Speaker 1: I think the talent has always been there. He's certainly
Speaker 1: someone that has the physicality. I think the floor here
Speaker 1: is if you know, he doesn't find a way to
Speaker 1: sort of command his full arsenal.
Speaker 2: The name is Kamar Rocker.
Speaker 3: If you're a college baseball fan, you've heard that name
Speaker 3: for a while now. He is the top prospect in
Speaker 3: the Texas Rangers farm system and he could make a
Speaker 3: big impact in Major League Baseball this year. Let's hit
Speaker 3: a prospect profile Scott Brown along with Baseball Americas, JJ
Speaker 3: Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Let's get to it, JJ, Kamara
Speaker 3: Rocker this year for the Rangers in the rotation making
Speaker 3: a big impact.
Speaker 4: What do you think I would say that we saw
Speaker 4: him at the end of last year, it would be
Speaker 4: I think they need him to make an impact this year.
Speaker 4: There's only one big hurdle, and you mentioned it. You know,
Speaker 4: Kamar Rocker has been a guy that we've been everyone
Speaker 4: has been watching, paying attention to for years now. I
Speaker 4: remember watching them high school and he was already a dude,
Speaker 4: and he was already physically a dude when he was
Speaker 4: in high school. But goes to Vandy has one of
Speaker 4: the better freshman years, especially one of the best postseasons
Speaker 4: we'll ever see in college baseball, and you think at
Speaker 4: that point, Okay, by now we're talking about a guy
Speaker 4: who's years into his big league career and then the
Speaker 4: injury strike and even like later in his Vanderbilt career,
Speaker 4: like in his draft year, you would see that velocity
Speaker 4: kind of wax and Wayne depending on the outing. The
Speaker 4: Mets draft him and then they don't sign him and
Speaker 4: they say the medicals they had to back away. The
Speaker 4: Rangers then go out and draft him, and then he
Speaker 4: blew out his elbow, and so that's why we're still
Speaker 4: talking about him as a prospect coming into twenty five.
Speaker 4: But that's also the question that the biggest question I
Speaker 4: would say that we face with Rocker in twenty five.
Speaker 4: You want to see him improve his secondaries, the third
Speaker 4: pitch to kind of help him that better as a starter.
Speaker 4: But the big thing is is how many innings are
Speaker 4: they going to be comfortable letting him go this year?
Speaker 4: Because of the injuries. We are years away from the
Speaker 4: last time that Comar Rocker went one hundred innings in
Speaker 4: a season or close to it. Are they gonna be willing?
Speaker 4: Are they going to be able to basically hand him
Speaker 4: the ball and say, okay, we can expect twenty twenty
Speaker 4: five starts out of you.
Speaker 5: Jeff.
Speaker 4: That's to me, that's the question that we It's gonna
Speaker 4: be really interesting to see because stuff wise, there shouldn't
Speaker 4: be as much of a question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, there's probably a bigger question
Speaker 1: in terms of health. I do think there's some stuff
Speaker 1: that popped up and sort of showed itself in the
Speaker 1: major leagues. In particular, he's probably gonna have to switch
Speaker 1: off of that four seam fastball. It graded really poorly
Speaker 1: on a ton of stuff models the public ones like
Speaker 1: you know, you know, Cyrus's stuff plus et cetera. That's
Speaker 1: on fangrabs. The sinker grades out as a plus pitch.
Speaker 1: I think he probably ends up having to go there.
Speaker 1: He's lost some rides since his college days. I think
Speaker 1: some of that was attracking devices. Some of it might
Speaker 1: also be, you know, some of the elbow and shoulder
Speaker 1: injuries that he's dealt with. We've seen that happen with
Speaker 1: other prospects. Forrest Whitley's a guy that sort of lost
Speaker 1: some of his ride over time and switched to a sinker.
Speaker 1: The sinker plays pretty well, might make him a little
Speaker 1: bit less of a strikeout guy and more of a
Speaker 1: bad contact guy that can miss bats with that slider. Certainly,
Speaker 1: the development of a third pitch, you know, whether that
Speaker 1: ends up being you know, his cutter or his change up,
Speaker 1: or sort of a combination of the two, it should
Speaker 1: be interesting to see, you know, how that stuff develops
Speaker 1: over the course of the year, how the Rangers decide
Speaker 1: to sort of develop him, and you know where where
Speaker 1: the arsenal sort of goes from there.
