worry about, you know, platooning or anything like that,
Speaker 1: which it just overall just helps the baseline production if
Speaker 1: you're not gonna have a crater left on left. And
Speaker 1: just for context too, on Emmanuel Rodriguez, I think this
Speaker 1: was his first.
Speaker 3: Game back in Triple A in a little bit, so.
Speaker 1: It looked like it and you know, he's he's a
Speaker 1: three true outcome guy anyway, and I think those guys
Speaker 1: take a little bit longer to kind of get back
Speaker 1: into rhythm. So Patient's probably gonna be the key there
Speaker 1: with the manual. I just want if he doesn't get
Speaker 1: it going here in the next few weeks, like they
Speaker 1: might just kind of take it easy finish the year
Speaker 1: with him healthy, and I think Jenkins could be the
Speaker 1: guy that if the Twins need some help over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks, Jenkins is a guy that can help
Speaker 1: them with with the ability to play all three outfield spots, approach,
Speaker 1: sneaky pop. Although it's not even stake anymore, sent them
Speaker 1: all horn. I'm just interested to see if he gets
Speaker 1: a crack this year, and I think he will.
Speaker 5: That was like the perfect transition, man.
Speaker 4: I mean our heat sheet, our first couple names I
Speaker 4: put on there with kind of the category of will
Speaker 4: they get up this year? That was sort of the
Speaker 4: little bit of the intention behind the first couple names
Speaker 4: on this heat sheet because the Triple A guys like Jenkins,
Speaker 4: there's a few other a pair of other top prospects
Speaker 4: in Triple A that I wanted to start with.
Speaker 5: We've both been awesome lately.
Speaker 1: First one is.
Speaker 4: Ralphie Velaskaz and that same division for Cleveland. And and that's
Speaker 4: a guy we've talked about him a ton this year. Right,
Speaker 4: it's no secret that Ralphieveblaskaz has become one of the
Speaker 4: premier hitting prospects in baseball of late.
Speaker 5: He's been more of the same. He's been awesome this
Speaker 5: past ten games.
Speaker 4: He's got six homers over to over one thousand ops
Speaker 4: in that time for him, he really just hasn't been
Speaker 4: He's just been awesome all yere like, there's really no
Speaker 4: you can't point at any real stretch and be like, oh,
Speaker 4: Ralphie like has not been good at I guess to
Speaker 4: be fair, in the beginning of Triple A, he did
Speaker 4: slow down a bit. For a guy who's only twenty one,
Speaker 4: it looks like he's finding his groove in Triple A.
Speaker 4: And with him, that's a guy where I'm like, Cleveland
Speaker 4: is quickly struggling right now. They're falling a little bit
Speaker 4: out of the radar. I mean they're fourth of the
Speaker 4: division now, which is kind of crazy. I thought they
Speaker 4: would stick around that second spot, but they are four
Speaker 4: plus out of the division now. They're fighting to hold
Speaker 4: on to a spot. And you don't want to rush
Speaker 4: a guy who's, you know, a young twenty one year.
Speaker 5: Old first baseman.
Speaker 4: At the same time, man, like, if you told your
Speaker 4: Alfrey A. Blaskaz was the fourth best hitter in that
Speaker 4: lineup tomorrow, like, it wouldn't shock me.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: That's why they're like, and I get like, you go
Speaker 1: get a big league bat that can help you now
Speaker 1: in Nathaniel Lowe, but like I kind of was like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I would love to see Ralphie get a
Speaker 1: crack this year and see what it would look like.
Speaker 1: But he does kind of feel like a guy if
Speaker 1: they didn't make that trade and who knows, they still
Speaker 1: could do it, Like.
Speaker 5: They still got it, they can get here?
Speaker 3: Yeah right, well didn't they bring up now?
Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, what are they going to
Speaker 1: do there? And then now Bizana's kind of dhing a
Speaker 1: little bit and they're rotator the DH spot. But here's
Speaker 1: the thing, like, if you need offense and you know
Speaker 1: Reyes Hoskins isn't doing it, those are some abs.
Speaker 3: I still think, you know, you can find a way.
Speaker 1: I know he's getting the short platoon, but like find
Speaker 1: a way to get get some more abs to two
Speaker 1: guys that can produce a little bit more and go
Speaker 1: from there. I know Hoskins has picked it up a
Speaker 1: little bit, but I my guess would be that Ralphie
Speaker 1: gets left off because of the move that they made,
Speaker 1: and I think that's just what the Guardians want to
Speaker 1: do here. I think it's unfortunate because I I think
Speaker 1: some of it is like Okay, they already feel like
Speaker 1: they've got so many young players theoretically trying to help
Speaker 1: them right now, but at the same time, like I
Speaker 1: would love to see another potential spark plug with the
Speaker 1: power potential that he has that he's already getting into
Speaker 1: and really the way he's settled in at the triple
Speaker 1: A level, with the way that he's produced of late,
Speaker 1: and like they wanted to ride the hot hand with.
Speaker 1: Now I know that's a guy that you know, you
Speaker 1: kind of had an easier path to getting consistent playing
Speaker 1: time and didn't have the forty man situation as much.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to when when Ralphie is Rule five eligible,
Speaker 1: because that would make it He's not Rule five eligible
Speaker 1: until twenty seven, So I wonder if they just want
Speaker 1: to I just want to leave him off the forty, say,
Speaker 1: preserve the extra forty spot and just go in to
Speaker 1: next year, which stinks because and then you.
Speaker 3: Can help them.
Speaker 4: You can go for the PPI next year, which, like
Speaker 4: you know, I know that's another part of it, So
Speaker 4: that probably that's a good point.
Speaker 5: Actually, I didn't realize he wasn't because I mean.
Speaker 4: He's still young twenty third, twenty one, like a two
Speaker 4: months ago, not even right, he's still really young. I
Speaker 4: just think it's been impressive to see him kind of
Speaker 4: recalibrating Triple A and have a little bit of a
Speaker 4: tough first month there, and now it's just right back
Speaker 4: to what he was doing in Double A, where it's
Speaker 4: just more of the same and he's mashing again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, he's he's been a little
Speaker 1: bit more aggressive, and I think it's worked in his favor.
Speaker 1: And you know, when you have an average EXI velocity
Speaker 1: north of ninety one miles an hour with the batted
Speaker 1: ball angles that he has and you know, the all
Speaker 1: fields pop, but he can really get into a pull side.
Speaker 1: He's just a young hitter that's really figuring out who
Speaker 1: he is as a power guy, and I think it's
Speaker 1: making it, you know, even easier and easier for him
Speaker 1: to get into that game pop.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The next guy that I want to ask you about
Speaker 4: in terms of somebody who could potentially be in the
Speaker 4: big leagues, but I'm not sure where the fit is.
Speaker 4: Franklin Arius of the Red Sox organization is a you know,
Speaker 4: top three prospect in baseball for us, just baseball number
Speaker 4: three on your top one hundred and uh. He gets
Speaker 4: the promotion to Triple A a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 4: first few games I think was a bit slow, and
Speaker 4: since then it's been more of the same. I mean
Speaker 4: Arius is first, Yeah, his first two games he goes
Speaker 4: he goes oh for nine in Triple A and then
Speaker 4: the last eleven. Since then, he's only got one game
Speaker 4: without a hit. He's got three three hit games. He's
Speaker 4: hitting like three forty in the past two weeks now,
Speaker 4: since being in trips, Like, he's just doing more of
Speaker 4: the same. And I know it's a limited Triple A sample,
Speaker 4: but like at Boston's, they're in the thick of a
Speaker 4: of a really intense playoff race in division and wildcard race.
Speaker 4: So like, Arius just is so freaking good and he's
Speaker 4: already finding it in Triple.
Speaker 1: A now, I mean, I think there's there's like a
Speaker 1: legitimate case like that he could be, you know, the
Speaker 1: number one prospect in baseball, and I wouldn't blank at
Speaker 1: it with the way that he's playing and with the
Speaker 1: sum of his part right where you're getting now the
Speaker 1: above average power to pair with what was always an
Speaker 1: elite hit tool, with a glove that is already always
Speaker 1: had the ingredients to be a really good defender, but
Speaker 1: now is progressed into a guy that you see is
Speaker 1: an above average shorts up. Some you know have him
Speaker 1: even better than that, and just I think the power
Speaker 1: uptick is just what really solidifies and now the upper
Speaker 1: level success that he could be.
Speaker 3: That number one prospect and I wouldn't blink at it.
Speaker 1: Of course, made like you have so much excitement there
Speaker 1: and it's even younger, and there's so many different wrinkles
Speaker 1: and it is a fun conversation, but you can I
Speaker 1: think you can have the conversation where I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was as much of one a couple months ago.
