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Speaker 1: If you told me that Jet Williams is going to

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Speaker 1: become the Mets everyday second baseman of you know, for five, six,

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Speaker 1: seven years.

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Speaker 2: That wouldn't shock me.

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Speaker 1: And if you told me it's gonna be the center

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Speaker 1: fielder for you know, next you until he hits free agencies,

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Speaker 1: that wouldn't shock me either.

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Speaker 3: The New York Mets farm system keeps getting better, and

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Speaker 3: I'm excited to talk about this next guy. He is

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Speaker 3: their number one prospect according to Baseball America. Let's hit

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Speaker 3: the prospect profile. It's a fun name too, Scottie Bron

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Speaker 3: JJ Cooper, Jeff Ponds. I'm talking about Jet Williams. That's

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Speaker 3: a fun name. And he's not the biggest dude. He's

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Speaker 3: not what they look like as some would say for

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Speaker 3: a top prospect JJ. But why is he number one

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Speaker 3: in their system?

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Speaker 1: You know how he had Bob Walk and Bob Walk

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Speaker 1: was a terrible name for a pitcher who kind of

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Speaker 1: you know, threw strikes. Jet Williams is a perfect name

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Speaker 1: for Jet Williams because when you ask, well, what's Jet

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Speaker 1: Williams game like, it's their speed, you know, in addition

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Speaker 1: to some power on base skills. All that the thing

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Speaker 1: I can't get away from though, like you mentioned, he's

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Speaker 1: not the tall guy. Five foot six is what he's

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Speaker 1: listed at. I think when I started Baseball America, which

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Speaker 1: is more years ago than I would like to admit,

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you'd have been our number one

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Speaker 1: Mets prospect, because there was a time where we were

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Speaker 1: really I would say that we got really concerned about,

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Speaker 1: you know, stature, right, like a five foot six guys

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Speaker 1: he gonna have enough impact?

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Speaker 2: Is he gonna hit the ball hard enough?

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Speaker 1: Is he gonna hold up in the mind in the

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Speaker 1: major league grind enough to be, you know, an impact

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Speaker 1: player in the big leagues. And Jose Altuve and Dustin

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Speaker 1: Pedroia and guys like that have really kind of paved

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Speaker 1: the way kind of shown like, hey, it's not how

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Speaker 1: tall you are, it's kind of how strong you are.

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Speaker 1: And there are some advantages also to being five foot six.

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Speaker 1: Jet Williams gets on base. Jet Williams has a good

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Speaker 1: eye of the strike zone, and you have a short swing.

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Speaker 1: When you're that, you know, you have shorter levers, makes

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Speaker 1: it a little user to control that swing. So I

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Speaker 1: put all that together, Jeff, like, what is it that

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Speaker 1: really kind of jumps out to you and makes Jet

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Speaker 1: the number one prospect in a Mets system that has

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Speaker 1: a couple of guys who are solid candidates.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think you know some really good pitchers there,

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Speaker 5: of course, But you know, I think the thing with

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Speaker 5: at Williams and you talk to scouts or even just

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Speaker 5: you know, sit on a couple of games and just

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Speaker 5: sort of see how he plays the game, you know,

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Speaker 5: ultra competitive, ultra fiery, you know, sort of a guy

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Speaker 5: that you would say plays with his hair on fire,

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Speaker 5: but versatile tools. Maybe not the most tooled up guy,

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Speaker 5: but there are some loud tools that will show from

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Speaker 5: time to time. There is speed, there's more impact than

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Speaker 5: you think. I mean, there's been you know, ninety percent.

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Speaker 5: Bile ev is like above one oh three point five,

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Speaker 5: so it's about major league average.

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Speaker 4: So he does a lot of things really well.

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Speaker 5: I think, you know, not necessarily a shortstop long term,

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Speaker 5: but probably has the ability to play there a little bit,

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Speaker 5: could fit in center field, second base. I think he's

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Speaker 5: a guy that could almost be like a super utility type,

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Speaker 5: play a bunch of different positions, hit at the top

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Speaker 5: of a lineup. As you mentioned, his on base skills

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Speaker 5: are excellent. There's bats of ball skills there as well.

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Speaker 5: Kind of had an underwhelming regular season in twenty twenty

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Speaker 5: four due to some injuries, but shows sparks again in AFL,

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Speaker 5: and I think with a full healthy offseason, could be

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Speaker 5: poised to potentially make the jump and help the Mets

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Speaker 5: this year.

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Speaker 1: We know he had a risk injury, that's kind of

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Speaker 1: something we're hoping in twenty twenty five is kind of

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Speaker 1: put behind him. But that's kind of one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons he went to the years in a fall league.

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Speaker 1: But really that's kind of the key thing for the Mets,

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Speaker 1: the key things for Jet Williams in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: This should be the year he arrives in the big leagues,

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Speaker 1: but it's mainly about staying healthy. And what is interesting

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Speaker 1: about this And I wanted to see what you think

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Speaker 1: about this, Jet, Jeff. But when I look at Jet

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Speaker 1: Williams and you say, okay, if I'm a Mets fan,

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Speaker 1: I've never seen him play, and you say, well, give

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Speaker 1: me a description of him. It's kind of a similar

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Speaker 1: skill set to Luis anhel Akunya, who also kind of

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Speaker 1: had a rough season but then had a very good,

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Speaker 1: very impactful addition to the you know, to the big

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Speaker 1: league roster at the end of the season. I think

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Speaker 1: Jet Williams is kind of a better version of that,

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Speaker 1: but again, some of that position, versatility, on base skills

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Speaker 1: and and you know, the the ability to kind of

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Speaker 1: provide an impact on the base pass as well.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't think it's that different. It's sort of

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Speaker 5: the same bucket or genre of player. Maybe a little

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Speaker 5: bit more impact and the ability to put the ball

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Speaker 5: in the air more consistently for Williams.

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Speaker 4: Akunya I think is just faster, a little bit more twitchy.

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Speaker 5: Though you know, Jet in his own right of course

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Speaker 5: is quick and you know twitchy as well, you know,

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Speaker 5: hence the name. But you know, I think I think

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Speaker 5: overall it's probably a fairly good comp It's a similar player,

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Speaker 5: but I do think there's maybe a higher outcome potential

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Speaker 5: for Williams, just based on the on base ability and

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Speaker 5: some of that stuff, and I do think the impact

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Speaker 5: is a little bit more actualized.

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Speaker 3: I want to go global for a moment, JJ, Do

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Speaker 3: you feel much better about the Mets farm system these days?

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Speaker 3: This was the missing link for them as they try

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Speaker 3: to mimic the Dodgers. On the East Coast. That's at

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Speaker 3: least what their owner, the owner of the organization has

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Speaker 3: in mind. Steve Cohen, He's like, we want to be

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Speaker 3: the Dodgers the East. They certainly have the money portioned down,

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Speaker 3: but the farm system portion was a problem, and I

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Speaker 3: felt like, you know, those Verlander Scherzer deals were starting

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Speaker 3: to help load up on the prospect side, and they've

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Speaker 3: remained disciplined by not trading away names like Jet Williams.

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Speaker 2: I'd say the depth is getting there.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're still going to want a little bit

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Speaker 1: more of top end impact talent. I would say that

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Speaker 1: the Mets don't compare to some other teams at the

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Speaker 1: top of our farm system rankings. Like again, you look

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Speaker 1: at what the Red Sox are doing right now, that

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Speaker 1: always jumps out what the Raids are doing. But at

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Speaker 1: the same time, I also want to acknowledge the Mets

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Speaker 1: have kind of as you said, they've been disciplined, but

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Speaker 1: they've not been sellers very often. This is the team

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Speaker 1: then the last couple of years has been more of

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Speaker 1: trying to to not give away the farm system, but

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Speaker 1: they're also not really adding to it that much. Since

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Speaker 1: the Drew Gilbert trades and the moves like that. So

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Speaker 1: you look at this overall, I say, yes, the trend

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Speaker 1: line is a positive one. And the other thing that

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Speaker 1: kind of jumps out with that is is they're now

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Speaker 1: in a different situation they were before because you look

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Speaker 1: at them now, I'd say that the Mets now are

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Speaker 1: in a situation where prospects are to fill holes as

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Speaker 1: they need them, and you know, again, having depth is

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Speaker 1: beneficial for that. We've seen that kind of the Mark

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Speaker 1: Viento's Brett Batty thing where Okay, we thought Baty was

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Speaker 1: gonna be the guy. Then Vento's kind of is the

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Speaker 1: one who stepped up, and maybe Baty does in the future,

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Speaker 1: but that kind of gave them that Plan B option,

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Speaker 1: So they have done a better job of that. They're

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Speaker 1: doing a little bit better job, i'd say on the

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Speaker 1: pitching side of kind of having a number of options

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Speaker 1: coming up.