Speaker 2: It is. It is an interesting pitch mix.
Speaker 1: I think just the big question is, you know, what's
Speaker 1: the third pitch and does he really make that switch
Speaker 1: to a primary sort of two seam sinker type of
Speaker 1: fastball and maybe only throw the four seamer in certain counts.
Speaker 4: I kind of think with that also, like this is
Speaker 4: going to be the crucial year for this of because
Speaker 4: of the timetable and all, Okay, we really are going
Speaker 4: to see on that third pitch. You know, maybe it
Speaker 4: is a cutter. Maybe again it could be a change up,
Speaker 4: but I especially say it's going to throw in a
Speaker 4: curve as well. But I would love to see kind
Speaker 4: of a cutter that just gives him something else in
Speaker 4: the zone that really kind of would start pushing Rocker
Speaker 4: to being more of that bad contact, that weak contact
Speaker 4: kind of guy, not the you know, maybe a little
Speaker 4: less than the strikeouts than maybe people expected if you
Speaker 4: saw him back in twenty nineteen in the postseason for
Speaker 4: Vandyan all. But the slider's still really good. But I
Speaker 4: would also say with that, like, if that doesn't come along,
Speaker 4: and I think he's gonna have plenty of time to
Speaker 4: work here as a starter, receive it does, but it
Speaker 4: also is a mix. Jeff to me that that does
Speaker 4: say like if it didn't work out as a starter
Speaker 4: long term, it could be he could be a really
Speaker 4: good reliever. I don't want to pitt you know, I
Speaker 4: think he's going to end up as a starter, but
Speaker 4: the fallback options I feel like here are pretty good
Speaker 4: as well as long as he stays healthy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I totally agree, And I think you know, you
Speaker 1: brought up a good point. You know, the slider is
Speaker 1: a really good pitch. I think some people probably refer
Speaker 1: to as a cutter, and then you know, call the
Speaker 1: curve ball slider.
Speaker 2: It's just sort of how how the pitches are shaped.
Speaker 1: But could get a little bit more of like a
Speaker 1: ride traditional maybe like a like a cut fastball. You know,
Speaker 1: that might be another another you know, element that he
Speaker 1: could sort of add to his game. But once again,
Speaker 1: we don't know what the medicals are. Fully, we don't
Speaker 1: know what his limitations are in terms of like what
Speaker 1: types of pitches he can throw. But I think the
Speaker 1: talent has always been there. He's certainly someone that has
Speaker 1: the physicality. I think the floor here is if you know,
Speaker 1: he doesn't find a way to sort of command his
Speaker 1: full arsenal, which was a little bit of an issue
Speaker 1: in the major leagues in terms of hitting his spots
Speaker 1: and showing consistent command, and isn't able to handle a
Speaker 1: huge workload. Maybe he's a multi inning reliever that can
Speaker 1: be really nasty and you know, high leverage situations. So
Speaker 1: I think he does have the stuff to be successful
Speaker 1: as a major leaguer. It's just does he have the durability,
Speaker 1: Does he have the track record, you know, a strike throwing,
Speaker 1: all those sort of things to be you know, a
Speaker 1: starter that can go out there and give you twenty
Speaker 1: five plus starts a year. And I think that question
Speaker 1: is still just very much up in the air.
Speaker 4: The other thing that does stand out to me, though,
Speaker 4: is this is an organization that there's two number one prospects.
Speaker 4: There's one A and one B. Rocker is basically big
Speaker 4: league ready. Sebastian Walcott's not. But if you're a Rangers fan,
Speaker 4: after you just graduated White Langford, you dressed graduated Evan Carter,
Speaker 4: now you have Rocker and you have Walcott knocking on
Speaker 4: the door before too long, that's a pretty good situation
Speaker 4: to be in, you know, especially I know last year
Speaker 4: was not twenty twenty four was not the year that
Speaker 4: Rangers fans wanted, but you know, that World Series, the
Speaker 4: champagne smell is just kind of coming out after that
Speaker 4: twenty three season. So it does feel like that the
Speaker 4: Rangers are in a pretty decent spot right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Walcott was a riser, right.