Speaker 1: The funny thing with the Red Sox right now is
Speaker 1: just they have this weird thing going where like no
Speaker 1: matter who they plug in, especially in like the middle
Speaker 1: infield roles, like they're succeeding. Andrew Monasterio has been great
Speaker 1: for them. I think so Guard has been great. I
Speaker 1: don't understand it so like that I don't think is
Speaker 1: gonna last per se. So like if those guys slow down,
Speaker 1: I do think that Arius is a guy that can
Speaker 1: get up there.
Speaker 3: They've they've wanted more right handed bats.
Speaker 1: Of course they went out and got them but it's
Speaker 1: just another right handed bat that could really help them.
Speaker 1: And you know, late in the season, do you care
Speaker 1: as much about you know, him not playing every single day.
Speaker 1: Like so even if he's in a part time role
Speaker 1: to just make this team better, I still think that's
Speaker 1: an interesting, you know, potential addition to the ball club.
Speaker 1: Like if Anthony Seger, I know he's been swinging it
Speaker 1: pretty well now too, Like I imagine one of Monasterio
Speaker 1: so guard h Seagor And I don't know what Trevor
Speaker 1: story's story is, but like if if he's not in
Speaker 1: there as well, I don't know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: wrinkles to this, but I think there's a world and
Speaker 1: I don't like to just bank on, you know, prospects
Speaker 1: helping you. But this is the best performer I think
Speaker 1: in the upper miners all year long that has the
Speaker 1: ingredients to be good in the big leagues, to be like,
Speaker 1: he's the type of guy that can get up there
Speaker 1: and succeed because the hit hit too ability, because of
Speaker 1: the approach, because of the now added power. I would
Speaker 1: love to see him get a crack. I know we
Speaker 1: saw Breslo saying like I don't want to put those
Speaker 1: expectations on a twenty year old, which is really funny
Speaker 1: because he had no problem putting those expectations on Roman Anthony.
Speaker 1: But I think it's gotta be worth a consideration if
Speaker 1: if one of these guys slow down, or you know,
Speaker 1: if Story isn't on his way back or whatever it
Speaker 1: may be.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we got Cornball arm out here with story Story
Speaker 4: on the on the call up today.
Speaker 5: That was a good one. But no, I mean, I'm
Speaker 5: with you there.
Speaker 4: I think it's it's just like, it's nothing against those
Speaker 4: three guys who have been playing middle infil for them,
Speaker 4: like you mentioned, but it's like, is Franklin Arius a
Speaker 4: better player when things when you really look at it,
Speaker 4: and you're like, is he a more talented piece than
Speaker 4: those guys? Yes, And like yeah, they they've held their own,
Speaker 4: But like, who's to say any of those players couldn't
Speaker 4: completely go cold and an Arius like, yeah, he might
Speaker 4: struggle because he's twenty, but he also might give you
Speaker 4: that like injection of like a rookie studded talented guy, and.
Speaker 5: Playoff teams need that sometimes.
Speaker 4: You've seen a lot of playoff teams get that rookie
Speaker 4: young guy that just gives them an extra push in
Speaker 4: the postseason.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, you throw him in the nine
Speaker 1: hole where he's going to see a lot to hit
Speaker 1: in the power hit combination like another guy though rule
Speaker 1: five twenty seven.
Speaker 3: Do they care about that?
Speaker 1: I don't think they care as much because I think
Speaker 1: it just comes down to just Breswell. I think that
Speaker 1: he can help this team more than you know some
Speaker 1: of the vets that they have a torrid couple more
Speaker 1: weeks in Triple A and some guys maybe slowing down
Speaker 1: can only help that case for a team that's clearly
Speaker 1: all in, which, by the way, Harold Revas was the
Speaker 1: player to be named later now in that Adlie Rutchman deal,
Speaker 1: so he's heading over Revas.
Speaker 3: He's probably not going to be a superstar.
Speaker 1: But for that to be like the fourth prospect included
Speaker 1: in there, he's like a guaranteed fourth outfielder. He's a
Speaker 1: wizard in center field, another solid piece to add to
Speaker 1: the Oriole system that is just so vastly improved.
Speaker 3: They're all in on this year. I think that's very clear.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it definitely seems that way. It appears to be
Speaker 5: that way.
Speaker 4: The next guy up is Jsue Braseno of the Tigers organization.
Speaker 5: He's getting a little promotion here.
Speaker 4: So this is our last Triple A name to talk
Speaker 4: about because he just got bumped from double to triple.
Speaker 5: He was on a run in Double A.
Speaker 4: This is the guy who missed some of the season, right,
Speaker 4: he missed. He's only played a little under thirty games
Speaker 4: this year. He was out for much of the year,
Speaker 4: comes back to some reheab games in single A, gets
Speaker 4: to Double A and it's seventeen Double A games. He
Speaker 4: picks up a one to sixty five wrsc plus with
Speaker 4: eight homers in his first seventeen games back in double
Speaker 4: A after being out for.
Speaker 5: Most of the year, And he was catching during a lot.
Speaker 4: Of this, right, And immediately two weeks in gets the
Speaker 4: bumped out of triple He's knocking on the door. And
Speaker 4: Detroit's another team that's still in the mix. And I'm
Speaker 4: not saying it's gonna be this year. But like Verseno,
Speaker 4: fully healthy last year, was already looking good in Double A,
Speaker 4: and now he looks better than ever in Double A
Speaker 4: and he's going right up to Triple A within a
Speaker 4: month of coming back off injury.
Speaker 3: This kid's a freak show.
Speaker 1: Dude, he's gonna be a big climber on our top
Speaker 1: one hundred update. He's he had risk surgery usually there's
Speaker 1: like major residual effects. Also, it's gonna be the theme
Speaker 1: of this episode, at least at this portion of it.
Speaker 1: Roll five eligible this year. I don't even think we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a roll five. But Persenia is not the
Speaker 1: kind of guy that you would risk of joya sneak
Speaker 1: sneak through if under the assumption that we might not
Speaker 1: have it. He needs to be added to the forty anyways.
Speaker 1: So this is another player where it's like, if you
Speaker 1: got to add him to the forty, why not bring
Speaker 1: him up late, especially if like Kerry Carpenter's planner for
Speaker 1: Shy continue to bother him Riley Green's hammy, Like, that's
Speaker 1: probably not going to get better anytime immediately soon it is.
Speaker 1: It is a fun idea because this is just such
Speaker 1: a unique balance of power and hit like that somebody
Speaker 1: as big and powerful as host Wap Persenyo should not
Speaker 1: be making as much contact as he does, but he is,
Speaker 1: and that's just been the story with him. He hammers
Speaker 1: top rail fastballs, which is crazy for a guy like him,
Speaker 1: like absolutely hammers top rail fastballs and then he still
Speaker 1: is productive enough against breaking balls, and so far it's
Speaker 1: a small sample, but he's been much better. I think that, yeah,
Speaker 1: there was some that would be the one like nitpick
Speaker 1: would be like sometimes breaking balls because of the flatter
Speaker 1: swing that he can tend to have, but he's found
Speaker 1: more loft, Like it is improved and that got better
Speaker 1: from you know, I think at the start of last year,
Speaker 1: really you saw that that swing have more loft in general,
Speaker 1: and we've seen him just now get better and better
Speaker 1: against breaking balls. Again, small sample, we only have seventy
Speaker 1: three balls in play so far the season for percentio,
Speaker 1: but it's a ninety five point five mile per hour
Speaker 1: average eggs of velocity at a twenty one degree want changle,
Speaker 1: Like that's going to result in video game numbers.
Speaker 3: And that's pretty much what.
Speaker 1: We've got so far from him with a seventy seven
Speaker 1: percent contact trait. So like, this is a monster that
Speaker 1: is also built to be able to, you know, handle
Speaker 1: big league pitching. I think a little bit more quickly
Speaker 1: than most hitters of his archetype, and like he's one
Speaker 1: to definitely watch, and I don't think it's coincidence that
Speaker 1: they bumped him up to trip away so quickly.
Speaker 4: Yeah. He I saw the other day he wasn't on
Speaker 4: ba's top one hundred at all, which stood out to
Speaker 4: me as a guy that I was like, wow, like,
Speaker 4: where is like percent?
Speaker 5: I was like the number one game.
Speaker 4: I like looked up Yeah, no, I checked, I was
Speaker 4: the new I just double checked it because I was curious,
Speaker 4: and I was like, that's a guy that I I
Speaker 4: I figured on ours like looking at you, I know
Speaker 4: your work side note top one hundred update coming to
Speaker 4: I know you're in the lab on that, which is exciting,
Speaker 4: and keep an eye for that for sure. But that's
Speaker 4: the guy I was thinking in my head, like the catching,
Speaker 4: the hit tool developing, Like I was thinking, like top
Speaker 4: thirty type of guy potentially, you know, he's a freak.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's a little surprising, but like and
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of it probably has to do
Speaker 1: with like the catching side, and of course the injuries.