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Speaker 2: But the key other part of this is they are.

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Speaker 1: Getting to that point where I do think if the

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Speaker 1: Mets are really in it in twenty five, like I

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Speaker 1: look at their farm system, Jeff and say, there are

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Speaker 1: a number of players here who could end up being trades,

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Speaker 1: you know, to kind of really bulk up the big

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Speaker 1: league club by trading away prospects.

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Speaker 5: Now, yeah, ultimately, I think when that Dodgor's line was made,

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Speaker 5: that's sort of what their goal was. You know, they

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Speaker 5: have the ability to acquire big contracts, players that you know,

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Speaker 5: have expiring deals that they potentially could resigned for big money.

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Speaker 5: And I think, you know, ultimately that's what the goal

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Speaker 5: for the Mets is. To build up this farm system

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Speaker 5: to have you know, a kitty of assets that they

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Speaker 5: can more or less go to and and move when

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Speaker 5: they need to at the deadline or any other point

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Speaker 5: in time, to you know, keep improving that that major

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Speaker 5: league roster or supplement players that maybe get hurt that's

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Speaker 5: obviously going to happen throughout a season. I think, you know,

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Speaker 5: that's what the model probably is, and it's probably it

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Speaker 5: seems like it's it's building up to that point and

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Speaker 5: sort of all systems go. And there's certainly not an

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Speaker 5: organization that's scared to invest in the international market or

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Speaker 5: in the draft.

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Speaker 3: One more for you, JJ, and this is more of

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Speaker 3: a global question as well. Do you think that the

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Speaker 3: Mets would want to position Jet Williams to a certain spot.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I feel like it's always been difficult for

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Speaker 3: teams to find center fielders that can hit and stay

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Speaker 3: on the field versus an infielder. You're bringing up the

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Speaker 3: Acunya versus Jet Williams comp It sounds like Acuna would

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Speaker 3: be better served in the infield. But curious if your take.

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Speaker 1: I do think I think jets are the same thing.

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Speaker 1: I think that center field probably is the best long

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Speaker 1: term fit for Jet, But I do think that the versatility.

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Speaker 1: I think teams nowadays love to kind of leave these

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Speaker 1: questions kind of open ended, because crazy things can happen.

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Speaker 2: I'll put it this way.

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Speaker 1: If you told me that Jet Williams is going to

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Speaker 1: become the Mets everyday second baseman of you know, for five, six,

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Speaker 1: seven years, that wouldn't shock me. And if you told

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Speaker 1: me it's gonna be the center fielder for you know,

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Speaker 1: next you until he hits free agency, that wouldn't shock

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Speaker 1: me either. But at the same time, South Relick becoming

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Speaker 1: an infielder for the Brewers, that would shock me. And

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Speaker 1: we're seeing things like that. I think that teams really

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Speaker 1: do like keeping their options open nowadays, and Jet Williams

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Speaker 1: is the player who gives you a lot of those

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Speaker 1: where you say, okay, let's go to spring training, let's

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Speaker 1: go to mid season, because he probably needs a little

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Speaker 1: bit more on the minor. But when he's in the

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Speaker 1: minors this year, they can look at it and say, well,

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Speaker 1: if we have injuries, if we have a need, this

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Speaker 1: is the guy who can plug in at multiple positions,

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Speaker 1: So we want to keep that versatility going. Just from

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Speaker 1: the standpoint of it provides multiple avenues for him to

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Speaker 1: end up in the big leagues, rather than say, this

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Speaker 1: guy is a center fielder and yeah, you can move

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Speaker 1: him to a corner, but these are the only options.

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Speaker 1: And in that case, maybe yet you have a need

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Speaker 1: that comes up because of something unexpected and you say, ah,

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Speaker 1: wish we hadn't closed that door.

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Speaker 3: So Jet Williams number one on Baseball America's list for

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Speaker 3: the New York Mets. You can learn about many more

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Speaker 3: number ones with other organizations by just staying here on

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Speaker 3: the Baseball America YouTube channel. Get yourself a subscription to

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Speaker 3: and learn about all of the top prospects in different organizations,

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Speaker 3: and we will see you on the next one.

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Speaker 5: Their hope, i think, is to build a lot of

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Speaker 5: depth in the system. Hope that a couple of guys

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Speaker 5: pop and that they have the pitching to sort of

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Speaker 5: push them into a competitive window.

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Speaker 3: Let's learn about the top prospect in the Miami Marlins organization.

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Speaker 3: Provided by Baseball America. It's called a prospect profile. I'm

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Speaker 3: Scott Brown along with Baseball Americas, JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce. So, JJ,

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Speaker 3: tell me about Thomas White, and do you think he's

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Speaker 3: the next big thing in Miami on a mound.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I think he's absolutely the next big thing. And

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Speaker 1: he is kind of pretty big too, as you see

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Speaker 1: on the photo there, like this is the guy who's

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Speaker 1: pretty well built already. Coming into twenty twenty four, it

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Speaker 1: was like, okay, Thomas White Noble Meyer the two best

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Speaker 1: pitching prospects in the Marlin system at this point. Here

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Speaker 1: we are in twenty five, and I would say that

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Speaker 1: it's pretty clear that Thomas White looks like the best

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Speaker 1: pitching prospect in the Marlin system. He was considered arguably

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Speaker 1: the best lefty pitching prospect in the twenty three class.

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Speaker 1: You can look at where he was picked and say, really,

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Speaker 1: look how far he fell. It was just because of

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Speaker 1: asking price. This is the guy who kind of showed

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Speaker 1: what he could do in high school and then has

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Speaker 1: only gotten better since then. Jeff, when you look at

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Speaker 1: Thomas White the picture, what is it that makes him

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Speaker 1: the clear cut number one for the Marlins.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I think when you just look at the quality of stuff.

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Speaker 5: Of course, with the performance was you know, throughout the season,

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Speaker 5: you know, White outperform Meyer. But I think when you

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Speaker 5: look at the fastball quality, that was one of the

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Speaker 5: things about Noble Meyer that was sort of questionable, and

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Speaker 5: White I actually was sort of pleasantly surprised the numbers

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Speaker 5: overall in terms of you know, induced vertical break, HB

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Speaker 5: all that sort of stuff. Just how the fastball moves

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Speaker 5: is really good. It's almost Cole Reagan's esque in terms

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Speaker 5: of the amount of ride and run that he gets

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Speaker 5: on it with power. And there was you know, secondaries

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Speaker 5: which were kind of the question coming out of high

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Speaker 5: school here in Massachusetts, was you know, how good is

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Speaker 5: his breaking ball going to get? You know, can he

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Speaker 5: show a quality change up that he can land for strikes?

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Speaker 5: You know consistently? I think that he answered a lot

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Speaker 5: of those questions. He added a slider this year as well,

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Speaker 5: kind of changed the shape of his breaking ball a

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Speaker 5: little bit.

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Speaker 4: So it's an interesting pitch mix, you know.

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Speaker 5: Now he kind of has like a three to four

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Speaker 5: pitch mix where all those pitches kind of move in

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Speaker 5: different directions and have quality, and you know, he's shown

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Speaker 5: the ability to land them consistently in the zone. So

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Speaker 5: I think when you look at all those ingredients, you

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Speaker 5: look at how young he is, as JJ said at

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Speaker 5: the top of the show, his build, and just how

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Speaker 5: physical he already is, and there's probably even some good

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Speaker 5: strength projection left.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 5: I think it's almost no question in terms of who

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Speaker 5: should be the number one pitching prospect and prospect of

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Speaker 5: that Marline system.

