Speaker 1: Prospects go up, prospects go down. Let's talk to the pros.
Speaker 1: Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy
Speaker 1: Baseball Podcast. It is be Joey Pa Joe Pizapia, and
Speaker 1: today it's all about the kids. We're giving back to
Speaker 1: the kids. That's right. It's about the prospects, the ones
Speaker 1: that are rising and the ones that might be falling
Speaker 1: in your Fantasy Baseball stock rooms. And nobody better to
Speaker 1: talk about that than the host of Prospects One, the
Speaker 1: guy who covers all the minor leaguers, the guy who
Speaker 1: writes for the Fantasy Black Book twenty twenty two, and
Speaker 1: our host here along with me on the show on MLB.
Speaker 1: It's of course the Welsh, that's right, the Welsh. A
Speaker 1: man of so many talents, so many hats, yet he's
Speaker 1: not wearing one today. And might I say, Welsh, the
Speaker 1: hair is very exceedingly high. I'm very impressed. He gained
Speaker 1: a whole full inch here.
Speaker 2: Well, we're trying well, you know, every inch counts show,
Speaker 2: and we're just trying to move it up a little bit.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's it's been very big hat season. As
Speaker 2: my wife keeps reminding me, So we trimmed up the
Speaker 2: hair and as much as I cannot. Once this show
Speaker 2: starts going into April, will be a lot less hats.
Speaker 2: But I'm out at spring training. I'm out at all
Speaker 2: the backfields and stuff, so usually when I come back,
Speaker 2: it's just a disaster. So we trimmed it up we
Speaker 2: thought would get good. We got a couple episodes that
Speaker 2: are going to be earlier before I hit camps, which
Speaker 2: I'm actually gonna be hitting a camp later today. And
Speaker 2: it's funny you mentioned the young guys and everything. Today's
Speaker 2: actually the start of minor league spring training, so we've
Speaker 2: had a lot of the prospects that have been jumping
Speaker 2: into games. But minor league spring training action starts up
Speaker 2: really important because guys are going to be playing with
Speaker 2: their relative affiliates, so we're going to kind of know
Speaker 2: where some guys are going to be going, and we're
Speaker 2: just going to get a ton of prospect action and
Speaker 2: hopefully I will be their front and center out here
Speaker 2: in AZ.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And look, the game has changed so much in
Speaker 1: the last five ten years. Where it used to be
Speaker 1: monitoring these guys, to putting them on the watch list,
Speaker 1: to drafting them late and now some of these guys
Speaker 1: are just gonna make enormous impacts on the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three season. We've seen in the last five years, these rookies,
Speaker 1: they rock it through. You know, teams like the White
Speaker 1: Sox really push their young players. We're can talk about
Speaker 1: five guys who are going on the upswing. Before we
Speaker 1: get to those guys, I just want to do a
Speaker 1: shout out to our audience, our watchers on the YouTube channel,
Speaker 1: our listeners, because we see you and we just hit
Speaker 1: a milestone this weekend, ten k on the YouTube channel
Speaker 1: in terms of subscribers. You made that happen. We didn't.
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Speaker 1: so because we're leading off is going to start in
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Speaker 1: live mock draft episode happening with ten of our friends,
Speaker 1: actually seven of our friends, three of us because it's
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Speaker 1: from Y'ah who's going to be in that league, So
Speaker 1: we're taking seven of our good pals from our discord.
Speaker 1: Some guys and gals are gonna draft against us, probably
Speaker 1: kick our rear end because they're so damn smart. But
Speaker 1: I'm telling you YouTube dot com Slash and Fantasy Pros
Speaker 1: m LB. We've got some eat short form videos on there,
Speaker 1: We've got all the podcasts. Leading off, I just want
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Speaker 1: guys are amazing. We see your comments and the activeness
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Speaker 1: in two years Welsh, that's something to be proud of.
Speaker 1: It's quite a bill.
Speaker 2: Hey hey, I mean I will say that, like, you know,
Speaker 2: if we weren't having that type of growth, I probably
Speaker 2: wouldn't be here. So I'm really happy that everybody.
Speaker 1: Well enjoy the growth of that hair.
Speaker 2: Help helps it's insight.
Speaker 1: But the hair subscribe to the to the YouTube channel.
Speaker 2: There to put on notifications just like you guys should.
Speaker 2: But yeah, no, you guys are awesome. We should keep
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Speaker 2: here and you are going to be five days a
Speaker 2: week with Joe and I as the season starts, so
Speaker 2: I'm excited that ten thousand more and I hope a
Speaker 2: bunch more are going to be joining us.
Speaker 1: And we've also got don't forget, we got the waiver
Speaker 1: Wire video every week, the trade video every week two
Speaker 1: in season. So we're there to help you not just
Speaker 1: in draft prep, but all year through and again check
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Speaker 1: Amazing Mock Drafts. Canna be really fun with our listeners
Speaker 1: because we love interacting with you all, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: try to get some more of those going. So if
Speaker 1: you haven't, go join our discord Fantasybros dot Com. Last yet,
Speaker 1: it's really cool. Okay, let's talk about some prospects. Enough
Speaker 1: of that, enough of you know, glad handing and saying
Speaker 1: nice things to things. Let's let's let's talk about the prospects.
Speaker 1: And the first guy on your list is a guy
Speaker 1: from Cincinnati Christian and Carnassio Strand is a guy from
Speaker 1: Oklahoma State University. Rocketed through a couple levels of the
Speaker 1: minor leagues last year, went from A to double A
Speaker 1: and two different locations. And look, the numbers were really
Speaker 1: strong last year in the minor leagues with those three
Speaker 1: different teams that he played for there in the minor
Speaker 1: League's thirty two homers, one hundred and fourteen rubies. Again,
Speaker 1: it's still, you know, not quite triple A baseball yet,
Speaker 1: but hitting three zero four with a three sixty eight
Speaker 1: OVP and a five eighty seven slugging is pretty darn good.