Speaker 1: We haven't seen him for so much of the year.
Speaker 1: But if he's a forty grade catch, if he can
Speaker 1: catch a couple times a week, right, I don't even care.
Speaker 1: That guy could be a first base DH and I
Speaker 1: like the bat so much that he's a top fifty
Speaker 1: prospect to me. So if he's able to catch a
Speaker 1: couple of times a week, even if he's a forty
Speaker 1: grade catcher, to me, he's a top thirty prospect.
Speaker 3: In the game. And so I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm going to dave a little bit more into the
Speaker 1: catching defense, but I still think there's there's avenues to there.
Speaker 1: He's probably just too big for the position, and that's
Speaker 1: the general concern. But even if that's the case, like
Speaker 1: as a first baseman, I think he's a top thirty
Speaker 1: forty prospect because of the bat.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 4: Let's take a quick break and then we got a
Speaker 4: bunch more fun names coming up here on the heacheet.
Speaker 4: We got a great star to jump back into here
Speaker 4: on the heat sheet, Xavier isaac Man. It is so
Speaker 4: cool to just see this guy mashing. He has been
Speaker 4: through a lot the past year, and to see what
Speaker 4: he's doing lately. The season numbers across the board have
Speaker 4: been good. We know this is a guy that's always
Speaker 4: hit at a very high level, but particularly of late,
Speaker 4: he has been one of, if not the best hitter
Speaker 4: in minor league baseball. At the Double A level recently,
Speaker 4: and that has been so cool to watch. Isaac is
Speaker 4: up to what twenty two homers on the year now,
Speaker 4: WRSC plus up to one forty five, and recently it
Speaker 4: has been just video game numbers.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm endlessly going to root for this guy obviously,
Speaker 1: Like this is just such an easy, easy player to
Speaker 1: root for.
Speaker 3: And I mean the story in itself with the brain.
Speaker 1: Surgery that he had to have and you know he
Speaker 1: wasn't even he had to fully kind of learn how
Speaker 1: to do a lot of basic things forget hitting, you know,
Speaker 1: a ninety five million hour baseball. So for him to
Speaker 1: be doing what he's doing at the level that he's
Speaker 1: doing is so impressive and again, just so much fun
Speaker 1: to watch him. Like he's been one of my favorite
Speaker 1: power bats to watch in the minor Higgs over the
Speaker 1: last couple of years. And the hit tool is always
Speaker 1: going to be part of the question with him. But
Speaker 1: I think what you've seen is like he's been extremely patient,
Speaker 1: he's leaned into the three true outcomes side of things,
Speaker 1: and like of late has closed the gap on some
Speaker 1: of the whiff And like, if there's someone that's gonna
Speaker 1: be able to get away with the thirty percent kre raiate.
Speaker 1: It's probably Xavier Isaac with the power to all fields.
Speaker 1: Like this guy miss hits balls that leave the yard,
Speaker 1: and I mean he one arm swings and hits balls
Speaker 1: one oh eight that leave the yard on a line.
Speaker 3: So like the power is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And you look over his last one hundred plate appearances,
Speaker 1: it's twelve thirty seven ops. It's a ninety three mile
Speaker 1: per hour average x oosit and the air ex ofvositi's
Speaker 1: ninety eight miles per hour. It's home runs to literally
Speaker 1: all fields. The dispray chart is like from foul pole
Speaker 1: to foul pole. It's it's really impressive power, like legitimately
Speaker 1: easy seventy grade pop. It's just can he hit enough
Speaker 1: to get into it. He's made the improvements with his approach.
Speaker 1: He's had a good stretch here contact wise, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna obviously earn himself the opportunity to
Speaker 1: to try to prove that he can hit en off
Speaker 1: at the big league level by next year, and I
Speaker 1: think Triple A is probably coming up soon for him.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: The good thing about Isaac that does slightly balance out
Speaker 4: the whiff is that he walks so much. Right, He's
Speaker 4: always been a guy that's walked a ton. This year
Speaker 4: it's his highest career mark of an on base percentage
Speaker 4: at four or five on the season, right, So yeah,
Speaker 4: he's probably even lower than the two sixty batting average
Speaker 4: he's at right now at the higher levels. But if
Speaker 4: he counteracts it with a you know, if he can
Speaker 4: beat triple A in the big leagues with a three
Speaker 4: seventy OBP, that at least balances out the concerns with
Speaker 4: the whiff.
Speaker 5: I think, yeah, like you said, the power is just ridiculous.
Speaker 4: You watch him of the swings he takes, Like I
Speaker 4: watched one of his homers from a couple nights ago
Speaker 4: when I was, you know, catching up on some games,
Speaker 4: and I was just like, this is just a it's
Speaker 4: a stilly swing. It's just like a simple swing that
Speaker 4: you just see the ball absolutely carry.
Speaker 5: So he's just fun to watch, and I think he
Speaker 5: will be a big league piece, And even if.
Speaker 4: It ends up as a you know, if he ends
Speaker 4: up as a platoon of songside the DH first base guy, like,
Speaker 4: there's still some serious value even in that role.
Speaker 3: That's what I was gonna say, Like, he probably won't
Speaker 3: see leftist.
Speaker 1: That's fine, And like for a bat like this, you're
Speaker 1: you're just trying to find like, okay, how can we
Speaker 1: minimize with as much as possible, and like no number
Speaker 1: one will be you know, shel term from lefties.
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, you shel term from lefties.
Speaker 1: And I think I think you can keep that strikeout
Speaker 1: right at around thirty percent. Then and if he if
Speaker 1: he runs into enough homers and walks en off, like
Speaker 1: he could be a successful, you know, big league player.
Speaker 1: So he took he's taking a big step forward this
Speaker 1: year beyond everything else that he's had to overcome, and
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see how he responds to triple A
Speaker 1: and again I think potentially a big league opportunity sometime
Speaker 1: next year where he's just one of those players where
Speaker 1: you'll never know fully until you see it up at
Speaker 1: the big league level. And odds are stacked against guys
Speaker 1: like that, but if there's someone that can do it,
Speaker 1: it's a guy that's one overcome everything that he has
Speaker 1: and has the perspective that he has probably on life too.
Speaker 1: He's only twenty two years old still and three a
Speaker 1: guy that yes, he's whiffs a Ton, but there's a
Speaker 1: little bit more adjustability I think than most guys that
Speaker 1: with as much as he does.
Speaker 4: Yeah, guy up on our heat sheet is Mitch Voight
Speaker 4: of the New York Mets organization.
Speaker 5: This was a guy who got a.
Speaker 4: Lot of buzz late last year in the draft cycle,
Speaker 4: ends up going thirty thirty eighth overall right for someone
Speaker 4: who was, you know, a college guy, a little bit
Speaker 4: more of a floor over ceiling type of bat.
Speaker 5: But people liked him, especially late in the draft. Started climbing.
Speaker 4: Recently, he's breaking out in a big way because he's
Speaker 4: been in Double A for he was in High A.
Speaker 4: He really didn't have a great start to the year
Speaker 4: for a college guy who was supposed to be more
Speaker 4: of a high floor type of guy. Picks it up
Speaker 4: a little bit recently, gets promoted to Double A. His
Speaker 4: first eleven games in Double A, he's hitting five fifty.
Speaker 4: I almost like didn't like I saw that. I was like,
Speaker 4: is that a mistake? Like, I was like, wait, what,
Speaker 4: he's leading all mine Len baseball in that span. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean eleven games into that level and he's gotten out.
Speaker 4: I mean he's gotten a base at a six thirty
Speaker 4: three clip in the first two weeks of double A
Speaker 4: ball so far.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely insane. It's it's been a ridiculous heater for him.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Ralphievelaska is just homeered again as.
Speaker 5: We speak, of course.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's just something clicked. I was looking to
Speaker 1: see if there was a major mechanical change, and there
Speaker 1: really wasn't, so it could just be a little bit
Speaker 1: of a feel thing, a little bit of an approach thing.
Speaker 1: But over his last one hundred plate appearances, Mitch Voy's
Speaker 1: running an end zone contact right in ninety percent overall
Speaker 1: contact right to eighty and and you pair that with
Speaker 1: in that span and average xavosity of ninety miles per hour.