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Speaker 1: The thing that you can't help but kind of think

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Speaker 1: of is if someone's trying to say, like, Okay, I've

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Speaker 1: never seen him pitch, what should I be thinking of here?

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Speaker 1: Think Blake Snell, who was a top high school you know,

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Speaker 1: pitching pitching prospect in the Raised system now many years ago.

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Speaker 1: You know it was our mind, was our player of

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Speaker 1: the year now many years ago, also at Baseball America.

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Speaker 1: But when you look at White, like the strengths and

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Speaker 1: the weaknesses the ranks are is really impressive stuff from

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Speaker 1: the left side. If there is a weakness right now,

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Speaker 1: it's the walk rate. It's the control, but sometimes with

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Speaker 1: his control kind of like Blake Snell's, it's a little

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Speaker 1: bit about getting strikeouts. It's a little bit about nibbling.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't feel like it's like he just has no

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Speaker 1: clue of where the strike zone is. It's more of

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Speaker 1: kind of the way he pitches right now, And so

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Speaker 1: you could make the argument, oh, what he's going to

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Speaker 1: have to really do his remaining to do list is

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Speaker 1: he's just got to get a lot better at throwing

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Speaker 1: strikes consistently. Or then you could also look at it

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Speaker 1: and say it's going to be hard for Yeah, he'll

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Speaker 1: keep working on that, but this is working for him

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Speaker 1: pretty well right now. And with that being the case,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of yeah, it's something you would love to

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Speaker 1: see him take a step forward with, but if it

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Speaker 1: doesn't even improve dramatically, we have seen Blake Snell kind

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Speaker 1: of show you can have success with this kind of

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Speaker 1: stuff with that kind of approach, and this was kind

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Speaker 1: of something that was also true of Blake Snell as

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Speaker 1: he was kind of coming up to the miners as well.

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Speaker 1: We saw sometimes colledntrol got better, but we've also seen

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Speaker 1: times where it kind of wavered a little bit as well.

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Speaker 1: Thomas White. Again, he's he's really young, so this is

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Speaker 1: also his to do list as he's really kind of

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Speaker 1: hitting his twenties, you know, So he's he's probably gonna

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Speaker 1: hit double A before he turns twenty one this year,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty remarkable and really just kind of just

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Speaker 1: spells out what an intriguing and interesting pitching prospect.

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Speaker 3: He is. The one thing I noticed sometimes with Smell

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Speaker 3: lately JJ is how he doesn't want to give in.

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Speaker 3: And if you choose that and you're super stubborn, you

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Speaker 3: are going to walk some guys. So I'm wondering, you know,

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Speaker 3: if Thomas White does eventually take that route, how that

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Speaker 3: plays out.

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 3: I mean, sometimes there's the balance of control versus just

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Speaker 3: getting a little bit more aggressive and trusting your stuff. Right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, But I was gonna say, if it plays off

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Speaker 1: in multiple sy youngs, I think you say, thumbs up.

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Speaker 1: Let's just do that a thousand times out of a thousand, agreed?

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Speaker 3: Agreed?

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Speaker 6: All right?

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Speaker 3: Was there anyone else in consider iteration for a spot

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Speaker 3: like this. Thomas White is much, I would say, a

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Speaker 3: lesser known name than most of these number ones that

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Speaker 3: we're going to come across.

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Speaker 1: I will say he's one of the names who you

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Speaker 1: will be hearing a lot more of this year. I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be shocked if he's one of the best pitching

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Speaker 1: prospects in baseball at some point this year. We kind

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Speaker 1: of have that group of guys who are really knocking

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Speaker 1: on the door of the big leagues. That guys like

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Speaker 1: Jackson Job who really is He's already reached the big leagues.

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Speaker 1: Thomas White's part of that next wave. The stuff here's

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Speaker 1: really really impressive. I would say that Jeff mentioned noble Meyer.

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Speaker 1: Noble Meyer was the other guy's in consideration. It just

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Speaker 1: really White kind of took that step forward this year.

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Speaker 1: But if you look at this Marlin system, which I

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Speaker 1: just got to be honest, is not in as great

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Speaker 1: a shape as you would want for a team who's

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Speaker 1: in an utter rebuild. With all of that, they have

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Speaker 1: a lot of intriguing prospects, but there really wasn't anyone

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Speaker 1: else who would say, okay, is that player kind of

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Speaker 1: making argument against White for number one. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of prospects in this Marlin system, I would say

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Speaker 1: now that have plausible paths to big league careers, but

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Speaker 1: we're gonna have to see if how many of them

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Speaker 1: are regulars. And that's something that is really not a

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Speaker 1: question with Thomas White. Thomas White is one hundred percent

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Speaker 1: a plug him into your rotation as long as he

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Speaker 1: stays healthy down the road, plug him in the rotation.

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Speaker 1: Right now, when we talk about he's so young, there's

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Speaker 1: a part of me that thinks, you know, you could

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Speaker 1: be talking about by the end of the year or

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Speaker 1: by twenty twenty six. At the same time, young pitching

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Speaker 1: prospects often will hit a hiccup or two. You don't

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Speaker 1: want to go overboard with that because a guy like

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Speaker 1: Andrew Painter. If we were talking about Andrew Painter a

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Speaker 1: couple of years ago, we just said, man, he's just

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Speaker 1: knocking on the door. Then Tommy John arrives and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's a couple of years later and

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Speaker 1: we're still waiting for him to kick that door in.

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Speaker 1: So there's always the durability risk. There's always you could

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Speaker 1: hit that double, a triple, a setback where you have

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Speaker 1: to make a few adjustments. But you look at this

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Speaker 1: all together and you say, Thomas White should eventually be

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Speaker 1: near at or near the front of the Marlins rotation.

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Speaker 3: And Jeff, the Marlins are a window team, and what

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Speaker 3: I mean is they're never going to have, you know,

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Speaker 3: a ten fifteen year run where they're just good every

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Speaker 3: year under this ownership group or the previous ones that

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Speaker 3: we've seen. Right, We've seen the skit for a long time.

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Speaker 3: So I just think it's important that they actually time

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Speaker 3: out how everyone is peaking, if that makes sense, make

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Speaker 3: sure that you've got guys all kind of coming up

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Speaker 3: at the same time and able to be good around

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Speaker 3: the same time, because I felt like they just missed

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Speaker 3: timed to the last run.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, you know, it's important for teams like

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Speaker 5: this where you know, there's not a fan base that

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Speaker 5: I think is clamoring for victories and you know, consistent

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Speaker 5: winning teams. You know, that's obviously not something that's been

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Speaker 5: part of the Marlins history, even when they did have

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Speaker 5: winning teams for that matter, and the ownership, you know,

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Speaker 5: regardless of whether it was the old ownership group or

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Speaker 5: the new ownership group.

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Speaker 4: Just hasn't sort of invested that way.

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Speaker 5: You know, they brought in Peter Bendix, you know from

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Speaker 5: the Rays, I think they're trying to sort of copy

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Speaker 5: that model.

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Speaker 4: Seems like, there's a lot of multi.

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Speaker 5: Position guys that are coming in, a lot of guys

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Speaker 5: that are a good hit tool, sort of on base

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Speaker 5: ability guys, and then build around pitching. So their hope,

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Speaker 5: i think is to build a lot of depth in

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Speaker 5: the system, hope that a couple of guys pop and

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Speaker 5: that they have the pitching to sort of push them

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Speaker 5: into a competitive window, and then supplement as needed with

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Speaker 5: you know, maybe cheap, older free agents or something like that.

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Speaker 5: That kind of seems like the direction of where they'd

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Speaker 5: like to head. Whether they get there or not is

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Speaker 5: another question. They certainly need to add more talent. They

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Speaker 5: did do a good job of adding some talentsed players,

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Speaker 5: though flawed at last year's trade deadline. There's maybe more

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Speaker 5: impact and power in the system than there's been in

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Speaker 5: a while. And you know, they've done a good job

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Speaker 5: over the years, regardless of what the major league team

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Speaker 5: has been like in terms of developing pitching and getting

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Speaker 5: homegrown or at least players that they acquired who debut

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Speaker 5: with them up to the major leagues and getting them

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Speaker 5: a little bit better.