Speaker 1: And this guy's having a great spring as well. He's
Speaker 1: sitting six hundred at one point, got a couple bombs.
Speaker 1: So what do you see about Strand's path that might
Speaker 1: be changing? And is his time frame potentially moving up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I wasn't like the biggest, biggest in Karnashian
Speaker 2: Strand guy. Early on, he was in Minnesota twin he
Speaker 2: came over with Spencer Steer and the Tyler Moley trade,
Speaker 2: big hard hit numbers, kind of like you said, a
Speaker 2: little bit older, a little bit older. He's twenty three
Speaker 2: years old. I guess he was twenty two years old
Speaker 2: at like a ball. So I don't that's not something
Speaker 2: I like jump out at when a twenty two year
Speaker 2: old is dominating a ball. But still he was on
Speaker 2: the radar, he was moving put up a solid season
Speaker 2: last year with the Reds. He hit seven homers in
Speaker 2: thirty five games while hitting three hundred. He's essentially been
Speaker 2: a two ninety or higher hitter at every single level.
Speaker 2: But then spring training has rolled around and he's being
Speaker 2: given an opportunity to rock with positions like with starters.
Speaker 2: So I was at the Reds the other day and
Speaker 2: their reserve roster was Ellie d la Cruz, Noelvie Marte,
Speaker 2: Matt McClain, Austin Hendrick. I mean, their entire huge, big,
Speaker 2: you know, prospect system. Those are the guys that were
Speaker 2: coming in, you know, after the sixth inning when all
Speaker 2: the starters lead except think Carnelian Strand was starting the
Speaker 2: game had been starting, and he'd been starting at first,
Speaker 2: which was really interesting. Joey Vado has been injured. He
Speaker 2: just came back, but they had been giving him that
Speaker 2: spot at first to start. He's obviously also a third
Speaker 2: baseman this spring, hitting five seventy seven for homers thirteen RBI.
Speaker 2: It's got a seventeen hundred ops in twenty six games.
Speaker 2: And in the game I was a rocketed a triple
Speaker 2: down center field, and I was just really really impressed
Speaker 2: with the hard to hit with the patients, with the
Speaker 2: bat speed, his pitch recognition seems to be on because
Speaker 2: right now his bat is the working tool. Defensively, I
Speaker 2: think he's fine, but knowing that the team was working
Speaker 2: him at first base kind of tells me a lot
Speaker 2: Will Myers came to this team and doesn't look like
Speaker 2: he's going to be a first base option like a
Speaker 2: lot of you know sites will have him listed at
Speaker 2: first base. In that same game, he was out in
Speaker 2: right field, so they didn't even have an opportunity to
Speaker 2: push him there. It was Strand, and I really think
Speaker 2: Stran he could break camp with the team. I'm not
Speaker 2: one hundred sure if it's going to happen because Vado
Speaker 2: did return, but them working him at first tells me
Speaker 2: that the timeline has moved way up. He's been one
Speaker 2: of the best offensive prospects or just offensive players in
Speaker 2: spring training, and this is a guy that just beats
Speaker 2: up hard hit numbers. He's going to hit one ten
Speaker 2: left and right. He's kind of like a Red's version
Speaker 2: of Brett Batty, and he's getting more of an opportunity.
Speaker 2: And I think he's going to produce a decent amount
Speaker 2: this year. So as far as prospects rising, he's actually
Speaker 2: he was the number one in my most recent update
Speaker 2: over on my Patreon in This League dot com.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what's funny. You mentioned Beaty because I
Speaker 1: think that guy is going to get a shot in
Speaker 1: Queens sooner than later. He's looked terrific this spring. He'd
Speaker 1: be on my list. But I'm not doing a list.
Speaker 1: You're doing the list. But Batty looks. I mean that
Speaker 1: left handed swing, it's so smooth. My only thing within
Speaker 1: Cornassio Strand and all the video I've watched of him
Speaker 1: is he's got that circular load of his hands. And
Speaker 1: that's something I remember in my youth, my younger days
Speaker 1: when I was a hitting coach, not professionally of course,
Speaker 1: actually was pressure. I did get paid, I should say,
Speaker 1: for the Major League, you know.
Speaker 2: Money, but it's true.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, and look the camp that I
Speaker 1: taught at, you know, when I was younger, who was
Speaker 1: in Wallingspoort, Pennsylvania. I mean, that's the elite of the
Speaker 1: leap of those young kids who are coming through, who
Speaker 1: were getting looks in college. And you know, I worked
Speaker 1: with those kids and when they would come through, and
Speaker 1: that circular load of the hands, it slows you up
Speaker 1: on some of the better pitching. So my only thing
Speaker 1: is is he gets and progresses through the major league
Speaker 1: levels there and the Triple A and into the big leagues.
Speaker 1: That that circular load, that it holds you up a
Speaker 1: little bit and some of the breaking pitches and some
Speaker 1: of the guys who can really, you know, throw at
Speaker 1: a higher level. That's my only thing with this kid.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because you would think at a place like
Speaker 1: OSU they would knock it out of him, and they didn't.
Speaker 1: And I understand it's got an easy swing. I understand
Speaker 1: it's got easy power of watched a lot of highlights.