Speaker 3: We weren't talking a lot about him in this kind
Speaker 3: of conversation a year ago. So you love to see
Speaker 3: that when you're not excited about someone or you just
Speaker 3: don't know about someone, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 3: he hits the equation here for this team, I want
Speaker 3: to finish with this. I didn't hear the word that
Speaker 3: I was looking for from from Rocker. Can we call
Speaker 3: it a death ball? Is that still a thing? Remember
Speaker 3: when that was a thing last year? Like the little
Speaker 3: baby curve? I think he calls it a curve. Can
Speaker 3: we say that he has a death ball just because
Speaker 3: it's good marketing?
Speaker 4: I think, well, like I wouldn't say death I would say,
Speaker 4: like it can it can cut you.
Speaker 5: But I don't know if you're going to bleed.
Speaker 3: Out, Okay, doomball, Jeff doomball, Like it's a minor version
Speaker 3: of the death ball.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's a it's a harder curveball with
Speaker 1: you know, less vertical drop.
Speaker 2: It's sort of slurvy in nature.
Speaker 1: Maybe has like a little bit more like drop than
Speaker 1: your typical slurve. But it's a hard it's a hard curveball.
Speaker 1: Certainly based on like how tread was sort of marketing
Speaker 1: the pitch when they start sorted to talk and have
Speaker 1: the conversation around the whole death ball Moniker, it's certainly
Speaker 1: from like a movement perspective fits into that. I just
Speaker 1: don't know that it's you know, it's not a pitch
Speaker 1: that he's throwing thirty percent of the time or anything,
Speaker 1: which you know, if you're gonna have something like a
Speaker 1: death ball, that kind of label on a pitch. It's
Speaker 1: the type of pitch that you're going to be leading
Speaker 1: on quite a bit, because yeah, you're killing it back.
Speaker 5: I would say, you can't give her that's the death ball.
Speaker 2: Okay, mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we're just trying to come up with
Speaker 3: some other names, right that the ghost fork. Obviously that
Speaker 3: that earns its nickname. It's ridiculous for Sega, and he
Speaker 3: uses it plenty, So all right, doomball, maybe you're I
Speaker 3: don't know if he even uses enough to be able
Speaker 3: to call it that, but I think Rangers fans will
Speaker 3: just settle for twenty five plus starts and keeping him
Speaker 3: in the rotation and seeing him do good things for
Speaker 3: them and finally kind of live up to what we
Speaker 3: saw back in college from him.
Speaker 2: So thanks for watching this one.
Speaker 3: Of course, if you are a fan of other teams
Speaker 3: and you'd like to learn about their top prospects, we
Speaker 3: have videos for you, and if you don't see your
Speaker 3: team yet, it will be coming out on a day
Speaker 3: by day basis here during spring training.
Speaker 4: This is the team that never has that year where
Speaker 4: they say, you know what, we know that realistically, we're
Speaker 4: just not there. You need to take a step back
Speaker 4: to take a step forward. That's not been something that
Speaker 4: the Angels have been willing to do.
Speaker 3: All right, let's be quick because we're covering the Angels
Speaker 3: and their top prospect while he is still a prospect.
Speaker 2: If you know, you know as a.
Speaker 3: Prospect profile, the name of that prospect is Caden Dana,
Speaker 3: Scott Brown, JJ Cooper, Jeff Ponce and JJ. I mentioned
Speaker 3: this because the Angels like to rush their prospects. So
Speaker 3: talk me through their game plan here.
Speaker 4: Okay, their game plan is we saw Kat and Dana
Speaker 4: reach the big leagues last year. The Angels are not
Speaker 4: an organization that that preaches a whole lot of patience.
Speaker 4: So I would say that, you know, we're looking at
Speaker 4: him in spring training and a healthy Kate Dana is
Speaker 4: battling for a spot rotation. And then I would say, hey,
Speaker 4: what we've seen in recent years, especially with the pictures,
Speaker 4: I would just ask for a little bit of patience.
Speaker 4: We're talking about a picture who is younger than some
Speaker 4: of the pictures who will be drafted in the twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five MB draft, and I think he could use
Speaker 4: some additional time as additional seasoning. I don't think that
Speaker 4: not having Caden Dana in the big leagues on opening
Speaker 4: day is going to be the difference between this club
Speaker 4: making a deep playoff run or not. I think I
Speaker 4: can feel comfortable saying that's probably not gonna be the
Speaker 4: case with that being the idea. Like let's you know,
Speaker 4: we've seen with Patrick Sandival and Read Deptmer's and Griffin Canning,
Speaker 4: and we could go through this list. There are a
Speaker 4: lot of guys who move quickly for them starting pictures
Speaker 4: and got a lot of up and down performances out
Speaker 4: of them. And Jeff, I just don't know if I
Speaker 4: would say right now we like Caten Dan as a
Speaker 4: prospect stop on a prospect, But I do think that
Speaker 4: we're not talking about a fully finished, a fully polished
Speaker 4: Oh this guy has checked off every box you need
Speaker 4: to see to say he's ready to be a big
Speaker 4: league starter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think we even saw it when he
Speaker 1: came up to the big leagues last year. You know,
Speaker 1: he's a guy that gets by on really good pitch ability.