Speaker 1: Like he's making more contact, he's hitting the ball harder,
Speaker 1: and his approach has gotten better. So something just clicked
Speaker 1: for him. And I mean it is right around the
Speaker 1: time where he's like started to get his feet under
Speaker 1: him a bit professionally, right, it becomes like a almost
Speaker 1: like a full season's worth of abs if you combine
Speaker 1: it with last year, and so maybe something kind of
Speaker 1: clicked there. But to see him take that into the
Speaker 1: promotion and just not really blank there either, and forget
Speaker 1: not blank like just kicking into a different gear. I
Speaker 1: think is really evident that there's something that has just
Speaker 1: locked in for him at the plate. And the other
Speaker 1: thing that I think is really fun is just how
Speaker 1: good he's been against all pitch types. Hereat he's been
Speaker 1: hitting all season, he's handled breaking balls really well, but
Speaker 1: especially through this stretch, he really has. And then the
Speaker 1: other rankle and I won't pretend I've watched a ton
Speaker 1: of the defense, but like he's also getting more run
Speaker 1: at shortstop too through this, So like you think that
Speaker 1: that would be another thing for him to have to
Speaker 1: worry about and kind of, you know, maybe take his
Speaker 1: mind off of Maybe it's taking his mind off of
Speaker 1: hitting in a good way.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's just going up there and being more natural
Speaker 1: focusing on shortstop. But that's another thing that he has
Speaker 1: to worry about. And instead, you know, it's he's been
Speaker 1: great through this stretch as he's actually playing more shortstop.
Speaker 1: So if he looks like he can sick it short
Speaker 1: I mean that really elevates the profile and I'm excited
Speaker 1: to watch a little bit more just to see if
Speaker 1: that might be the case.
Speaker 5: Yeah, since getting to.
Speaker 4: Double a, it's eight games at short and only two
Speaker 4: games at second comparative to interesting. I mean, he was
Speaker 4: already playing more short and towards the end of his
Speaker 4: stretch and HIGHA too. So really it's like a trend
Speaker 4: for a couple months now with him playing like primarily
Speaker 4: shortstop over second base, which there's other guys that could
Speaker 4: be playing short there too, So it's not like he's
Speaker 4: just getting it. I mean, he's clearly there's something there
Speaker 4: with trying to keep the match short for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're they're trying to make it happen, and like
Speaker 1: he's a good athlete, So I'm excited to dive into
Speaker 1: that video a little bit more.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no doubt. The next guy up is another high
Speaker 4: end prospect. We got some heavy hitters on this He achieved,
Speaker 4: for sure, but they're performing to the standard where they
Speaker 4: should be. And that's ray Nail Rodriguez of the Cardinals organization.
Speaker 4: Another catching prospect here to get to who has been
Speaker 4: equally on a heater with some of the other guys
Speaker 4: we've talked about, who's just been mashing his way through
Speaker 4: the Texas League in Double A. And you know, for
Speaker 4: someone who's nineteen years old, still and catching almost every day.
Speaker 4: His last ten games in Double A, he's rocking a
Speaker 4: twelve eighty two ops hit in four hundred eight extra
Speaker 4: MASE hits in those ten games played.
Speaker 5: Rodriguez has been on.
Speaker 4: Another heater after, you know, marginally slower start to his
Speaker 4: Double A time. But I mean, there's a chance he's
Speaker 4: in Triple A at the end of this year at nineteen
Speaker 4: years old. Isn't that that's kind of kind of ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And catching, it's it's crazy, man, Like, he's just such
Speaker 1: an advanced hitter for.
Speaker 3: I forget his nineteen year old catcher.
Speaker 1: And the way that he's just flying through the mind
Speaker 1: of Higgs and being able to do it with the
Speaker 1: power and you know, the overall field a hit for
Speaker 1: a guy that's very airpole coded, like he's he's very
Speaker 1: much trying to airpole but at the same time is
Speaker 1: able to, you know, put together solid enough contact rates,
Speaker 1: hold his own in his bats, even guys you know,
Speaker 1: then there might be a question at the highest level
Speaker 1: of like when he gets spun away like a lot
Speaker 1: a lot of hard breaking balls away, can that give
Speaker 1: him some some issues maybe, But for for the most part,
Speaker 1: he's been hedging that with a good enough approach and
Speaker 1: ability to to kind of leave hard sliders away and
Speaker 1: and lean into what he does well, and there's at
Speaker 1: least some adjustability there, but he destroys fastballs.
Speaker 3: He continues to come along as a catcher.
Speaker 1: I think he's a guy that can be you know,
Speaker 1: average back there with with more work. But like, it
Speaker 1: seems like he's got the ingredients to be average back there,
Speaker 1: and you pair the bat to a ball with like
Speaker 1: with the angles and the bat speed and the fact
Speaker 1: that he's a catcher and his age, and it's just
Speaker 1: it's just pretty awesome to see. This is a guy
Speaker 1: that's also like, you can't be too bullish on him,
Speaker 1: Like I can see people ranking him in the top ten.
Speaker 1: I totally understand it. I could see people being a
Speaker 1: little bit lower. I also understand that just because maybe
Speaker 1: you wonder if he's going to stick back there. But
Speaker 1: I think it's getting harder and harder to justify having
Speaker 1: him really anywhere outside of like a top twenty prospect
Speaker 1: in baseball with the age level, production, the fact that
Speaker 1: he's not at least an automatic move off of catcher,
Speaker 1: and just the power that we're seeing as well. I
Speaker 1: was actually just talking to the Cedar Rapids Colonel's broadcaster
Speaker 1: Calvin Christoffero about it, and he was saying, Rainiel is
Speaker 1: the best player he's seen in the Midwest League like
Speaker 1: all year, and for a nineteen year old to be
Speaker 1: in a young nineteen year old to be the best
Speaker 1: player in that league, it's just is remarkable.
Speaker 5: And that's the league he was at earlier in the
Speaker 5: year or two. He's passed Belle's in the technically now
Speaker 5: up in Double H I.
Speaker 3: Know, which is just crazy.
Speaker 1: He's really eighteen at the level, like eighteen at the
Speaker 1: level I think when he was there. So it's for
Speaker 1: him to be the best player at that level and
Speaker 1: then get up to Double A Texas League and just
Speaker 1: keep hitting there, it's just crazy.
Speaker 5: It's just a rounded player.
Speaker 4: It's not like there's like one thing in his game
Speaker 4: where you're like that's because he doesn't. Mean, yeah, the
Speaker 4: power is really impressive, but he's also like he's hitting
Speaker 4: for gandak. It's not like he's not you know, he's not.
Speaker 4: He's hitting two ninety three and he's making him I mean,
Speaker 4: he's he's hitting well across the board. He takes his
Speaker 4: walk still he's over eleven percent on the season so far.
Speaker 4: The strikeout rates nothing egregious at all, Like there's just
Speaker 4: there's just really nothing to like poke holes at in
Speaker 4: his offensive game. And like you said, if he sticks
Speaker 4: behind the plate, even as a decent catcher, just such
Speaker 4: a valuable piece.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my aln concern was like the body, Its like
Speaker 3: is he going to back up? But I just I
Speaker 3: don't think he is. Like he's just kind of this
Speaker 3: unique like build that.
Speaker 1: Just he's He's gonna be called a sneaky athlete a lot,
Speaker 1: is probably what I'll say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the next guy up, I was just looking at
Speaker 4: this funny next to each other. The next guy up
Speaker 4: is older than Renel Rodriguez, for example, and we're talking
Speaker 4: about Jojo Parker of the Blue Jays, who is a
Speaker 4: high school first round pick last year and is already
Speaker 4: significantly like multiple months, like five six months, almost older
Speaker 4: than Renew Rodriguez. Nonetheless, Jojo Parker has been crushing it lately.
Speaker 4: He just got promoted to High A, so I think
Speaker 4: he played in his first high game yesterday, I believe.
Speaker 4: But his final stretch at the low A level in
Speaker 4: his first pro season, he was just going off Man
Speaker 4: and continuing to really show out and show why he
Speaker 4: was that the eighth overall pick to Toronto this past year.
Speaker 5: Jojo was really on a.
Speaker 4: Heater overall his past few weeks and now he gets
Speaker 4: to take it high to finish the year.
Speaker 1: I've seen this guy a few different times in person,
Speaker 1: and every time he just hits, he just hits, hit, hits,
Speaker 1: hits hits, And you know, the question will be like
Speaker 1: how much power does he ultimately get into when we're
Speaker 1: talking about the ceiling, But I mean every time I
Speaker 1: watch him, like he flashes like a one o eight
Speaker 1: or a one oh nine, and you're like, okay, and
Speaker 1: it's a pretty easy swing. You start to get excited
Speaker 1: about like what ultimately can be in there, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, dude had to shake off and just kind
Speaker 1: of get comfortable and in full season ball, and like
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to hit in the Florida State
Speaker 1: League even with the way some of these balls have
Speaker 1: been flying.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, it tot get rained out
Speaker 3: like all the time and whatever and kind of get
Speaker 3: out of a rhythm.