Speaker 1: I keep waiting to see where it catches up him
Speaker 1: and I think it will eventually. But you can't discount
Speaker 1: the results he's getting right now in spring training because
Speaker 1: they've been spectacular. So keep an eye on him. The
Speaker 1: next guy. This is a guy that I really like,
Speaker 1: Oscar Colos. We've talked about him a lot on the show. Again,
Speaker 1: explosive hands. This is a dude that we all know
Speaker 1: how the White Sox are super aggressive. So is Coloss
Speaker 1: the next guy that they're going to be super aggressive
Speaker 1: with and see a lot of playing time in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the uh I think that's the idea.
Speaker 2: I think like right now they've kind of set him
Speaker 2: and lined him up as a guy that's going to
Speaker 2: be able to take over the spot, and he's at
Speaker 2: a really really hot Spring. I went away from the numbers.
Speaker 2: I'll pull him up in a second. But last year
Speaker 2: he was able to move two levels. If you don't remember,
Speaker 2: Oscar Colas was like at the time, hilariously, they called
Speaker 2: him the cuban Otani because he was pitching, and we
Speaker 2: all kind of knew that was going to go by
Speaker 2: the wayside. And twenty four years old, twenty three to
Speaker 2: twenty four, the White Sox just said we're going to
Speaker 2: go full time hitting. And he was able to move
Speaker 2: all the levels last year, from High A up to
Speaker 2: Triple A and he was dominant hit three hundred across
Speaker 2: all levels. Triple A was a little bit of a
Speaker 2: stink with as far as like strikeout percentage go. It
Speaker 2: went up, but he was around twenty to twenty three percent
Speaker 2: guy at those other levels. He ended up having over
Speaker 2: twenty homers, stole a couple bases. He's made really really
Speaker 2: good decisions out here in Spring and the White SOX
Speaker 2: have left that spot open. They haven't gone and brought
Speaker 2: in a you know, the Royds run in like a
Speaker 2: Jackie Bradley or they just have it. They haven't gone
Speaker 2: and brought in another name that just universally will take over.
Speaker 2: Plus they've openly said that they are going to have
Speaker 2: Eloy Funny enough, they said they're gonna have Elay Moore
Speaker 2: at DH and I think the next day after they
Speaker 2: did that, they put him out in the field before
Speaker 2: he went to the WBC.
Speaker 1: I hate it so much, Welsh, I hate it. Just
Speaker 1: please stop putting this guy in the field. It's the worst.
Speaker 1: But continue.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, so with a commitment to him going to DH,
Speaker 2: what that does is that just leaves that spot open
Speaker 2: that they're not going to screw around with us. And
Speaker 2: so far this spring I finally got those up four
Speaker 2: hundred with a four nineteen OBP. So he has not
Speaker 2: been walking an over thousand ops. He's got two homers.
Speaker 2: He has stolen a base and that's a really unique one.
Speaker 2: I was actually with Oscar co Loss a couple of
Speaker 2: weeks ago in an event for a couple hours. And
Speaker 2: he's a big physical guy, like a big upper half
Speaker 2: does not look like a guy that's going to steal bases,
Speaker 2: but he's still doing it. I think long term it's
Speaker 2: going to go away, but this is a guy I
Speaker 2: think that could sneak into seven to ten stolen bases
Speaker 2: this year, especially with that little bit of advantage on
Speaker 2: the speed. And I think he's a twenty plus homer guy.
Speaker 2: I've kind of been saying it since the early parts
Speaker 2: of spring. I think he's criminally underrated. Where we put
Speaker 2: our focus on George Walker and obviously the other big rookies,
Speaker 2: this is a guy that this team is all but
Speaker 2: given it a commitment to. He's dominated in spring, which
Speaker 2: was key for them to stick with that commitment. I
Speaker 2: think it's going to happen. I think he's going to
Speaker 2: break camp with the team. Oscar colass is someone who
Speaker 2: has been rising. Just hit a homer, like I said
Speaker 2: two days ago, so hitting over four hundred in spring,
Speaker 2: that is answering a lot of those calls. And that's
Speaker 2: one of those guys, especially from a redraft perspective, has
Speaker 2: been moving up lists. But also you know, it's pretty
Speaker 2: high up on my prospect list. If you're looking at
Speaker 2: like the long term future.
Speaker 1: Look if for in any sort of startup league this
Speaker 1: year with Keepers Dynasty, whatever it might be. Co Los
Speaker 1: has a gout to keep an eye on.
Speaker 2: I'm with you.
Speaker 1: He's a twenty home run guy in the big League's
Speaker 1: quick hands again, this is why I keep it. He's
Speaker 1: got easy power, quick hands, get to the baseball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some strikeouts in there, but that's everybody nowadays.
Speaker 1: So he just he's a free swinger too, and there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that. That's just the way he's built,
Speaker 1: and I'm okay with that. He's not a you know,
Speaker 1: we walked I think thirty eight times last year, so
Speaker 1: it's not a huge amount. So he's gonna go take
Speaker 1: his hacks and I'm okay with that as long as
Speaker 1: he keeps making contact at the raid he does. Next
Speaker 1: guy on your list is a Seattle starting pitcher employe.
Speaker 1: They've been good the last few years between Kirby and
Speaker 1: Logan Gilbert Bryce Miller. The next guy on this list
Speaker 1: now Miller. Last year another one went from A to
Speaker 1: high A to double A. And you know, certainly an
Speaker 1: opportunity here when you look at the overall numbers in
Speaker 1: those twenty six starts that he made a three sixteen
Speaker 1: era one hundred and thirty three innings, so he showed
Speaker 1: you quite a bit, including a strikeout rate that was
Speaker 1: pretty strong one hundred and sixty three k's and a
Speaker 1: one point zero four whip over those one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty three innings. The question is, Welsh, what's the time
Speaker 1: frame and is there room at the inn for him?