Speaker 1: You know, he throws strikes, he competes in the zone consistently,
Speaker 1: he gets deeper into starts. There's a lot to be
Speaker 1: said for that. He certainly handled you know, double a
Speaker 1: as well as one could be expected at how old
Speaker 1: he was.
Speaker 2: But I think when you dig into some of the.
Speaker 1: Numbers, and I'm not the first person to call this,
Speaker 1: you know, to the forefront with Dana, his release spot,
Speaker 1: his release heights on his pitches are all over the place.
Speaker 1: What that means it's a little bit easier to pick
Speaker 1: everything up. You know, He's thrown from a seventy three
Speaker 1: inch release height on the fastball, and then it drops
Speaker 1: down four or five inches for the slider, it drops
Speaker 1: down about four or five inches for the for the changeup,
Speaker 1: and he mixes in a curve ball that actually comes
Speaker 1: from a higher slot than his fastball. All these teams
Speaker 1: have access to this information. It's going to be out
Speaker 1: there and pre game scouting reports. After the first you know,
Speaker 1: at bat or even the first couple of pitches, guys
Speaker 1: are going to start picking up you know, where the
Speaker 1: ball's coming out of the hand.
Speaker 2: These are major league hitters.
Speaker 1: These guys are great at adjusting, great at picking up
Speaker 1: little you know, details and little etiosyncrasies of each one
Speaker 1: of these players that I think Dana probably is best
Speaker 1: serve spending more time at Double A. If they'd actually
Speaker 1: want to send a prospect a Triple A for the
Speaker 1: first time in a very long time, perhaps that's where
Speaker 1: he ends up.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: I think there's even a case that could be made
Speaker 1: that maybe Dana shouldn't have been a number one prospect.
Speaker 1: Maybe really Christian Moore might be the more upside guy
Speaker 1: when you think about all the tools that he has
Speaker 1: and some of the stuff that maybe he needs to refine.
Speaker 1: Isn't quite the gap to get to major league regular
Speaker 1: that I think it is with Dana right now. There's
Speaker 1: four different pitch shapes. Like I said, he can compete
Speaker 1: with all of them. He throws them for strikes, He
Speaker 1: gets deep into starts. You know, he showed efficiency and
Speaker 1: the ability to get outs consistently at the Double A level.
Speaker 1: I still think he needs a little bit more time
Speaker 1: just to be nurtured a little bit more in terms of,
Speaker 1: you know, making sure the release heights are just a
Speaker 1: little bit more consistent, because those gaps are four or
Speaker 1: five inches are pretty big gaps. When you're talking about
Speaker 1: a guy who doesn't you know, that isn't throwing a
Speaker 1: slider that's you know, outlier movement or outlier velocity, or
Speaker 1: a combination of the both. It's kind of stock sort
Speaker 1: of pitch mix, and there's some elements that I feel
Speaker 1: like lack deception, and I think that's an element that
Speaker 1: sometimes it's hard to measure with the numbers, but when
Speaker 1: we see it in the release heights, I think it's
Speaker 1: really quite a big issue. So needs a little bit
Speaker 1: more time. I think he was rushed a little bit
Speaker 1: too quickly to the major leagues, but that's kind of
Speaker 1: been the mo for the Angels of the last three
Speaker 1: four seasons.
Speaker 4: I do want to kind of in positive, you know,
Speaker 4: say something positive on data here, which is we do
Speaker 4: like them. This is a guy who has big league
Speaker 4: starter or potential. Most of his peers, most of his contemporaries,
Speaker 4: are hoping to get to double A in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: He's already reached the majors. It's just that, Yeah, you
Speaker 4: want to see him get to add this polish. You
Speaker 4: want to see him the things Jeff mentioned, these aren't
Speaker 4: unsolvable problems. They're just things that ideally you want to
Speaker 4: fix while you're in the minors, not the majors. So
Speaker 4: I would say with all of this it is it's like,
Speaker 4: please a little bit of patience here, and kind of
Speaker 4: could say the same thing. Christian Moore reached Double A
Speaker 4: last year pretty much, you know, seemingly a couple of
Speaker 4: hours after he signed, which is not that unusual for
Speaker 4: the Angels and what they do at their top picks.