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Speaker 3: So Thomas White is the name to know for Marlins

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Speaker 3: fans and fans in general. He's number one on Baseball

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Speaker 3: America's list for the Marlins. We do these every single

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Speaker 3: day during spring training, so swing back for another one tomorrow,

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Speaker 3: or if you need to get caught up on others,

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Speaker 3: then you can do so now and please hit the

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Speaker 3: subscribe button here on the Baseball America YouTube channel, or

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Speaker 3: if you're listening on a podcast platform.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, if there's another year for him to find here,

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Speaker 1: then you really are talking about a guy who maybe

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Speaker 1: we're underselling by saying he could be an extremely well

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Speaker 1: rounded player.

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Speaker 3: We're running through top prospects in each organization thanks to

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Speaker 3: Baseball America, and this is a name many of you

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Speaker 3: will know, especially college baseball fans. Let's hit the Washington

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Speaker 3: Nationals player profile. The prospect to know here, Number one

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Speaker 3: on the list. It is Dylan Cruz, first round pick

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Speaker 3: a couple of years ago, Scott Brown, with JJ Cooper

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00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,520
Speaker 3: and Jeff Ponce. So there he is. JJ. We know

438
00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:51,639
Speaker 3: him well, many of us have spoken to him. A

439
00:19:51,720 --> 00:19:54,480
Speaker 3: very nice gentleman who will be asked to be a

440
00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 3: part of the next great Washington Nationals team along with

441
00:19:58,119 --> 00:19:59,720
Speaker 3: James Wood.

442
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:02,720
Speaker 1: And Dylan Cruz. Yeah, this is this is a name

443
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:06,360
Speaker 1: that if you don't know Dylan Cruz's name, yet I'm

444
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 1: glad that you've joined the Baseball America Channel here because

445
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:11,240
Speaker 1: we can help you get up to speed. Because Dylan

446
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:13,639
Speaker 1: Cruz has been famous for quite a while. He was

447
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,520
Speaker 1: considered one of the better high school prospects, maybe the

448
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:19,639
Speaker 1: best high school prospect to get to college in his

449
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,280
Speaker 1: draft class coming out of high school, goes to LSU,

450
00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:26,840
Speaker 1: hits the ground running, is really one of the most decorated,

451
00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,000
Speaker 1: one of the most productive, one of the most storied

452
00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 1: players in LSU history, which, if you know anything about

453
00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,400
Speaker 1: college baseball, LSU college baseball history is a long, deep

454
00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 1: and impressive one. And Dylan Cruz was a key on

455
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:44,960
Speaker 1: a national championship team. And so then here you go,

456
00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:48,760
Speaker 1: he becomes one of the first duo to go one

457
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,520
Speaker 1: two from the same school because Paul Schemes went one

458
00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,760
Speaker 1: to one. Dylan Cruse went one two and reached the

459
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,680
Speaker 1: big leagues with the Nationals. Now, the question, Jeff, though,

460
00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,719
Speaker 1: is is I would say he's the clear James would graduated.

461
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:02,439
Speaker 1: He's the clear number one, I would say on this

462
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 1: Nationals list. But at the same time, do you see

463
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,520
Speaker 1: him as the next you know, uh, James Wood and him.

464
00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:11,479
Speaker 2: Are going to battle to be the star of the

465
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:12,159
Speaker 2: Nationals of.

466
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,479
Speaker 1: The late twenty twenties and twenty thirties or is he

467
00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: more of the complimentary piece and James Wood looks like

468
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 1: the star.

469
00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:21,320
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think he's more of like a complimentary piece.

470
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 5: And you know, I don't necessarily mean that in you know,

471
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,680
Speaker 5: like a derogatory way. I mean you could probably say

472
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,360
Speaker 5: that Scotty Pippen was was a complimentary piece for Michael Jordan, right.

473
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:34,800
Speaker 5: I think he's going to be a really good all

474
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,040
Speaker 5: around player that isn't going to necessarily have the high

475
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:41,199
Speaker 5: highs that what is going to have what is going

476
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,080
Speaker 5: to have? In my opinion, I think he has the

477
00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:46,640
Speaker 5: ability to do stuff that Aaron Judge does, that show

478
00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:48,919
Speaker 5: Hey o Tani does and just kind of be like

479
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,719
Speaker 5: that spectacle of sort of like athleticism and power and

480
00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:54,880
Speaker 5: baseball ability where you know.

481
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:56,360
Speaker 4: Cruz is super tooled up.

482
00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:58,600
Speaker 5: This is a guy that I think, truly when you

483
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:01,919
Speaker 5: say a five tool prospect, he falls into that category.

484
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:03,760
Speaker 4: You know, the hit tool was was pretty good.

485
00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 5: We look at the professional numbers, the strikeout rate was,

486
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 5: you know, around twenty percent. Pretty much in every single level,

487
00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 5: there's a ton of impact here, the.

488
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:13,360
Speaker 4: Home run totals haven't shown up as much.

489
00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,040
Speaker 5: I think some of that is kind of adjusting his

490
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:17,440
Speaker 5: bat path, getting the ball in the air a little

491
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:19,760
Speaker 5: bit more. He's not the first prospect that you know,

492
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,440
Speaker 5: comes over from college baseball dominating with metal bats that

493
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 5: sort of needs to learn how to catch a little

494
00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,639
Speaker 5: bit cleaner barrels to his pull side and get some

495
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,520
Speaker 5: of his hardest contact airborne. But he is a guy

496
00:22:30,520 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 5: that finds the barrel. He does hit the ball really hard.

497
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 5: The EV numbers are all really good in terms of

498
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,360
Speaker 5: you know, the big sample size stuff and the miners

499
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 5: and college baseball, et cetera.

500
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:41,960
Speaker 4: Doesn't swing and miss a lot.

501
00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:43,960
Speaker 5: He got a little bit more aggressive this year in

502
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 5: terms of his plate approach. But I do think like

503
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:49,840
Speaker 5: all around, he does everything really well.

504
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 4: He's this good center fielder.

505
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:53,119
Speaker 5: If they move him to right field, he can probably be,

506
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,120
Speaker 5: you know, one of the better defendive defensive right fielders

507
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,320
Speaker 5: in baseball. He does a lot of things really well.

508
00:22:58,359 --> 00:22:59,879
Speaker 5: I think he's going to be a really good player.

509
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,879
Speaker 5: I almost say it's almost like a super charged Adam Eaton,

510
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 5: which I know doesn't sound super sexy, but if I remember,

511
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 5: Eaton's had one or two, like five war seasons, and

512
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:11,160
Speaker 5: I think that's more in line with what Dylan Cruz

513
00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:13,679
Speaker 5: could be, where maybe it's not thirty home runs and

514
00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 5: thirty stolen bases, but it's like nineteen or twenty with

515
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:19,760
Speaker 5: a great batting average, a ton of runs, defensive run

516
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 5: saved in the outfield.

517
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 4: He just does everything really well.