Speaker 1: Because the Seattle rotation is already really good.
Speaker 2: So that's a big question is what is the room
Speaker 2: for him? That I can't answer. I can't answer with Seattle,
Speaker 2: but what I can tell you is when there is room,
Speaker 2: he's the top guy. I'm pretty confident over Emerson. Emerson
Speaker 2: Hancock would be the next. There's also Prelander Baroa who
Speaker 2: Preland Burrow is really really interesting, got incredible stuff. I
Speaker 2: kind of wonder if he would go to the back
Speaker 2: end of a rotation. But Bryce Miller, when they're ready
Speaker 2: to make a commitment, is the guy. I spoke to
Speaker 2: him in spring, and I've already mentioned this before, but
Speaker 2: one of the most fascinating things there was this big
Speaker 2: change in how pitchers are throwing sliders and it's more
Speaker 2: of a sweeper it's now called So a lot of
Speaker 2: movement over and Bryce Miller, who hit double a last
Speaker 2: year but he's twenty four years old. He had struck
Speaker 2: out their starting catcher, Tom Murphy, and I grabbed him
Speaker 2: after and I was like, I was like, man, what
Speaker 2: was that that you threw? Tom Murphy said it was
Speaker 2: a slight almost couldn't tell. And he's like, well, and
Speaker 2: then he tells me. He's like, well, you know, the
Speaker 2: sweepers are really popular right now. So I actually threw
Speaker 2: a sweeper, but I'm now throwing two sliders. I'm throwing
Speaker 2: a sweeper which he adjusted, and then a gyro slider.
Speaker 2: And he's like, but what I haven't done is I
Speaker 2: haven't found quite the confidence. But I have my command
Speaker 2: on the sweeper, which is hilarious because a lot of
Speaker 2: people might cite that sweepers are a little bit less commandy.
Speaker 2: Yet this guy huge movement across the board, he's got
Speaker 2: a big fastball, he's just got pro command. He reminds
Speaker 2: me of George Kirby. I think it's the same pass.
Speaker 2: He's cool, he's calm, he's collected. Last year, you know,
Speaker 2: ten k per nine across the two main levels. We're
Speaker 2: not going to focus. He had one start in Loway,
Speaker 2: that doesn't matter. Ere was solid, got a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of innings under his plate, around one hundred and twenty,
Speaker 2: and I think he's ready, and I think he's got
Speaker 2: like phenomenal phenomenal command. And in the spring he's gotten
Speaker 2: to two games so far he struck out six over
Speaker 2: five innings. Bryce Miller is an absolute dude. He's also
Speaker 2: one of those guys that after a couple graduations, I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty safe to say that Bryce Miller is
Speaker 2: going to be an easy top ten starting pitching prospect
Speaker 2: in minor league baseball. And if he gets an opportunity,
Speaker 2: if there's an injury or there's just some rotation open,
Speaker 2: Bryce Miller is going to be one of those guys.
Speaker 2: I'm very confident he's going to get run this year.
Speaker 2: But as far as prospects that are rising, and we're
Speaker 2: looking at pitchers when pitchers are not Andrew Painter getting hurt,
Speaker 2: that's not good. Bryce Miller is one of the few
Speaker 2: that's moving up.
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Speaker 1: and experience more. And now back to the action. Another
Speaker 1: guy's moving up as Ronnie Mauricio, the New York Mets
Speaker 1: who all of a sudden over the winter became a
Speaker 1: grown ass man. I mean, this guy looks completely different,
Speaker 1: and he was a younger prospect. We all know the
Speaker 1: international guys get signed really young and they're literally still growing.
Speaker 1: And Ronny Mauricio came into camp and Ronnie and Maurisio
Speaker 1: has been hitting balls just onto another planet. It felt
Speaker 1: like this spring. I caught more than one of his
Speaker 1: at bats, quite a few actually, and it just looked
Speaker 1: like such a confident player. Right now, we know the
Speaker 1: power is real. This Mets system, between Viento's and Mauricio
Speaker 1: and Alvarez and Baby, it's a lot of good pieces
Speaker 1: that they can move, and if they do, these guys
Speaker 1: might get a quicker path to the big leagues. But still,
Speaker 1: some of these guys might be so good you can't
Speaker 1: keep them out of at bats at some point. Now,
Speaker 1: Mauricio is not going to make the big club. We
Speaker 1: all know that. But in terms of his stock, I
Speaker 1: think the spring has gone a long way. But you've
Speaker 1: got him on your list as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this is one that I hadn't. I
Speaker 2: haven't made the big move on my personal prospect list,
Speaker 2: which again I do think we can talk about it
Speaker 2: in two different ways. There's like prospect long term and
Speaker 2: then there's prospects that can help you for redraft right now.
Speaker 2: But I have to give a deeper.
Speaker 1: Look at redraft guy just to be you know, clear,
Speaker 1: for everybody like Strand, maybe Miller probably a little bit
Speaker 1: a year away. Mauricio probably not right away either, but
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly I think he opens his eyes. I'd
Speaker 1: say the.
Speaker 2: Top three are definitely more redrafty guys. Mauricio is in
Speaker 2: this weird middle. It's so funny because I remember him
Speaker 2: getting time a couple of years ago when he's like
Speaker 2: nineteen years old. At the Mets, and he was so
Speaker 2: much skinnier, And you are right, he is a grown
Speaker 2: ass man. He got big and last year he put
Speaker 2: up big numbers, twenty six homers, twenty stolen bases. One
Speaker 2: of the most important keys is a strikeout percentage. Didn't
Speaker 2: go nuts. It was twenty three percent, and that's huge
Speaker 2: for him. He doesn't walk a ton, and his batting
Speaker 2: average has kind of consistently sunk. But he's kind of
Speaker 2: sitting in as like this two point fifty hitter who
Speaker 2: can run and can hit big homers this spring, like
Speaker 2: you mentioned four homers with a stolen base, hitting three
Speaker 2: to oh four in twenty three at bats, four homers
Speaker 2: in twenty three at bats, phenomenal, twelve hundred ops. They
Speaker 2: list them at sixty three, one sixty six. There's no way.