Speaker 1: Breaking balls were giving him some trouble early on and
Speaker 1: then and he's just was pul verising fastballs all year long.
Speaker 1: But now you know, JoJo's really improved against breaking balls,
Speaker 1: and he's he's got kind of the longer stride, some
Speaker 1: of it have a bigger move, so he was getting
Speaker 1: a little bit drifty early in the year. I think
Speaker 1: he's gotten a lot better at holding his backside and
Speaker 1: that's helped him produce a lot more consistently against breaking balls.
Speaker 1: And I think it's timed perfectly now as he's kind
Speaker 1: of figured that out to promote Parker up to Hi
Speaker 1: A finish the year there, and you know, I think
Speaker 1: he'll be in a good spot next year where he
Speaker 1: can you know, return to Hi A and then with
Speaker 1: a good start, could quickly get bumped a double. So
Speaker 1: I feel like the timeline's been right on where you
Speaker 1: would want it to be for Jojo. He kind of
Speaker 1: it kind of clicked for him fully right when you
Speaker 1: kind of want to see it click for him. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's just he's such a fun blend of
Speaker 1: hit and power potential, and the big question is just
Speaker 1: going to be like what the glove looks like at shortstop.
Speaker 1: But he's got plenty of time to continue to try
Speaker 1: to prove that he can stick there and.
Speaker 4: He's playing there all the time, which, yeah, problem, you know,
Speaker 4: it's just like he's getting he's gonna get shortstop run
Speaker 4: until he reaches the bigs like every day. That's the
Speaker 4: type of thing with him and that type of talent
Speaker 4: he is, Like, they're gonna get him every chance in
Speaker 4: the world to stick at short which they should absolutely
Speaker 4: because of how impressive the overall offensive game is.
Speaker 5: And yeah, I'm excited to see him in HYA.
Speaker 4: I think it'll be you know, it'll obviously any any
Speaker 4: prep guy in their first season, it pushes them a
Speaker 4: little bit. It's a natural thing to be pushed a
Speaker 4: little bit on that. But I think he's gonna hang
Speaker 4: and he'll still put up some pretty solid offensive numbers
Speaker 4: and then, like you said, hopefully we'll see him in
Speaker 4: Double A at twenty years old next year potentially.
Speaker 1: Which is I mean, again, exactly what you would want
Speaker 1: timeline wise.
Speaker 5: Right, we got a duo here.
Speaker 4: I'm hitting them both at the same time, Johnny Level
Speaker 4: and Yosuar Gonzalez of the Giants organization at two different levels.
Speaker 5: Oh man, I did I did it. I did it
Speaker 5: just like you earlier. Oh, you're catching on to me.
Speaker 4: But no Johnny Level and Yoswar Gonzales in the Giants org.
Speaker 4: We talked about it last week. Man, like the Giants
Speaker 4: farm system as a whole is just looking absurd right now.
Speaker 4: It's like one of the most improved to some from
Speaker 4: the past year easily. But Level, first of all, has
Speaker 4: been on a absolute heater in this past like you
Speaker 4: got You've got to Higa, I think about two months ago.
Speaker 4: Oh and in the past few weeks has been ridiculous. Meanwhile,
Speaker 4: Gonzalez getting his first taste of actual affiliated ball. He
Speaker 4: had that crazy first week and has slowed down marginally
Speaker 4: but is still putting up a one to fifty WRC plus.
Speaker 4: There was first twelve games at the single A level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Josuar, that was I was just excited
Speaker 1: to see him get like challenged a little bit more,
Speaker 1: which is how bad that like the complex pitching is.
Speaker 1: And just he's a guy that just has a good
Speaker 1: feel to hit, good approach and just was better than
Speaker 1: everybody there. So I was just like, all right, well,
Speaker 1: let's see, let's see what happens when you're challenged a
Speaker 1: little bit more.
Speaker 3: And I mean he is not blinked.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I'm interested to see with with
Speaker 1: Gonzalez is just like can he elevate more consistently? And
Speaker 1: I feel like he's been doing that a little bit
Speaker 1: more out of the game because it's just it is
Speaker 1: a flat swing and there's some slack to it, which
Speaker 1: is he's fine. He's eighteen years old and he's still
Speaker 1: already as a switch hitter producing the way that he has.
Speaker 1: It's been so impressive to see. But that'll be like
Speaker 1: kind of the next the next thing for him. I
Speaker 1: think that he's not gonna be able to really make
Speaker 1: that adjustment realize that he needs to make that adjustment
Speaker 1: in terms of kind of the flatter swing and getting
Speaker 1: a little bit casty at times until you know he's
Speaker 1: struggling to pull things in the air, like kind of
Speaker 1: getting beatenside a little bit, and that's probably not gonna
Speaker 1: happen until he gets the full season ball. So even
Speaker 1: so far, though, like he's not really seemed very challenged
Speaker 1: by by the level from both sides of the plate too,
Speaker 1: Like you're seeing him pick up hits from both sides,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see more of him because to
Speaker 1: some of his parts as a player that could be
Speaker 1: really really special, like five tool type of guy, because
Speaker 1: of the defense, because of the power potential, because of
Speaker 1: the field of hit and approach like as a switch
Speaker 1: hitter at the speed.
Speaker 3: Like there's just so much to like there.
Speaker 1: Johnny Level is fascinating too because different build, less projection.
Speaker 3: But he's just already so.
Speaker 1: Good at like what he's good at in terms of
Speaker 1: he destroys velocity. He leverages his strike zone really well,
Speaker 1: and he's gotten better at that because he used to
Speaker 1: get a little bit, you know, over his elois and expansive.
Speaker 1: The one thing with Level is right now like he
Speaker 1: he is not missing heaters and he's going to hit
Speaker 1: heaters with the best of them. But I do wonder
Speaker 1: like as he gets challenged a little bit more against
Speaker 1: better breaking balls, like are there some things that could
Speaker 1: kind of come to the surface with him, Like even
Speaker 1: in his last one hundred played appearances where he has
Speaker 1: a nine to twenty OPS, he's hitting four h five
Speaker 1: level with the twelve eighty eight OPS against fast balls
Speaker 1: in that span, but he's I think he has just
Speaker 1: one hit. He's hitting seventy one with a three twelve
Speaker 1: OPS against breaking balls. But then small sample change ups
Speaker 1: destroying those to a nine to twenty ops.
Speaker 3: So it's interesting.
Speaker 1: But another switch hitter that you know is just adjusting
Speaker 1: from both sides against better spin, and the fact that
Speaker 1: he's been this productive even with the struggles against spin,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it could cut both ways, and
Speaker 1: I think the positive spin is like, well, we'll just
Speaker 1: wait till he gets more comfortable with breaking stuff because
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, even with the breaking
Speaker 1: stuff challenges in terms of production level, is only striking
Speaker 1: out sixteen and a half percent of the time, and
Speaker 1: his strikeout rate is identical from from low way to
Speaker 1: hi A sixteen point six and LOWAI sixteen point seven
Speaker 1: and hi A. So like, I think it's more of
Speaker 1: just getting better swings on the spin, Like he's not
Speaker 1: chasing a ton against it. He's still spoiling them, it's
Speaker 1: just when he puts it in play, it's just not
Speaker 1: of high quality. And I think that's something that he can,
Speaker 1: you know, improve on as he gets more at bats.
Speaker 3: He's just turned nineteen years old.
Speaker 4: What interesting him is he is starting to play a
Speaker 4: little more second basis. He rises up in high A,
Speaker 4: which I think for now he's still playing more short
Speaker 4: than second relatively, but it does seem like my gauge
Speaker 4: is at like when Josuar catches up to him or
Speaker 4: they if they end up at the same level together,
Speaker 4: it seems like it'll be more jos War at short
Speaker 4: and level at second. That doesn't take away from what
Speaker 4: he's doing overall, And it still seems like even if
Speaker 4: he can be a okay shortstop as a secondary position,
Speaker 4: that's still useful.
Speaker 1: He's really fundamentally sound and has a good arm level.
Speaker 1: I think, like, I think he can hold it down short,
Speaker 1: but I think they're kind of also looking ahead and say, well,
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna slow it down a little bit with
Speaker 1: this build.
Speaker 3: You kind of projected out what you think he's gonna
Speaker 3: ultimately like.
Speaker 1: Look like, I think he's gonna end up being a
Speaker 1: little bit stockier, ended up being a really agile for
Speaker 1: his build second basement. Then he could be like a
Speaker 1: plus defensive second basement, and he could also be a
Speaker 1: guy that.
Speaker 3: Plugs in a third and I'm surprised.
Speaker 1: I would love to see him get some reps over
Speaker 1: there too, with the arm strength that he has. But
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, level could
Speaker 1: be a guy that plays all over the infield, not first,
Speaker 1: but plays all over the infield otherwise and could be
Speaker 1: a valuable glove even if he kind of differs from
Speaker 1: shortstop for a better defender.