518
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: To say, I was going to kind of go with

519
00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,960
Speaker 1: that Eaton comp as well. Now eating bad lefty, Cruise

520
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: beats righty, but that as a production comp, I think

521
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 1: it fits pretty well from and Nationals fans should be well,

522
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:35,720
Speaker 1: you know, well versed on kind of who Adam eating

523
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:38,720
Speaker 1: what Adam Eaton can be. The other thing I would

524
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:41,600
Speaker 1: say that does stand out here, though, is is he's

525
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 1: When you look at your twenty twenty five National League

526
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year candidates, you have to put Dylan

527
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,919
Speaker 1: Cruse pretty high on that list because one, we know,

528
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:51,720
Speaker 1: you know, he's already kind of gotten his chance to

529
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 1: get acclimated to the big leagues, which is useful. And

530
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: two I would stay on top of that, he has

531
00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 1: clear opportunity here. He's going to be part of that

532
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,160
Speaker 1: National's outfield. Like you look at it and say it's Wood,

533
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: it's Jacob Young, and it's Cruise probably for twenty twenty

534
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: five and beyond. So he's going to get the at bats,

535
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 1: which is a key part of this is that a

536
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 1: lot of times you'll have guys who may have a

537
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 1: really good rookie year, but it took them a couple

538
00:24:17,119 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 1: of months to get kind of fully, you know, up

539
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,159
Speaker 1: to the big leagues. It took them a while to

540
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,639
Speaker 1: get that everyday job where they're going to face you know,

541
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,159
Speaker 1: they're gonna get the five hundred they're not going to

542
00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,240
Speaker 1: get to that five hundred at bat level. That's not

543
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: gonna be a problem for Dylan Cruz. You put all

544
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 1: that together, and again we're not saying that he's not

545
00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:35,840
Speaker 1: a great player. When we say complimentary, he's one of

546
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,560
Speaker 1: the top prospects in all of baseball. We're just saying

547
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,679
Speaker 1: it's going to be more of a well rounded package.

548
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: A guy who can hit, who can get on base,

549
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 1: going to hit for power, but it's probably not going

550
00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 1: to be home run titles, more productive power, steals bases,

551
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 1: does everything you want to do, and kind of the

552
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,439
Speaker 1: kind of guy that you hopefully turn around in twenty

553
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,439
Speaker 1: thirty five and go, wow, that's really one of the

554
00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,960
Speaker 1: more productive players to ever come through the Nationals, you know,

555
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,639
Speaker 1: to come out of the Nationals farm system, because he

556
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,359
Speaker 1: just does so many things well. And the other thing

557
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,919
Speaker 1: we'll say is last year, that twenty twenty four season

558
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 1: was solid, but it's also possible that we haven't seen.

559
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,400
Speaker 1: What we saw in college from Dylan Cruz was beyond solid.

560
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: It was a guy who's hitting four twenty five in

561
00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,360
Speaker 1: the SEC. No one does that in the big leagues obviously,

562
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,439
Speaker 1: But at the same time, so we might see a

563
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: higher batting average, we might see a little bit more

564
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: obp than we saw in twenty twenty four. And if

565
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: that happens, then really watch out because if it was,

566
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,560
Speaker 1: if twenty twenty four was kind of a down year

567
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: for Dylan Cruise, he was still solid overall. If that,

568
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: you know, if there's another gear for him to find here,

569
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 1: then you really are talking about a guy who maybe

570
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: we're under selling by saying he could be an extremely

571
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 1: well rounded player.

572
00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 3: Okay, I want to finish with this. What we keep

573
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:56,000
Speaker 3: them both on here, So over under for fantasy baseball players,

574
00:25:56,320 --> 00:26:00,280
Speaker 3: thirty four and a half stolen bases, he stole well

575
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:03,119
Speaker 3: last year in one hundred and thirty two played appearances

576
00:26:03,160 --> 00:26:07,879
Speaker 3: and ended up getting tracked at ninety third percentile sprint speed.

577
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,480
Speaker 3: I knew he was fast until you see it in

578
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 3: the big leagues, and he already is using it. That's

579
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 3: what stands out. Sometimes we see guys get called up

580
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 3: and they're on the you know, stat cast rankings pretty high,

581
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,439
Speaker 3: but they're not running yet. He was running right from

582
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 3: the jump. Nationals are pretty aggressive, so JJ then Jeff.

583
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:30,200
Speaker 4: Over, I'm gonna say it's like a push to slightly under.

584
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 5: I think that's right around the neighborhood, say more like

585
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:34,760
Speaker 5: twenty eight to twenty nine.

586
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:35,720
Speaker 4: I like to be a little.

587
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 5: Conservative with those. I don't want to go over. It's

588
00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 5: the prices right rule, right, it's too old school for that, right.

589
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 5: But you know, I think the thing with Cruz, it's

590
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 5: funny is we had talked about this when he was

591
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 5: drafted as a prospect, like there's more speed here than

592
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:51,879
Speaker 5: you realize based on the stolen based numbers at LSU,

593
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 5: because his job at LSU was to drive all the

594
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 5: guys on base in that was he was the big lot,

595
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:00,160
Speaker 5: you know, bat in the lineup where I think he's

596
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,200
Speaker 5: been able to kind of, you know, fit a role

597
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 5: that maybe is more complimentary to his all around skills

598
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:06,400
Speaker 5: and abilities.

599
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:08,520
Speaker 4: So that's a good point you made.

600
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:11,159
Speaker 1: Kind of just makes the note that you know, we

601
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 1: talk about that when we said the Adam Eaton comp Well,

602
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:15,960
Speaker 1: I will say this is a way that he might

603
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:18,760
Speaker 1: be better. Because Eaton never had more than a never

604
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 1: had twenty steals in a season. We think the Dylan

605
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: Cruz will easily go beyond twenty steals in a season.

606
00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm saying. I mean he could be a thirty

607
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,159
Speaker 3: plus stolen base guy. I mean if he really figures

608
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 3: out how to get on base at a consistent rate

609
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 3: and keeps developing. I mean he just got his first

610
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 3: taste of the big leagues. Who knows, maybe it's forty

611
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:37,440
Speaker 3: plus you would think with Adam and oh he's still

612
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,240
Speaker 3: at least twenty. But that's a good call there. So anyway,

613
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,680
Speaker 3: we're excited about this name. Many of you know him already.

614
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 3: Dylan Cruz is the top prospect in the Washington Nationals

615
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 3: organization until that prospect status goes away at some point

616
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:52,199
Speaker 3: this year. So thanks for checking out this one. We

617
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: do a prospect profile in the top prospect in each

618
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 3: organization from Baseball America every single day during spring training,

619
00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 3: so make sure you catch the top prospect videos for

620
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 3: all of the teams.

621
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:04,159
Speaker 2: Yeah. I know he's a rookie.

622
00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know he was limited in the innings this year,

623
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: but hey, he's just better than the guys, the other

624
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,600
Speaker 1: guys who are Canadas to start Game three or maybe

625
00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: it's a Game four.

626
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 3: We're excited to talk about this pitching prospect in the

627
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 3: Phillies organization. He happens to be number one overall in

628
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:24,440
Speaker 3: the Phillies organization according to Baseball America Prospect Profile. Time

629
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:29,200
Speaker 3: on Andrew Painter Scott Brown in Baseball America's JJ Cooper

630
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 3: and Jeff Ponce. Jeff, you got to see Andrew Painter

631
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 3: in person, one of the last people to do so

632
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 3: before he went under the knife.

633
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 5: And then I was there at his return as well. Yeah,

634
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 5: I saw him his third to last start at twenty

635
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 5: twenty two. Of course, he threw a little bit in

636
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 5: spring training going into twenty three before you know, got

637
00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 5: injured in spring training. That then sort of took their

638
00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 5: time in terms of making decision on whether or not

639
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 5: to have Tommy John surgery so effectively he missed two

640
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 5: years and then came back in the Arizona Fall League.

641
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 5: I just so happened to be on the other side

642
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 5: of the country in Arizona for the first week of

643
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 5: the AFL this year, and this was actually the first

644
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 5: of two games on my last day there the first

645
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 5: week of the season. He came back on a Saturday

646
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,240
Speaker 5: at Scottsdale. You could see right there face Bryce Eldridge

647
00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 5: as well as some other top names and prospects. The

648
00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 5: stuff was back to what it had been previously. I'd

649
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 5: say the command and control was a little bit less pinpoint,

650
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 5: but upper ninety stuff getting sort of ride with some

651
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 5: cut on that four seam fastball, mixing a couple of

652
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 5: different breaking ball shapes and showing a change up as well.

653
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 5: As I said, I saw his first start back in

654
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 5: terms of a competitive setting. So the command not being crisp,

655
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:50,959
Speaker 5: I don't think is any real surprise. But overall it

656
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 5: was still turbo stuff, you know, really rare in terms

657
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 5: of movement and power. You just don't see guys like that.