Speaker 2: I mean, the guy is probably pushing two hundred and
Speaker 2: he's sixty three sixty four. He's going to move off
Speaker 2: that position. I do not believe he'll be a shortstop.
Speaker 2: The problem is is that the Mets team has been
Speaker 2: just so good. They've got all these corner guys, they
Speaker 2: got all these guys that are great, Mark Vientto's. You
Speaker 2: got to find a spot for Brett Batty is good
Speaker 2: in there, You've got DH spot with Francisco Alvarez. So
Speaker 2: I don't exactly know if maybe Maurcio would transition to
Speaker 2: more of like a third and Batty and Vanto's for
Speaker 2: more first. So that's kind of think what holds him back. Also, he's,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty one years old. He's going to spend
Speaker 2: the year at tripa A and this Spring I think
Speaker 2: has built renewed confidence, which is so huge. And actually,
Speaker 2: what I like about him over the other three guys
Speaker 2: is I think Mauricio is a dirt cheap prospect to
Speaker 2: go and buy right now. I don't think his cost
Speaker 2: is now. Obviously Spring is gonna like push it up
Speaker 2: a tiny bit. But this isn't a big name like
Speaker 2: the rest of the guys. This is a guy that
Speaker 2: hasn't really cracked top one hundreds as of recent yet
Speaker 2: he's still only twenty one years old and he's absolutely
Speaker 2: succeeding and he's doing what we needed him to do.
Speaker 2: Is he's putting the bat on the ball. This isn't
Speaker 2: like a high end is Anderston Simmons like defensive shortstop. Now,
Speaker 2: this is a big power bat and he showed us
Speaker 2: off in the miners last year that he could be
Speaker 2: a twenty twenty guy. He's carrying into the spring, which
Speaker 2: is huge. Ronnie Mauricios Arrow is ticking up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and I would say I agree with you,
Speaker 1: is the time to buy him, And whether it be
Speaker 1: for the Mets or another organization, you're gonna see him
Speaker 1: is an important year too. I think you want to
Speaker 1: see those players when they're those young international guys, by
Speaker 1: the time they get to twenty twenty one years old,
Speaker 1: start to physically fill out, because we've seen some of
Speaker 1: those guys not do that, and their stock starts to
Speaker 1: drop and they start to become the well it didn't
Speaker 1: work out kind of group. One more guy on your
Speaker 1: list here before he get to some of the ones
Speaker 1: that are falling. Where I spend obviously more time on
Speaker 1: the guys that are rising because it's more important. But
Speaker 1: Ethan Salas san Diego Padres a young guy here, sixteen
Speaker 1: year old prospect. What are your thoughts here on Sallas
Speaker 1: because I was surprised to see him on this list.
Speaker 2: Well, this is a this is a I want you
Speaker 2: guys to know and understand here. This is not a
Speaker 2: guy that's going to play this year. We can just
Speaker 2: put that out because he is sixteen years old. What
Speaker 2: I do for a couple of years. Well, but see,
Speaker 2: that's what's different about this show, and this is why.
Speaker 2: So when the j fifteen class, I just talked about
Speaker 2: the Sun prospect one, we did bold predictions, and one
Speaker 2: of my bold predictions I'll just tell you guys, is
Speaker 2: I think Ethan Salace by years in could be a
Speaker 2: top twenty five prospect. Overall. I think he could do
Speaker 2: the version of Cheerio. I don't think he's going to
Speaker 2: get to double A. But Ethan Salas was one of
Speaker 2: the new international signees, and right when the class came out,
Speaker 2: everyone's on Felminceelston with the Mariners, and I actually went
Speaker 2: on team Ethan Salace because I'm enamored with his defense.
Speaker 2: I'm enamored with his bat. He's a five tool player.
Speaker 2: He's really this incredible catching prospect. And then I was
Speaker 2: told by a source that this guy not only was
Speaker 2: going to be as a sixteen year old invited to camp,
Speaker 2: but has a shot to go and start at low A,
Speaker 2: which is unheard of. Well, sure enough, I go to
Speaker 2: Pattery's camp, and I meet Ethan Saalace. I talked to
Speaker 2: him physically impressive. He's more impressive than guys two or
Speaker 2: three years above him. And then we get this article
Speaker 2: that comes out Joe that starts talking about the Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame potential of Ethan Saalace, and it blew my
Speaker 2: mind of what I was hearing. And they had also
Speaker 2: confirm that the Padres are giving consideration to sending him
Speaker 2: to low A. The story gets better. He played in again,
Speaker 2: a sixteen year old prospect played in a spring training
Speaker 2: game the other day. He caught Ryan Weathers in like
Speaker 2: the sixth inning, which was phenomenal. You get to see
Speaker 2: his framing, you get to see his catching work. Didn't
Speaker 2: do anything with the bat, but he gotten at bat.
Speaker 2: All of these things were the storytelling side that the
Speaker 2: sixteen year old really might start LOWE and that might
Speaker 2: give him the potential to finish at high A and
Speaker 2: barely over seventeen years old. That's the type of rise
Speaker 2: that no one expected. You know, this is usually Felon Selston,
Speaker 2: for example, is going to stay and play in the
Speaker 2: Dominican Summer League this year. He didn't come stateside. He's
Speaker 2: going to stay there. Ethan Salas might start next year
Speaker 2: at High A or Double A as a seventeen year old.