Speaker 4: Right, let's take a one more break, and then we
Speaker 4: got another little international guy to talk about here. In
Speaker 4: addition to some pictures, we're back on the heat sheet.
Speaker 4: We got five more names to get through. We've hit
Speaker 4: on some big hitters. Now we got one last bat,
Speaker 4: believe it or not, it's a Brewer. And then we
Speaker 4: got four arms to talk about as well. I got
Speaker 4: another Brewer's young guy in the pipeline to talk about
Speaker 4: here that we haven't talked about yet.
Speaker 5: We've talked about a lot of the guys in that system.
Speaker 4: But Braylin in Tunes of the Brewers organization, signed from
Speaker 4: Venezuela in twenty twenty five with the Brewers this year.
Speaker 4: He spent most of the year at the complex and
Speaker 4: was not bad at the complex.
Speaker 5: But this is one of those guys where.
Speaker 4: You see a guy, like when you see a guy
Speaker 4: that's eighteen do better in single a than in the complex,
Speaker 4: like significantly out of the gate.
Speaker 5: It raises those alarms for me.
Speaker 4: And Tunias was already a decently popular little sneaky name there,
Speaker 4: but his first thirteen games in single A since getting
Speaker 4: promoted a few weeks ago, sitting three seventy five with
Speaker 4: a two seventeen wrs plus netspan, already five homers and
Speaker 4: six bags in those first thirteen games.
Speaker 5: What you got on this guy is the another one
Speaker 5: of these Brewers.
Speaker 4: Guys, we got to be putting an asterik and keeping
Speaker 4: an eye on carefully.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean this is this is my best
Speaker 1: breakout pick by far.
Speaker 5: I think I forgot you had this one.
Speaker 3: This is the best one by far.
Speaker 1: This I won't top this one for a while out
Speaker 1: of getting because he had an eighty three WRC plus
Speaker 1: in the DSL last year, and also like he was
Speaker 1: striking out thirty one percent of the time at the
Speaker 1: complex as you mentioned, like nine homers when we did
Speaker 1: the check in on breakouts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't give me a full w on this.
Speaker 3: We said, relatively speaking, like it's a it's a it's
Speaker 3: a it's.
Speaker 5: A give you the media thumb on it.
Speaker 1: It's like a medium thumb because he's striking out thirty
Speaker 1: one percent of the time of the complex. That said,
Speaker 1: we saw him popping like one Twilve was one. Thirteen's like,
Speaker 1: holy crap, he's eighteen years old. But now the thumb's
Speaker 1: starting to point upwards because you've got then we'll see.
Speaker 1: Obviously we need to get get a little bit more
Speaker 1: of a sample, but thirteen games, not just the five
Speaker 1: homers that in this span of fifty nine played appearances.
Speaker 1: And I know it's a small sample, but if you
Speaker 1: take a guy that you had with concerns in the
Speaker 1: complex and you drop him in a low way and
Speaker 1: he's getting his a swing off, which like clearly you
Speaker 1: know Antonias is you'd think that he'd be punching out
Speaker 1: a ton out of the gate, and he's cut that
Speaker 1: strikeout right down by more like by seven percent. He's
Speaker 1: striking out just twenty three point seven percent of the time,
Speaker 1: and he's walking more at a fifteen percent clip. So
Speaker 1: that the raw power and bat speed on this kid
Speaker 1: is crazy, and that was part of the reason why
Speaker 1: we picked him as like as a breakout guy. The
Speaker 1: other side is that he's made more contact over his
Speaker 1: last one hundred play If you look at his last
Speaker 1: sixty play appearances in low as, it's a contact rate
Speaker 1: that is you know, at seventy percent, which for him, like,
Speaker 1: that's a big jump up from where he was before
Speaker 1: in the year. But this is a trend that was
Speaker 1: kind of happening towards from the end of the complex
Speaker 1: leak stint that I think this is just a dude
Speaker 1: with freakish bat speed that kind of just relied on
Speaker 1: natural ability in the box is now kind of cleaning
Speaker 1: up the mechanics a little bit, because that's what the
Speaker 1: Brewers do with their guys. He has this kind of
Speaker 1: toe tap where he gets to the like the first
Speaker 1: tap early and sits there, but he controls his body
Speaker 1: really well, so he sees the ball early and then
Speaker 1: it's just a short stride out from that first little
Speaker 1: toe tap inward and he just seems consistently on time
Speaker 1: compared to before and controlling the lower half well and
Speaker 1: then getting off this easy plus bat speed swing with
Speaker 1: a good feel for the zone. And yeah, this just
Speaker 1: looks like another Brewer's, you know, success story in terms
Speaker 1: of just being able to develop a guy.
Speaker 5: Another one for sure. That's how it feels like.
Speaker 4: That's how it feels like with this guy, and he's
Speaker 4: the numbers back it up for sure. So we'll see
Speaker 4: he keeps progressing obviously a small sample. He's also playing
Speaker 4: a lot of center field. I mean, this is the
Speaker 4: guy who if he's sticks in center, and yeah, he
Speaker 4: seems like he moves well.
Speaker 5: I mean that the speed grades out. Well.
Speaker 4: He's playing some right too, So we'll see if he
Speaker 4: ends up just getting big enough where he moves to
Speaker 4: a corner, if he just gets even bigger. But at
Speaker 4: the same time, I think they're at least gonna give
Speaker 4: him shot to stick him center.
Speaker 1: So which I think he's got all the time to
Speaker 1: prove again because again it's it's really good wheels and
Speaker 1: really athletic frame.
Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, we got four pitchers here, we're gonna
Speaker 5: hit on quickly. One is a little bit of an
Speaker 5: older guy.
Speaker 4: I wanted to give him some shine for what he's
Speaker 4: been doing of late. Brendan Beck of the New York
Speaker 4: Yankees organization was a second rounder five years ago.
Speaker 5: He debuted.
Speaker 4: He went up to New York for I think he
Speaker 4: had throw in two games briefly this season so far
Speaker 4: in his big league debut, and then I think he
Speaker 4: had one other outing after that. But what he's said
Speaker 4: in Triple A this year has been exceptional. And obviously
Speaker 4: Triple A is an interesting place for pitchers.
Speaker 5: It's usually a lot of up and down guys, and
Speaker 5: Beck's a guy that, like, at some point.
Speaker 4: The Yankees, I have to consider the possibility their rotation
Speaker 4: is very busy, so I don't really see him having
Speaker 4: like a rotation spot this year. But man, he's been great.
Speaker 4: He's been one of, if not the best pitcher at
Speaker 4: the upper levels this season. Honestly, just from an overall
Speaker 4: production standpoint, you're talking about a two six era on
Speaker 4: the year in Triple A. He's chugging innings, he's striking
Speaker 4: out guys at high clip, He's not walking.
Speaker 5: A lot of guys. What do you think about Beck's
Speaker 5: level of success at the big Weigu level?
Speaker 1: Potentially, Yeah, it's interesting because this is a guy that
Speaker 1: where nothing jumped off the page, right, he was a
Speaker 1: low nineties v low but you know, with a little
Speaker 1: bit of sneaky ride to it, So okay, this guy
Speaker 1: can spin it a little bit. And I think the
Speaker 1: Yankees have done a really good job of just building
Speaker 1: out the arsenal, because if you're not going to have
Speaker 1: anything that jumps off the page, let's try to add
Speaker 1: pitches to the fold here and the tunneling nightmare he
Speaker 1: can create because of the different offerings he has, it's
Speaker 1: pretty crazy and he's tough to game plan for because
Speaker 1: you really get a little bit of every everything. You
Speaker 1: get a four seamer with still some sneaky ride in
Speaker 1: the low nineties, then you get a sinker off of that.
Speaker 1: There's a cutter in the upper eighties to ninety miles
Speaker 1: per hour just off of that.
Speaker 3: Then there's a gyro.
Speaker 1: Slider in the low eighties, there's a splitter in the
Speaker 1: low eighties, and then there's this downer curveball that can
Speaker 1: get like anywhere from fifteen to seventeen inches of vertical.
Speaker 3: Drop as well.
Speaker 1: So there's just this mix that I think is really
Speaker 1: tough to differentiate out of the hand, and they all
Speaker 1: kind of bridge off of each other quite well. And
Speaker 1: I think because of his ability to mix and match
Speaker 1: the overall field of pitch, like, I think it could
Speaker 1: be a quality back into the rotation starter who just
Speaker 1: kind of massages this way through lineups because of all
Speaker 1: of the different pitches that are somewhat difficult to differentiate,
Speaker 1: like they're close enough to each other but far enough
Speaker 1: v low and shape wise that I think he can
Speaker 1: keep hitters off balance. So you know, I thought he
Speaker 1: might be an interesting trade chip for a team that
Speaker 1: you know, is looking for like an upper miners other piece.