658
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 5: There's probably some some nits that you could pick potentially

659
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:05,280
Speaker 5: about you know, extensions and things like that, but overall,

660
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,720
Speaker 5: Painter looks back and he looks poised to I think,

661
00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 5: sort of get back to where he was going into

662
00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:12,600
Speaker 5: the beginning of twenty twenty three.

663
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:16,480
Speaker 1: I feel like Painter is a guy who is easy

664
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,880
Speaker 1: to have kind of if you pay attention but not

665
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 1: close attention to prospects. It's easy to have forgotten about

666
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: him for a little while because, like Jeff laid out,

667
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: he got hurt in twenty twenty three into spring training,

668
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:32,040
Speaker 1: tried to rehabit, try, you know. I know a lot

669
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: of times fans will be like, why didn't he just

670
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: get it cut on? Then he'd lost time because of that,

671
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 1: But getting Tommy John surgery is a serious surgery. So

672
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: if you kind of have that it could re it,

673
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: could heal, you kind of often want to see if

674
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: you can avoid the knife. In the case of Painter, unfortunately,

675
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: it didn't work out, and it did really mean that

676
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: he missed much of two seasons, right, so he missed

677
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: basically twenty three and twenty four until the airs in

678
00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,440
Speaker 1: a fall league. So there's kind of been this like

679
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 1: little g app in his resume here that's easily explained.

680
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:05,640
Speaker 1: But the thing that does jump out the kidding that

681
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,080
Speaker 1: Jeff saw when he was there in the Arizona Fall League.

682
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: Is the stuff's back like the key thing you want

683
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,520
Speaker 1: to see with a guy coming off of Tommy John surgery. Yeah,

684
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,320
Speaker 1: there was a little bit of rust. Yeah, he's gonna

685
00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: have to shake that off. But before the injuries, Painter

686
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: was as dominant a pitcher in the minor league's as

687
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: there was. He was our first ever Baseball America Minor

688
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:25,840
Speaker 1: League Pitcher of the Year, A new award that we

689
00:31:25,880 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: started the first year was Andrew Painters and in twenty two.

690
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:31,719
Speaker 1: So you see it now and you say, okay, so

691
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,720
Speaker 1: the stuff's back, well great, as soon as the stuff's

692
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 1: back shakes off a little bit of that rust, you

693
00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: are talking already once again about one of the best

694
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:43,640
Speaker 1: pitching prospects in all of baseball and a guy Jeff like,

695
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:45,760
Speaker 1: the question I've kind of have for you is, is

696
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 1: I know he's coming off of Tommy John surgery. I

697
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:50,959
Speaker 1: know he's coming off of basically two lost seasons, But

698
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: is it crazy to think that we shouldn't be expecting

699
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 1: it to be too long in twenty five before we

700
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: see him in the big leagues. The Phillies are already

701
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,360
Speaker 1: kind of laying out the paint plan and how they're

702
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:03,440
Speaker 1: gonna They know they have to limit his innings, but

703
00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:05,960
Speaker 1: at the same time, they know that this guy should

704
00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: be able to make an impact.

705
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:07,760
Speaker 2: For them this year, don't they.

706
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 5: You know, A lot of this is just sort of

707
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:14,480
Speaker 5: positioning him to pitch, you know, once a week, be

708
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 5: able to skip weeks, and just sort of manage the

709
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 5: workload so that way he's available for them late in

710
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:23,440
Speaker 5: the season and into the playoffs. That's really what it

711
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,480
Speaker 5: looks like to me in terms of what his recovery

712
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 5: time would be kind of would have had a normal

713
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 5: off season, just based on the timing of the surgery

714
00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 5: and when he returned, and potentially we've seen guys make

715
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 5: pretty big jumps coming off of surgery over the last

716
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 5: couple of years. I would imagine though, that they have

717
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 5: a number they want to sort of play it safe

718
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,719
Speaker 5: while also being able to have the option of, like,

719
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:48,840
Speaker 5: what's take it easy in the beginning, take it easy

720
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 5: and spring trending have him throwing less than April and

721
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 5: May in triple A, and you know, you really use

722
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:58,280
Speaker 5: maybe late May and June when the weather's also better

723
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 5: in the Northeast, where predominant amount of that division in

724
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:04,719
Speaker 5: Triple a's games are or if they decide to go

725
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 5: to Redding for whatever reason and fitchitman one of the

726
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 5: worst Fiching parks and minor league baseball, they could do

727
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 5: that as well, but you're gonna want to avoid that

728
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:17,480
Speaker 5: cold weather. I think they're probably going to work around

729
00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 5: that a little bit, but with the ultimate goal of

730
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 5: you know, having maybe fifty innings that he's available for

731
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:29,000
Speaker 5: in August, September, October. Where the Phillies I think, you know,

732
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,280
Speaker 5: based on what their team looks like and how much

733
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,480
Speaker 5: they invest in the trade deadline and free agency, it

734
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 5: wouldn't shock me if that's what the plan is and

735
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 5: why the plan is so specific to July already, when

736
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 5: he's missed two years, has had recovery, has pitched in

737
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 5: competitive games in twenty twenty four, it kind of doesn't

738
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 5: make sense.

739
00:33:48,880 --> 00:33:50,800
Speaker 4: I would imagine that's probably what the plan is.

740
00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: You hit on one thing, bet Jeff, that I think

741
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: is important here. The key thing for Painters is he's

742
00:33:56,240 --> 00:34:00,200
Speaker 1: now had a pretty normal offseason, which is important. He's

743
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: had a normal off season of work on things, rest,

744
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: recover all that this is not something where a lot

745
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,160
Speaker 1: of times we say the guy who's you know, at

746
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: month sixteen in you know, spring training, like, oh, he's

747
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: ready to go. But that's not the same thing that's

748
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 1: you spend an all entire offseason rehabbing your injury to

749
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 1: get ready for the season. In Andrew Painter's case, he's

750
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: already done all that, He's pitched in the AFL, he

751
00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: knows that his arm feels okay again. Then he had

752
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,520
Speaker 1: a regular offseason to come into. It's not gonna be

753
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: a regular season as we laid out with the Painter plan.

754
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,400
Speaker 1: But I think the key thing about this is Andrew Paynter.

755
00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:38,240
Speaker 1: The hope is the Phillies expect to be in the playoffs.

756
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,839
Speaker 1: The Phillies expecting me in the playoffs every year when

757
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:45,439
Speaker 1: they do, hopefully for them, hopefully for Andrew Painter. He's

758
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 1: making a case as a rookie for a spot in

759
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,320
Speaker 1: their playoff rotation because that's how.

760
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:50,719
Speaker 4: Good he is.

761
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 1: This is a guy who at that point should hopefully

762
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,399
Speaker 1: be able to say, hey, he's not gonna be Game one,

763
00:34:57,480 --> 00:34:57,879
Speaker 1: Game two.

764
00:34:57,920 --> 00:34:58,720
Speaker 2: They have Zach Wheeler.

765
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: They you know, they have other guys who probably gonna

766
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,440
Speaker 1: be at the front of the rotation, but it's not

767
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:05,799
Speaker 1: just depth. This is the guy who may kind of

768
00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: leap over some other guys because he has the dominating

769
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: stuff where you say, Okay, yeah, I know he's a rookie. Yeah,

770
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,439
Speaker 1: I know he was limited in the innings this year,

771
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,480
Speaker 1: but hey, he's just better than the guys, the other

772
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,120
Speaker 1: guys who are Canadas to start game three or maybe

773
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,120
Speaker 1: it's a game four of a series, and he's gonna

774
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:26,200
Speaker 1: give us the best chance to win.

775
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, injuries happen, of course, but even if they're fully

776
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,120
Speaker 3: loaded for the playoffs, that's gonna be too much talent

777
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:35,400
Speaker 3: if it's all clicking for him, for them to deny

778
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 3: him a spot in a rotation. So jj I think

779
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:42,000
Speaker 3: it's brilliant. July Ish is the plan for them to

780
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 3: start getting implemented into the bigs. Good in some cases

781
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 3: not good. We used this on Vowel Territory at one point.