Speaker 2: So you say he's not going to come soon, he
Speaker 2: is going to come sooner rather than later. This might
Speaker 2: be our next nineteen year old major league debuter, and
Speaker 2: his rise is going to be huge. He's going to
Speaker 2: break the curse of the internet bad international guys. I
Speaker 2: have been very, very big on him, and it was
Speaker 2: a bold prediction I put for Ethan Salas. But if
Speaker 2: the bat plays like I think it is, he's a
Speaker 2: linked defense and the padres are just going to move him.
Speaker 2: He was in a spring training game. Go and watch
Speaker 2: that video. It's wild. So Ethan Salas is a huge,
Speaker 2: huge prospect riser, but it is definitely more for deeper
Speaker 2: dynasty and you're gonna have to wait a little bit.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get to the guys who are
Speaker 1: falling on the prospect list. I want to remind everybody
Speaker 1: cheating is okay. When you use our cheat sheet creator
Speaker 1: or fantasypros dot com slaft Draft Wizard, that's where you
Speaker 1: want to go. So say out of the endless hours
Speaker 1: of research, because the cheat cheet creator again, you could
Speaker 1: select your favorite experts me and the Welsh or anybody
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Speaker 1: You ain't cheating, or at least cheat cheating, you ain't trying.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep that like that. What do you think
Speaker 1: of that? All right, let's get some of the guys
Speaker 1: on the downside. We'll spend a little less time on
Speaker 1: these guys. Andrew Painter has got to be the first one.
Speaker 1: He's got the UCL sprained. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: rumors this guy was going to make the rotation. How
Speaker 1: is it gonna work? You know, we don't see a
Speaker 1: lot of nineteen year old pictures that shades of Dwight
Speaker 1: Gooden nineteen eighty four. But I mean, it's disappointing. I'd
Speaker 1: be very surprised if he doesn't have Tommy John. You know,
Speaker 1: four weeks the UCL spray and then we're gonna say,
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I've heard this story so many times,
Speaker 1: so This is a huge bummer obviously twenty twenty threes
Speaker 1: in jeopardy, But long term, what's your projection here for him?
Speaker 1: I know, short terms, definitely a guy that's falling because
Speaker 1: he's not going to be available for probably my guess
Speaker 1: is at least this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was going to do I think Julio Arius
Speaker 2: was the last nineteen year old pitcher to make the
Speaker 2: major I think they just stop as a WBC playing
Speaker 2: for Mexico. But yeah, no, it's a huge disappointment. They
Speaker 2: were giving legitimate consideration of him breaking camp and using
Speaker 2: those innings at the major league level. I don't feel
Speaker 2: optimistic that that UCL is going to feel good. I
Speaker 2: don't think the team really cared about the timeline. So
Speaker 2: that's why I think they're just going to sit on
Speaker 2: it for a month and that they come back. They
Speaker 2: just give Tommy John and it's just going to push.
Speaker 2: The next year is already lost if that's the case,
Speaker 2: So I don't feel optimistic about it. What's really interesting
Speaker 2: is there's a lot of conversation right now in the
Speaker 2: prospect world about like where and how does he fall?
Speaker 2: And there was a trade offer I had saw someone
Speaker 2: was like whould you rather have Tyler Soderstrom or Andrew Painter,
Speaker 2: And multiple prospect people were saying that they would actually
Speaker 2: take Tyler Schoderstrom right now. And that's not the case
Speaker 2: for me, just because, like year old, it's a nineteen pitcher.
Speaker 2: I don't want to give up prospect timelines don't usually
Speaker 2: change necessarily off of injury. I don't love that he's
Speaker 2: having that he could theoretically have Tommy John, but there's
Speaker 2: also kind of a sense of like, well, got it
Speaker 2: out of the.
Speaker 1: Way and maybe he closed this time young two, and
Speaker 1: he was a very highly regarded, you know, top five
Speaker 1: pitching prospect and it worked out pretty well for him
Speaker 1: for a few years on a last years of down year.
Speaker 1: But we already talk we're buying back in. So I'm
Speaker 1: not too worried about Painter long term, but for this
Speaker 1: year there's absolutely the stock down. What about Daniel Aspino,
Speaker 1: uh Cleveland starting pitcher two. This is another guy that's,
Speaker 1: you know, part of an organization that's done a pretty
Speaker 1: good job over the last twenty years of you know,
Speaker 1: creating some pitching prospects here and cashing in on them.
Speaker 1: So what do you think of his Spino why is
Speaker 1: he going in the wrong direction for you?
Speaker 2: Well, also injury related stuff he's got, I believe he had.
Speaker 2: He had left shoulder soreness and swelling that happened after
Speaker 2: a throwing session in January. Now people don't know. Also,
Speaker 2: Daniel Espino completely retransformed his body. It's wild. He looks
Speaker 2: like a body builder in pictures he'd shared this offseason,
Speaker 2: much more lower maintained type of guy who's it just says,
Speaker 2: it was like off the charts to me with how
Speaker 2: he looked. But in all of that, and I think
Speaker 2: this has been a very common thing we've seen I've
Speaker 2: seen in young players, is when that body overtakes a big,
Speaker 2: massive change, there's there's a time period that they've got
Speaker 2: to readjust to it, whether it is, you know, losing
Speaker 2: weight or gaining muscle or whatever it is. And maybe
Speaker 2: that played a role in it. But Daniel Spina is
Speaker 2: one of the hardest throwers in baseball and to also
Speaker 2: have like shoulder soreness and swelling, that's really really bad.