Speaker 1: But I think we now at least looks like a
Speaker 1: solid depth arm, and to me, it looks like it
Speaker 1: could be a you know, a number five starter for
Speaker 1: a big league team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, in which case he's gonna do a role, and
Speaker 5: maybe he's a trade guy. I think the Yankees.
Speaker 4: Those types of arms seem like they're often in trade
Speaker 4: docks for the Yankees, and maybe hands up being one
Speaker 4: of those guys off season where it's like they have
Speaker 4: a really crowded rotation, but there's other teams out there
Speaker 4: that would be like, oh, I'd love to throw back
Speaker 4: in the back of the rotation and see what happens
Speaker 4: with it.
Speaker 5: So I could see that happening. I'm not sure where
Speaker 5: the role would be for him in New York.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's a long reliever, spot starter type of guy,
Speaker 4: but it is a little crowded there on the pitching side,
Speaker 4: at least especially starters for the Yankees.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, but you know, you can always use the depth,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I think plenty of teams would be interested
Speaker 1: in kind of him is like an Ning Zeter back
Speaker 1: end guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the next guy up did have a rough Triple
Speaker 4: A debut the other day, but I wanted to give
Speaker 4: Bryce Mayor some shine of the Houston Astros organization, who
Speaker 4: was absolutely carving at the Double A level prior to
Speaker 4: just getting promoted this week.
Speaker 5: Not going to put too much.
Speaker 4: Stock in a Triple A debut, especially in the PbCl,
Speaker 4: but has been awesome in Double A all season, honestly
Speaker 4: for Mayor and particularly of late, he went on a
Speaker 4: run there before he got promoted. Of like a couple
Speaker 4: shoutouts in a row in Triple A and someone where
Speaker 4: for a Houston team that needs to keep getting pitching
Speaker 4: up through that system.
Speaker 5: He looks like he could be a piece there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's interesting, and I thought they might trade him
Speaker 1: because just like the Aastros or buyers and I think
Speaker 1: a lot. I thought a lot of teams would be
Speaker 1: interested in them, and maybe they that was one of
Speaker 1: the key pieces if they were able to pull off
Speaker 1: one of these deals, but they weren't able to really
Speaker 1: pull anything off other than var show. But Meyer's interesting
Speaker 1: because I think he checks a lot of boxes that
Speaker 1: teams would be interested in from like a stuff plus
Speaker 1: aspect and just like some of the unique characteristics from
Speaker 1: a release and like pitch shape perspective. He gets low
Speaker 1: and works down the mound really well where it's like
Speaker 1: five foot two release height, but gets seven feet of extension.
Speaker 1: So the combination of getting that low where average you know,
Speaker 1: average release height in the BIGS is probably about like
Speaker 1: five foot nine, maybe a little bit more than that,
Speaker 1: so to get well below average, and then typically when
Speaker 1: you're getting that low, you're not going to get that
Speaker 1: kind of extension. To get seven feet of extension, which
Speaker 1: is you know again big ly gaverage is about six
Speaker 1: and a half. That's already a really unique look. And
Speaker 1: then the run and ride that he creates from that
Speaker 1: low release point stands out. And then from there he's
Speaker 1: got this riding sweeper, he's got a cutter to bridge,
Speaker 1: and then this two polin curve, a hole mix in
Speaker 1: here and there as well as the is the change up,
Speaker 1: but it's really that fastball running and riding arm side,
Speaker 1: the sweeper the other way, and the cutter in between
Speaker 1: that I think gives him a really good three pitch mix.
Speaker 1: He's a nightmare for Righty, so gonna he's gonna need
Speaker 1: to show that he can kind of land at the
Speaker 1: curve ball and the change up a little bit more
Speaker 1: to keep left T's at bay. But this is a
Speaker 1: guy that I think already you can guarantee that he's
Speaker 1: going to be a really tough matchup for Righty's and
Speaker 1: can be effective in that role.
Speaker 3: So it's like, at least you got a swing man here.
Speaker 1: But with the unique characteristics that he brings to the table,
Speaker 1: I do think this is a guy that could be
Speaker 1: a solid, you know, big league starter as obviously he's
Speaker 1: able to keep left Tis in check and so far
Speaker 1: this year he's done a decent enough job of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Also, someone who's been was a sixteenth round pick
Speaker 4: for you know, one hundred and seventy five k bone
Speaker 4: as signing bonus, so it's not like and that was
Speaker 4: only two years ago too, so it's not like he
Speaker 4: came with high expectations and has very much, you know,
Speaker 4: blown through the miners. Honestly, his first sign of real
Speaker 4: struggle has been this year in his first triple a start, Honestly,
Speaker 4: or maybe a couple last year at the end of
Speaker 4: the year a little bit, buta like he's breezed through
Speaker 4: the minor league so far at for a guy that
Speaker 4: was two years ago, sixteen round guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that sorely needed for the Astros yea.
Speaker 3: And the guy that probably will help them next year. Yeah,
Speaker 3: maybe maybe this year. Who knows.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say it wouldn't be crazy. I mean, he's
Speaker 4: in trips now. He's gonna have to have a couple
Speaker 4: of good starts there. But like it's possible at the
Speaker 4: end of.
Speaker 5: The year if they can need an arm because they
Speaker 5: kind of need some arms still to step up. So yep,
Speaker 5: we'll see.
Speaker 4: Next guy up comes from the Cubs organization. We're talking
Speaker 4: Brooks Cable. This is a name that's getting a little
Speaker 4: buzzy in the Cubs world. And talk about Cubs drafting
Speaker 4: man a ninth round you know, older older signing guy
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty four who has been really dominant this season.
Speaker 4: He started the year in High A, makes his way
Speaker 4: up to double recently has been awesome for the Cubs.
Speaker 4: His last four starts at double A level, he's got
Speaker 4: a two three RA on the year.
Speaker 5: He's rocking a three to one RA.
Speaker 4: Between the two levels, what you got on cable and
Speaker 4: what do you think about his makeup here and what
Speaker 4: he's done lately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this is another fun arm and a
Speaker 1: good ID six six thirty. But yeah, it generates plus
Speaker 1: carry on the heater. It's like nineteen inches avert from
Speaker 1: like a pretty standard release height, above average extension.
Speaker 3: So you're already pairing that.
Speaker 1: You have a ninety four nine hour fastball, so roughly
Speaker 1: average vwoh, and then you have above average carry slightly
Speaker 1: above average extension, and I think it just gets on
Speaker 1: hitters even more quickly than they'd really expect. And then
Speaker 1: you pair that with what's the one other thing that
Speaker 1: would help that fastball play up command? And he is
Speaker 1: dotting it at the top. He's also able to kind
Speaker 1: of go east west when he needs. So it's a
Speaker 1: seventy percent strike rate on the fastball so far this year.
Speaker 1: And it's not just the heater. The slider has a
Speaker 1: strike rate of around seventy percent. He's just a strike
Speaker 1: thrower period. The one other pitch that I think could
Speaker 1: come along a little bit more is the change up,
Speaker 1: but it's still close to sixty percent strike rate. But
Speaker 1: when you look at seventy percent strike rate on the heater,
Speaker 1: seventy percent.
Speaker 3: On the slider.
Speaker 1: The curveball, which is you know, also has some depth
Speaker 1: to it, is around a sixty five sixty six percent
Speaker 1: strike rate. So when you've got this field of pitch
Speaker 1: is a six to six ridy who can also kind
Speaker 1: of spin it a little bit. This is a really
Speaker 1: good idea by the Cubs. And when you have those
Speaker 1: things going for you, I just feel so good about
Speaker 1: him at least being a back into the rotation type
Speaker 1: of army, even if he's on the older side. And
Speaker 1: it comes have done this, like some of the guys
Speaker 1: that maybe get ignored by draft model because they're a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier. Maybe I always just go back to
Speaker 1: Owen Airs, But this is just another good example of
Speaker 1: a guy that like maybe was overlooked a little bit,
Speaker 1: but still with the pitch ability, could end up helping
Speaker 1: the Cubs next year. And and I just like I
Speaker 1: like all of the ingredients to be that kind of
Speaker 1: back into the rotation type of starter.
Speaker 3: And again, you can't have enough of those types of
Speaker 3: guys in your system.
Speaker 5: Yeah, twenty seven percent strikeout rates, seven percent walk rate.
Speaker 4: Like you said, the strike percent and strike rates are
Speaker 4: all in that upper sixties to seventy range, so that
Speaker 4: that has all the writing of at least a back
Speaker 4: end start type of guy who fills a role for
Speaker 4: your organization.