782
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember who I referred to, but there

783
00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 3: was a oh, like Paul Skeins is a good example. Okay,

784
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 3: if I'm the Pirates and I'm not making the playoffs

785
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,080
Speaker 3: on a year to year basis, I'm not Paul Skins

786
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 3: in year one and hoping that we need him for

787
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 3: the playoffs. In Andrew Painter's case, I think the Phillies

788
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:10,800
Speaker 3: have enough of a playoff book in recent history here

789
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:13,040
Speaker 3: that they are okay to do this. And there's a

790
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 3: pretty good chance we're not going to get to the

791
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 3: end of the season and say the Phillies missed the

792
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 3: playoffs by one game and they should have called up

793
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,040
Speaker 3: Andrew Painter sooner because you can't play like there's a tomorrow.

794
00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 3: Is that a fair strategy from Philadelphia?

795
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 2: Yeah.

796
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: And I think the other key part that you really

797
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: want to avoid here, Let's say that they have in

798
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:34,000
Speaker 1: their number like, okay, they're comfortable for seventy five innings

799
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,080
Speaker 1: with Painter this year or one hundred whatever. It is

800
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:39,000
Speaker 1: the thing you definitely don't want. We don't want a

801
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,440
Speaker 1: Strasbourg in the national situation from years ago, where it

802
00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:45,799
Speaker 1: was like, well, sorry guys, but we've run out of

803
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,200
Speaker 1: innings for Andrew now, and so we're gonna shut him

804
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 1: down and we're looking forward to seeing him pitch again

805
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. You want to make sure it's

806
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: a long postseason. Now October, you could see another fifteen

807
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:02,560
Speaker 1: to twenty They want to make sure that Andrew Painter

808
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: is ready to give them those fifteen to twenty innings

809
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 1: if they need it, maybe twenty five because that could happen,

810
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,160
Speaker 1: and he is good enough that if it all breaks right,

811
00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: they really need those innings because he's that good, yep.

812
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 3: Smart, and this team hasn't gotten over the hump with

813
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:17,720
Speaker 3: this current group, they have not won a World Series.

814
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 3: So we'll see if Andrew Painter is the secret weapon

815
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 3: in October for the Phillies. We do these every single

816
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 3: day here during spring training. Your prospect profiles are highlighting

817
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:30,799
Speaker 3: the number one prospect in each farm system, so we'll

818
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 3: keep going through them and also make sure you get

819
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:34,600
Speaker 3: caught up on any that you missed on the Baseball

820
00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 3: America YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcasts. If

821
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,200
Speaker 3: you're listening to us, thank you and we'll see you

822
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:39,840
Speaker 3: on the next one.

823
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,080
Speaker 5: Catchers who can hit really are worth their weight in gold.

824
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,400
Speaker 5: There's very few of those in the major leagues, and

825
00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:47,360
Speaker 5: it can make a big difference, whether it's for the

826
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,520
Speaker 5: Braves or even as a potential trade outset.

827
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:51,759
Speaker 6: We're talking top prospects team by team.

828
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:55,919
Speaker 3: Let's hit the Atlanta Braves or the prospect profile top

829
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,399
Speaker 3: prospect in their system. According to Baseball America, is Drake

830
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 3: Baldwin got brought along with Baseball Americas JJ Cooper and

831
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 3: Jeff Ponce. All Right, we got a catcher here who

832
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 3: could make an impact in twenty twenty five.

833
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 6: So this one's big, JJ. What do you think about

834
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 6: Drake Baldwin.

835
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:12,960
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin is the next in what is now a

836
00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:17,839
Speaker 1: pretty impressive line of Brave's catching prospects. You know, don't

837
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:20,880
Speaker 1: forget that Shay Langeliers was a Brave's catching prospect, and

838
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:25,080
Speaker 1: don't forget that William Contreras was also Bray's catching prospect.

839
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:27,919
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe in hindsight they want to have that one back,

840
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: but here we have now Sean Murphy obviously is I

841
00:38:31,880 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: would say, you know, Brave's catcher for several years to come.

842
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: But at the same time they need someone to become

843
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: that number two catcher. And we know that number two

844
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,160
Speaker 1: catchers in the big leagues are guys who play regularly. Nowadays,

845
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,799
Speaker 1: it's no catcher's going out there and playing one hundred

846
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,799
Speaker 1: and forty plus games. Drake Baldwin. We'll see if it's

847
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: opening day, but Drake Baldwin should be ready to kind

848
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 1: of step into that role at some point in twenty

849
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,399
Speaker 1: twenty five. Really a breakout season in twenty twenty four,

850
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:03,240
Speaker 1: I would say, very impressive, kind of well rounded player.

851
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:05,959
Speaker 1: If you want to knock Drake Baldwin, maybe you could

852
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: say that he doesn't have any exceptionally loud tools. It's

853
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 1: not like plus plus power, it's not a plus plus

854
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 1: hit tool. It's not plus plus defense or anything like that.

855
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:17,239
Speaker 1: But Jeff, the other thing that does stand out with

856
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,080
Speaker 1: Drake Baldwin is is if you said what are his weaknesses,

857
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 1: I think you would also say there's nothing here that's

858
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:25,440
Speaker 1: really a glaring weakness. He's just pretty good at kind

859
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,160
Speaker 1: of doing all the aspects of the job, the very

860
00:39:28,160 --> 00:39:30,320
Speaker 1: difficult job of being a big league catcher.

861
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:34,040
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, you know, you look at what he

862
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,399
Speaker 5: does well. You know, the defensive part of the game

863
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 5: I think is still coming along for him. There's been

864
00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 5: some questions there, but he's not being asked to be

865
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 5: an everyday catcher, and I think you know where his

866
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 5: probably biggest benefit to this lineup is as some depth

867
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 5: and as a bat who puts together really good quality

868
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,279
Speaker 5: at bats. When you take a look at you know,

869
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 5: the bats of all ability, it's high contact or excuse me,

870
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 5: it's high contact rates, it's in zone misrates. He rarely

871
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 5: ever chases. The ev data is plus his ninet eight

872
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,399
Speaker 5: percent of this year is about one hundred and six

873
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 5: miles per hour. So when you combine all those traits,

874
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 5: there aren't many hitters in general in the big leagues

875
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 5: or excuse me, in the minor leagues last year, who

876
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,800
Speaker 5: combine all those traits at the level that Baldwin does.

877
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 5: So just as a hitter, he's a really sort of

878
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 5: standout talent, and I think that's the biggest thing with

879
00:40:27,600 --> 00:40:29,600
Speaker 5: Baldwin is that you know, if he can play a

880
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:31,520
Speaker 5: little bit of first base, or maybe they get him

881
00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,719
Speaker 5: some run in left field when they need it or

882
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:37,280
Speaker 5: something like that, or even DH he has the ability

883
00:40:37,320 --> 00:40:39,600
Speaker 5: to maybe see three hundred and fifty at bats and

884
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:43,040
Speaker 5: provide them sort of like that tenth man, that tenth

885
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,719
Speaker 5: hitter sort of in the lineup when they need it,

886
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,040
Speaker 5: and can play the matchups a little bit too. He's

887
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 5: a really good offensive prospect, and if the catching comes around,

888
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 5: they might be looking to move Sean Murphy soon.

889
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 2: I won't put that far you yet, but I will

890
00:40:57,239 --> 00:40:57,959
Speaker 2: say that I.

891
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:01,520
Speaker 1: Do think that what one of the that Baldwin also

892
00:41:01,600 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: stands out as is.

893
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:04,239
Speaker 2: He's kind of the outlier here.

894
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: The Braves have understandably kind of made their entire approach,

895
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,200
Speaker 1: we're going to draft pitchers, we're going to develop pitchers,

896
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:15,560
Speaker 1: and we're going to be really good at developing pitching prospects.