Speaker 2: And then he had a it was a tear of
Speaker 2: like a capsule in his shoulder. Bottom line, He's missing
Speaker 2: about eight weeks. This was as of like February, and
Speaker 2: that's going to take him into some of the minor
Speaker 2: league season lost. But this is another one of those
Speaker 2: pictures with like a severe arm injury that's going to
Speaker 2: go into the year, and this kind of takes back
Speaker 2: the timeline. So like Andrew Painter, this isn't a guy
Speaker 2: that I want to tank in value, but this guy
Speaker 2: has had multiple injuries in miss time and is worth
Speaker 2: consideration of, like how high do we really want him?
Speaker 2: Could this be the next Alex Reyesk Could he be
Speaker 2: better for the back of a bullpen if he can't
Speaker 2: stay healthy. So what I think has happened is Daniel
Speaker 2: Espinho's moving into this territory where he was battling Ricky
Speaker 2: Tiedeman and Yuri Perez. He was in that range, and
Speaker 2: I think he's moving back to being like do we
Speaker 2: really want to risk him over tink Hence or even
Speaker 2: Bryce Miller at this point. So I think he's moved
Speaker 2: back a tier because of this injury, which is another
Speaker 2: back to back season injury, and this one is coming
Speaker 2: before the start of the year, and there's just like
Speaker 2: a lot of lost potential right now. So Daniel Espinho
Speaker 2: is one of those guys kind of been out of sight,
Speaker 2: out of mind recently, but it's because he's just not
Speaker 2: on the field because he's injured.
Speaker 1: Marco Luciano just got optioned by the San Francisco Giants
Speaker 1: back down to Double A. He had a injury riddled
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. Now it's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a huge show me year for him. He's twenty
Speaker 1: one years old. He's been a big time prospect for
Speaker 1: a while now, and I understand. You know, when he
Speaker 1: gets end back down, your stock's gonna go down. Nobody's
Speaker 1: I think too shocked about this. But where do you
Speaker 1: stand here with Lucian or are you a guy that
Speaker 1: you are buying on him right now because it's at
Speaker 1: a rock bottom price, or are you staying away because
Speaker 1: maybe this is one of these guys that just doesn't
Speaker 1: quite ever realize his potential.
Speaker 2: So I definitely am all about buying in on really
Speaker 2: talented players. And I'll tell you this, Marca Luciano is
Speaker 2: a incredibly talented player. I've got to see him at
Speaker 2: multiple different levels. It's crazy, crazy batspeed with crazy power.
Speaker 2: He kind of moved away from running a little bit,
Speaker 2: and I think he could be moved off this position
Speaker 2: that's kind of been thought of forever. But I'm starting
Speaker 2: to get into a space where I'm over it. You know,
Speaker 2: he came up in the same rookie level as C. J.
Speaker 2: Abrams and Corbyn Carroll, And I've cited this before and
Speaker 2: look at those guys. Those are both you know, major
Speaker 2: league starters. Corban Carroll has got one hundred and eleven
Speaker 2: million dollars and Marco Luciano can't hit double A and
Speaker 2: he consistently gets hurt, he underperforms, He was hurt all
Speaker 2: last year. He hurt himself in the Dominican Winner League.
Speaker 2: His back that he's recovering from, his timeline has slowed,
Speaker 2: and that is really turning me off. So like if,
Speaker 2: and I've been a defender of Marko Luciano for a
Speaker 2: long time because I think offensively he really has the
Speaker 2: potential to be an elite player, but the strikeout numbers
Speaker 2: have been worrisome. Overall contact rates I think are going
Speaker 2: to drop as it gets to higher levels. So at
Speaker 2: this point, I'm off of Marco Luciano and I hate
Speaker 2: to do it because I think he's a really talented
Speaker 2: player and he could be a buyback if someone's on
Speaker 2: him real cheap. But I think his stock is falling.
Speaker 2: The Dominican Winter League injury was just one more bad
Speaker 2: notch in his belt, and I don't think there's any
Speaker 2: time there's any feasible way we see him this year.
Speaker 2: So he's at least two years behind his peers for
Speaker 2: merkey ball.
Speaker 1: All right, next to get on the list with somebody
Speaker 1: actually going into the year. In spring training, you were
Speaker 1: pretty high on was Mattmrvis, Chicago Cubs first baseman. So
Speaker 1: why are we souring Welsh?
Speaker 2: That's Matt Nervis. Well, okay. One of the things I
Speaker 2: can tell you about Matt Nervis was I thought this
Speaker 2: was going to be handed to him. It seemed like
Speaker 2: it was going to be handed to him, and the
Speaker 2: Chicago Cubs did everything possible to not give him the job.
Speaker 2: They signed Eric Costmer, they signed Trey Mancini, they brought
Speaker 2: in Edwin Rios, and we said, okay, well, you know,
Speaker 2: he was phenomenal year last year. One of the few prospects.
Speaker 2: One of the most impressive things I've ever seen is
Speaker 2: first off, the seventy six I think extra bases he
Speaker 2: had between doubles and homers. He also improved a strikeout
Speaker 2: rate at every single level last year while walking more.
Speaker 2: All great stuff. He was good in the AFL, but
Speaker 2: there's something off, and you could see in the AFL
Speaker 2: like that it was going to be like high velocity
Speaker 2: fastballs and good pitch mixes were going to mess with
Speaker 2: him defensively. I didn't know if he was up there
Speaker 2: and just something seem off. As they kept signing players, well,
Speaker 2: he's had the conversation around this was, oh, well, Eric
Speaker 2: Cosmer can't hold him down, blah blah blah. Okay, you
Speaker 2: gotta have a good spring. If you have a good spring,
Speaker 2: I think you can get this team off at even
Speaker 2: though I think they brought Hasmer in for leadership, you
Speaker 2: could push him off. Matt Murvers has not had a
Speaker 2: good spring. He's hitting one a eighteen in seventeen at bats.