Speaker 1: And already, and remember this is a year where the
Speaker 1: ball is flying, and so the guys that are around
Speaker 1: the zone a lot, you could see those guys getting
Speaker 1: burned a little bit more. The long ball hasn't gotten him.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's seven home runs so far the
Speaker 1: season and eighty six and the thirds innings. It's really
Speaker 1: not bad at all. Only six in South Bend or
Speaker 1: only one in South Bend and twenty one and two
Speaker 1: thirds innings, and then you know six of them in
Speaker 1: sixty four and two thirds innings, and you know in
Speaker 1: the Double A Southern League where the ball has been
Speaker 1: flying more than ever.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the last name up is an interesting one. Stop
Speaker 4: me if you've heard this before. The Braves just getting
Speaker 4: an arm that's kind of not really known but is
Speaker 4: kind of a dog and for jects as a decent
Speaker 4: starter at the big league level.
Speaker 5: Right, pretty familiar.
Speaker 4: Ethan Bagwell of the Braves organization unfortunately left his start
Speaker 4: last night after I already made this list of an injury,
Speaker 4: so curious to see what the deal is there. He
Speaker 4: left after an inning yesterday, but prior to that he
Speaker 4: had been on a great run. This is a high
Speaker 4: school you know, signing from twenty twenty four who last
Speaker 4: year was split between the complex and Single A, but
Speaker 4: had a pretty careful innings limits him last year.
Speaker 5: I think missed a little bit of time as well.
Speaker 4: This season starts the year in Single A. Now he's
Speaker 4: been in High A twenty starts combined. Between the two,
Speaker 4: he's got a twenty five percent strikeout race seven percent
Speaker 4: walk right. The era is under three so far this season.
Speaker 4: Threw over one hundred innings of work for a high
Speaker 4: school guy in his second full season. So somebody that
Speaker 4: seems like he's immerging right now in that Bridge system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they just do this, man, And it's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why I thought they'd be a
Speaker 1: little bit more aggressive at the deadline, Like, yeah, they
Speaker 1: got all these controllable guys up at the big league level.
Speaker 1: It's something that are like stashed up in Triple A
Speaker 1: and then you've got guys like Bagwell on the way.
Speaker 1: But you know, you can never have too much pitching
Speaker 1: and hopefully Bagwell comes back in Hell with you. This
Speaker 1: is another well release, unique guy, unique look that he's
Speaker 1: sub five foot release Bagwell.
Speaker 3: It's it's a.
Speaker 1: Four to eight release height, and despite that, he's able
Speaker 1: to kind of generate a little bit of this plenty
Speaker 1: of armside run which is natural, but like a little
Speaker 1: bit of ride to it when he needs to.
Speaker 3: The way that he works east west is just nasty.
Speaker 3: So when you're getting this like.
Speaker 1: This low three quarters release against sub five foot release
Speaker 1: and it's just kind of like a shot, he just
Speaker 1: whips it at you, almost like you're playing woo fotball
Speaker 1: and it's still, you know, ninety three miles an hour
Speaker 1: will top out in the mid nineties running in on
Speaker 1: ridies and then the sweeper away and it's it's he's
Speaker 1: got like the riding sweeper and then he's got a
Speaker 1: little bit more of a depthy like sweeping curveball, and
Speaker 1: both of those are like they kind of blend together.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's like an intentional feel or
Speaker 1: if they're two different pitches, or if it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: just he gets over the top of it a little
Speaker 1: bit more and sometimes and other times not regardless both
Speaker 1: are nasty, Like the ones that get negative vert are
Speaker 1: nasty and the ones that ride are nasty. So I
Speaker 1: think it's intentional, but both are really effective. The depthier
Speaker 1: ones are gonna better against lefties, and I think that's
Speaker 1: gonna be the question is, like, how does he keep
Speaker 1: lefties at bay? But he's got a change up that
Speaker 1: is pretty tough to differentiate from that side arm whip
Speaker 1: around and he gets about like it's not as much
Speaker 1: velocity separation as you'd want to see, but he still
Speaker 1: gets ten inches of like vertical separation, and I think
Speaker 1: from that release point it's just really hard to differentiate,
Speaker 1: and he's flashed, you know, the ability to get more
Speaker 1: than that in terms of shape separation.
Speaker 3: So it's a weird look.
Speaker 1: And usually when you think of a guy that has
Speaker 1: that look, he'd probably struggle to throw a lot of strikes.
Speaker 1: He throws enough strikes, especially with the heater. The secondary
Speaker 1: command could come along a little bit more. He was
Speaker 1: nineteen years old at the start of the season six
Speaker 1: four two thirty. I think it's a really fun, unique
Speaker 1: arm angle with a mix that's going to be really
Speaker 1: tough from that angle and a pretty good feel to
Speaker 1: throw at worst, this guy's going to be a nasty reliever.
Speaker 3: I think that could just decimate righties.
Speaker 1: But when you're in the zone as much as he's
Speaker 1: been with the low walk rate, like this could be
Speaker 1: a really weird looking starter for you. That could be
Speaker 1: a very effective like number four type. And who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's a big dude. I don't know how
Speaker 1: hard you can throw from that angle. There's a very
Speaker 1: short list of players that are sub five foot release
Speaker 1: that are throwing, you know, north of ninety three miles
Speaker 1: per hour. But that said, like, if he can find
Speaker 1: some some more velo, he's clearly got the frame for it.
Speaker 3: This could be a really weird effective mix. Yeah.
Speaker 4: The first thing I was going to ask when I
Speaker 4: was looking at his video was if it's there the
Speaker 4: breaking balls are different than two sliders, because I was
Speaker 4: wondering that, And then you hit on that perfectly there
Speaker 4: because it does look like there's room to maybe still
Speaker 4: explore some of the shape there, figure out really keep
Speaker 4: them as separate into stints pitches instead of having them blend.
Speaker 4: I think that's a very common thing for high school
Speaker 4: guys too, is to have the breaking balls if you
Speaker 4: have multiple habit kind of blend into one. It seems
Speaker 4: like he's a guy that has the ability to manipulate
Speaker 4: it enough where he could be working two true distinct
Speaker 4: breaking balls, even though he is throwing two right now,
Speaker 4: but they're a little blended. I was watching the video,
Speaker 4: I was like, those are definitely different shapes. I just
Speaker 4: I wonder thinking fully like here's one and here's the other,
Speaker 4: rather than here they are, right. So we'll see that as
Speaker 4: the progresses. But again, he's so young and he's still dearly.
Speaker 4: He didn't throw that much last year.
Speaker 5: That it's his first season.
Speaker 4: Ever throwing more than sixty innings in his life probably
Speaker 4: considering high school and last year, right.
Speaker 3: And that's only going to help his command.
Speaker 1: To know, like, hey, the slider is going to stay
Speaker 1: up and the curve ball is going to do this,
Speaker 1: and like knowing what the where it's going to end
Speaker 1: up a little bit more consistently only help him. Like
Speaker 1: you said, like we've talked about the command is pretty good.
Speaker 1: The cutter to bridge is just a great checkpoint too,
Speaker 1: you know, between the fastball and and this there's like
Speaker 1: I think sometimes things would be working too much horizontally,
Speaker 1: so to have something that can kind of stay true
Speaker 1: and just break a little bit vertically is perfect as well. Like,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see how Bagwell continues to develop because
Speaker 1: it's just such a different and rare kind of archetype
Speaker 1: to work on with a starter.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a fun, fun time plate to keep looking at.
Speaker 4: That was a good list, Vin, That was some good names,
Speaker 4: some big time names, some new names.
Speaker 5: We got it. We got a good blend in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah. It always is a lot of fun and I'm
Speaker 3: excited to do the next one. Next week. We'll have
Speaker 3: a bunch of new ones.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I think plenty of promotion to check in on too.
Speaker 1: I think we'll see even more guys getting you know,
Speaker 1: moving up over the next few weeks. But this was
Speaker 1: a fun group. Excited again for the field of Dreams
Speaker 1: games where say tuned on socials. We'll be putting some
Speaker 1: stuff out on that, and then you know, doing a
Speaker 1: couple of other minor league stops. Now with the new
Speaker 1: draft guys, I'll be out in the Florida State League
Speaker 1: buncing around a little bit to see some of these dudes.
Speaker 1: I want to see Alexander Freez soon. I want to
Speaker 1: see Jacob b Lombard going to try to catch some
Speaker 1: of these other guys as well. As always, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. If you leave a rating, help us grow
Speaker 1: the show, tell about subscribe on YouTube, follow our socials
Speaker 1: to call up on every platform as well, and share
Speaker 1: the show with a friend.
Speaker 3: Word of mouth is the most underrated growth engine.
Speaker 1: Look forward to talking prospects with you later this week.