897
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,440
Speaker 1: And they have been, but they also haven't drafted a

898
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: whole lot of hitters. They haven't developed a whole lot

899
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,080
Speaker 1: of hitters. And if you said, well, why is that, well,

900
00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 1: I would say partly it's because they have a long

901
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,440
Speaker 1: term deal locked up at ketcher Murphy, first base with Fulson,

902
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,840
Speaker 1: second base of Albi's third base with Riley Akunyan, the

903
00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,400
Speaker 1: outfield Michael Harris, and the outfield. There just aren't a

904
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,959
Speaker 1: whole lot of openings here because of all the guys

905
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 1: they have signed to long term extensions. So they've obviously

906
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:45,960
Speaker 1: made the emphasis on filling out that pitching staff. But

907
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 1: when you look at Baldwin, to their credit, to the

908
00:41:48,920 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 1: Brave's credit, and to Baldwin's credit, this is not a

909
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 1: first round pick. This is a very astute Day two

910
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,040
Speaker 1: pick from a couple of years ago that has really

911
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 1: kind of blossomed and really does fill a need for

912
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 1: the Braves. The other thing that does jump out with this.

913
00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 1: In an ideal world, you would say that the Braves

914
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,360
Speaker 1: really they don't need to develop a whole lot of

915
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,960
Speaker 1: position players. But if they had a big leag ready

916
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,359
Speaker 1: catcher and a big ly retty shortstop right now, and

917
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 1: even in kind of complimentary roles, not guys who need

918
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 1: to be stars, that's kind of what they really need

919
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 1: to produce from the farm system. I don't know if

920
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 1: they have that shortstop. I think Nacho Alvarez is a

921
00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,520
Speaker 1: little bit more of a utility guy, but Baldwin is

922
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,239
Speaker 1: the perfect fit there as that number two catcher and

923
00:42:28,280 --> 00:42:30,560
Speaker 1: should be able to do that for several years to come.

924
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, and every team, of course, always needs pitching. And

925
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:36,280
Speaker 3: I know the Braves have been good for a while,

926
00:42:36,320 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 3: so they're often picking in the back of a draft.

927
00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:42,919
Speaker 3: But jj, I just think about Spencer Schwellenbach. I mean,

928
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,799
Speaker 3: it's not like everyone was talking about him, and look

929
00:42:45,840 --> 00:42:49,080
Speaker 3: what he's developed into for Atlanta. If you're a team

930
00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:51,280
Speaker 3: like them and you want to keep this train rolling,

931
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:56,399
Speaker 3: you need some successful stories like that too, right, you do?

932
00:42:56,520 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: And I would say that one of the things the

933
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 1: Braves have been really good about and doing that, their

934
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:01,920
Speaker 1: pitching development has been excellent.

935
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 2: Swell and Box is a perfect example of that.

936
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,200
Speaker 1: This was Twellinboch really was more of a shortstop at

937
00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,000
Speaker 1: Nebraska than a pitcher. It was kind of someone that

938
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,800
Speaker 1: you could like the arm, but it was in very short,

939
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 1: you know, short kind of appearances. And the other thing.

940
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 1: Schwellen Box is another one of the guys who's gone

941
00:43:19,040 --> 00:43:22,160
Speaker 1: through this. The Braves are much more willing to take

942
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:25,200
Speaker 1: on injury risk in their pitchers than a lot of teams.

943
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 1: Spencer Strider probably the biggest example of this. Strider was

944
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:32,280
Speaker 1: coming off of Tommy John surgery when the race drafted

945
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:35,120
Speaker 1: him and made him basically the best pick of that

946
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:39,399
Speaker 1: shortened five round twenty twenty draft. Schwellen Box another guy

947
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,960
Speaker 1: who pretty much you say, well when his pro career starts,

948
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 1: like well, after he had Tommy John surgery. They've had

949
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: a number of this these situations.

950
00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 2: JR.

951
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: Ritchie's another one, Owen Murphy's now recovering Tommy John surgery.

952
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: The Braves have had a lot of pitching prospects who

953
00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,319
Speaker 1: you could say, well, they got hurt, but at the

954
00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: same time that's kind of allowed them to really pick

955
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,759
Speaker 1: guys who may not have lasted to them if it

956
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 1: not for the fact that they had some injury risk.

957
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:06,520
Speaker 1: Some teams kind of shy away from that. The Braves

958
00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:09,479
Speaker 1: seem to kind of embrace it, and you look at

959
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:11,680
Speaker 1: the payoff they're getting for it. You could say, well,

960
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:13,920
Speaker 1: they keep having guys get hurt. Well, yes, Stryder got

961
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,799
Speaker 1: hurt last year. Would you if you had that to

962
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: do over again, you'd one hundred percent do it the

963
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 1: same way. He wasn't a first round pick. He was

964
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:23,799
Speaker 1: near the back of a five round draft and they

965
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:27,600
Speaker 1: got a basically a cy Young finalist out of it. Okay, yeah,

966
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 1: he got hurt. They'll do that again, and they will

967
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: take that risk again. And we've seen this time and

968
00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 1: time again. They keep taking these kind of risks because

969
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:36,359
Speaker 1: they do see a payoff for them.

970
00:44:37,040 --> 00:44:39,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll take the year off from the guy who's

971
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 3: striking everyone out. So that's okay. I mean you got

972
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 3: a plan that way, So, Jeff, as far as what

973
00:44:45,160 --> 00:44:48,240
Speaker 3: we're working with right now with the farm system covered

974
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 3: for Atlanta, is there other signs of hope or was

975
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 3: this easy to put Baldman at the top of the list.

976
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think there's some interesting candidates in terms of

977
00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 4: their pitchers they have, you know, they've been drafting a

978
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 4: ton of them. JJ kind of touched on some of that.

979
00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:07,799
Speaker 5: I think, you know, AJ Smith Shaver was probably the

980
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 5: next closest candidate, somebody who has major league experience in

981
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:13,720
Speaker 5: each of the last two seasons, has pretty big stuff

982
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:16,719
Speaker 5: in terms of you know, what his fastball is, you know,

983
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:19,720
Speaker 5: sitting in the mid nineties, has a decent amount of ride.

984
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:22,520
Speaker 5: Made some changes this year in terms of changing from

985
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 5: the slider, kind of cutter slider to more of a

986
00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 5: traditional mid seventies curveball, and really improved his change up.

987
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,480
Speaker 5: So he did take a step forward this year in

988
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:35,319
Speaker 5: some development ways, I think, particularly in his future as

989
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:37,439
Speaker 5: a starting pitcher. But when we kind of put those

990
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:40,319
Speaker 5: two guys together, I think, you know, Baldwin is one

991
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,759
Speaker 5: where catchers who can hit really are worth their weight

992
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,120
Speaker 5: in gold. There's very few of those in the major leagues,

993
00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:48,319
Speaker 5: and it can make a big difference whether it's for

994
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:50,880
Speaker 5: the Braves or even as a potential trade asset. I

995
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 5: don't know if the A's have anybody that the Braves.

996
00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 4: Want right now.

997
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:58,120
Speaker 3: That seemed to be a very happy marriage. The A's

998
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 3: and the Braves life to do business together.

999
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:02,880
Speaker 6: Hey, maybe we hit a point eventually.

1000
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:05,680
Speaker 3: You can hope that, you know, Atlanta is actually giving

1001
00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,960
Speaker 3: some major league as sets to the a since they've been.

1002
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:10,759
Speaker 6: Bad for a while. Now, maybe they kind of get

1003
00:46:10,760 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 6: it back.

1004
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 3: We'll see.

1005
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:14,280
Speaker 1: Can I just interject to say, but if the Brewers

1006
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 1: try to slide into their dms, just say no, Just

1007
00:46:17,120 --> 00:46:19,800
Speaker 1: say no, we don't want to. You know, a story, Ruiz,

1008
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 1: you know, throw in for Contreras, throw in here.

1009
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:24,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll just help you out and you'll just give

1010
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 3: us William Contreras what Joe Piamps and I think there

1011
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 3: was someone else notable in there too. So look up

1012
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:32,799
Speaker 3: that trade if you want a little more info, and

1013
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:35,799
Speaker 3: get yourself a Baseball America subscription if you don't have

1014
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:38,799
Speaker 3: one already, and also stay here if you'd like to

1015
00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 3: learn about other top prospects per organization.