Speaker 2: He's got a three eighteen OVP. His ops is four
Speaker 2: ninety four. He has two total hits. This is not
Speaker 2: the spring that he needed to crack that roster when
Speaker 2: they've got all these first basemen. So where he was
Speaker 2: moving up in like NFBC drafts, we saw him like
Speaker 2: crack the top two hundred. That's gone. That is completely
Speaker 2: gone with Matt Murvis, and I think it's gonna take
Speaker 2: some Triple A seasoning. It's going to take a bad
Speaker 2: bat for Hosmer. And where if he had been good
Speaker 2: in spring and they still sent him down, I would
Speaker 2: have been like, all right, may he could come up.
Speaker 2: I think this is a halfway through the year where
Speaker 2: the Cubs have to have a realization they're out of it.
Speaker 2: They move on from Hosmer and then Mrvis comes up,
Speaker 2: so I think their worry has kind of moved over
Speaker 2: to me in really the huge jump that he's been given.
Speaker 2: I still think he's a great prospect. I think he's
Speaker 2: got huge power, he's going to find a good spot,
Speaker 2: but I think there might be some bigger questions about
Speaker 2: the type of quality contact he's actually gonna make, and
Speaker 2: we're going to see it this year with whatever full
Speaker 2: season of Triple A before he's brought up to the majors.
Speaker 1: Last guy on the list is a Yankee. A lot
Speaker 1: of Yankee prospects are getting a lot of helium Volpi
Speaker 1: do Mingez Parraza, not so much. Austin Wells. The only
Speaker 1: thing he's really got going for him right now is
Speaker 1: an amazing Rick sarone esque mustache because I love this
Speaker 1: picture of him here. But let's talk about Austin Wells
Speaker 1: right now, catching prospect for the Yankees. What are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on him? Why is he also somebody that's falling
Speaker 1: in your ranks?
Speaker 2: Well, it was just the injury. Again, these are very
Speaker 2: injury focused. I think it's hard at this point in
Speaker 2: spring training to really pick on a lot of prospects
Speaker 2: and players to be major followers. I mean, one I
Speaker 2: would have thrown at you, is Kumar Rocker? Really incredible
Speaker 2: of how bad Kumar Rocker has been in spring and
Speaker 2: how inconsistent he's been in bullpen sessions, and maybe it's good.
Speaker 2: I want him to be good. I desperately want him
Speaker 2: to be good. I love it. I think his slider
Speaker 2: is his key to everything, kind of like how Hunter
Speaker 2: Green was that it's just not happening. The confidence consistency's
Speaker 2: not there. So a lot of these outside of those
Speaker 2: tiny specific ones have to be more tangible things like
Speaker 2: an injury. And Austin Wells, who I think was moving
Speaker 2: up a little bit, had a fifteen to fifteen season
Speaker 2: bat's been pretty live, has not moved out that position. Either.
Speaker 2: I interviewed him in the AFL like a year and
Speaker 2: a little over, yeah, year and a half ago, and
Speaker 2: I'd asked him, you know, would the team consider playing
Speaker 2: him anywhere else? And He's like, the team has never
Speaker 2: talked to me about it. He's never been talked about
Speaker 2: moving off that position. So one of the reasons I
Speaker 2: think that's kind of a negative is I don't think
Speaker 2: he's particularly a crazy high end defensive catcher, and I
Speaker 2: just don't. And when you have Travilla, you already have
Speaker 2: Jose Travino and Kyle. I don't think they're going to
Speaker 2: be like that's a position that he's going to be
Speaker 2: able to crack anytime soon. So if he were to
Speaker 2: be moving and playing some other spots, I feel a
Speaker 2: little bit more optimistic. But just suffered an injury that's
Speaker 2: going to set him back a little bit for the
Speaker 2: start of the season. I think positionally that's out there,
Speaker 2: and it's also kind of flooded with catchers. I've moved
Speaker 2: him down just a little bit. But this is the
Speaker 2: barrage of injury. It's Matt Mrvis and the injuries. That's
Speaker 2: a new band name. It's Matt Nervis and all the
Speaker 2: injuries for the five that are moving down.
Speaker 1: I heard they're playing Coachella this year. It's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 1: Just to recap everybody. The prospects that are falling. Andrew Painter,
Speaker 1: pitcher for the Phillies, Danie Lspino Cleveland starter, Marco Luciano
Speaker 1: shortsaut for the Giants, Matt Murvis first basement for the
Speaker 1: Cubs in Austin Wells, New York Yankees catcher the ones
Speaker 1: on the rise, Christian and Carnacion Strand corner guy for
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Reds, and Oscar Colas from the White Sox.
Speaker 1: Outfielder Bryce Miller on his way up for Seattle. And
Speaker 1: the starting pitcher Ronnie Maurizio, the short stuff of the
Speaker 1: New York Mets, grown boy now and Ethan Sallas the
Speaker 1: young boy for the San Diego Padres. The catching prospects.
Speaker 1: So there you have it. Make sure you drop a
Speaker 1: comment below the prospects that you are watching. You're in
Speaker 1: our YouTube channel, and again, congratulations, fam we did it
Speaker 1: ten k sobs. Now the next goal's got to be fifteen.
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Speaker 1: That'll do it for us, but the story of the
Speaker 1: game goes on for the Welsh. I'm Joey P. We'll
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