Speaker 4: As Jeff mentioned, this is really kind of a strange
Speaker 4: situation where the Angels don't really use their High A
Speaker 4: or their Triple A clubs a whole lot for their
Speaker 4: best prospects, which kind of.
Speaker 5: Makes for an uneven.
Speaker 4: Development process because you're asking guys a lot of the times.
Speaker 4: Nelson Rod is another one we saw this with, who
Speaker 4: jumped straight to Double A and was one of the
Speaker 4: youngest players in that league. Probably should have been in
Speaker 4: hig A. But the Angels don't really send their top
Speaker 4: prospects to HIE. Their top college draftees often go to
Speaker 4: Double A, you know, almost straight from the draft. We
Speaker 4: see that over and over and yeah, there are examples
Speaker 4: where it's worked out. Zac Netto's a guy where it
Speaker 4: worked out. There's also a lot of guys where it
Speaker 4: hasn't worked out, where you look back and say, okay,
Speaker 4: you know, Nolan Shaniel has already burned a year plus
Speaker 4: of service time trying to figure it out in the
Speaker 4: big leagues, and he's not like completely lost up there,
Speaker 4: but he's nothing. He's not making a big impact or
Speaker 4: anything like that. And by pushing guys that quickly, you
Speaker 4: kind of are asking them to figure out some of
Speaker 4: the toughest things to figure out at the toughest level,
Speaker 4: rather than letting them figure that out in the minors
Speaker 4: in games that don't count the same way that they
Speaker 4: count the big leagues.
Speaker 3: JJ philosophical question for you why, I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: do the locker rooms smell in triple A? Why would
Speaker 3: they do this? And the reason I ask it with
Speaker 3: such curiosity is it's one thing. If this is being
Speaker 3: done by many other organizations, I don't feel like the
Speaker 3: Angels have earned the recent right to be going against
Speaker 3: the grain or setting a tone and saying, you know what,
Speaker 3: this is the right way to develop prospects.
Speaker 2: That's what confuses me.
Speaker 3: I mean, I obviously always have this cynical brain that says,
Speaker 3: you know, does ownership want to see who he picks
Speaker 3: as a shiny toy in the big leagues too quickly?
Speaker 3: But you can maybe bring me back down to Earth
Speaker 3: and tell me what's happening here.
Speaker 4: I'd say two things. One I do follow like, Salt
Speaker 4: Lake is not a fun place to pitch, so there
Speaker 4: is a little bit of an aversion not just there.
Speaker 4: But you're playing salt Lake, you're Reno, You're in parks
Speaker 4: that are really tough pitchers parks, So okay, maybe you
Speaker 4: want to avoid some of that, and that there's some
Speaker 4: logic to that. But the other thing is that we've
Speaker 4: just seen over and over is that it's kind of
Speaker 4: this never ending cycle, which is the team has lacked
Speaker 4: upper level minor league depth, which kind of then means
Speaker 4: that your best options sometimes are these players who really
Speaker 4: may not be ready. Right, So it could be something
Speaker 4: where you say, Okay, you know, well this guy could
Speaker 4: use some more time. But if you're really looking and
Speaker 4: asking the question, saying, well, who's our best option, in
Speaker 4: a lot of these cases, these have been the best options,
Speaker 4: these players who may not be fully ready. But the
Speaker 4: Angels kind of have never. We saw this with the
Speaker 4: show Eyotani final year of his contract, right, there's just never.
Speaker 4: Even though this is a team that has not gone
Speaker 4: to the playoffs in a really long time, you know,
Speaker 4: and Mike Trout is still sitting on one career postseason hit.
Speaker 4: This is the team that never has that year where
Speaker 4: they say, you know what, we know that realistically we're
Speaker 4: just not there. We need to take a step back,
Speaker 4: to take a step forward. That's not been something that
Speaker 4: the Angels have been willing to do. And again, I
Speaker 4: would say under this ownership, under multiple front offices, under
Speaker 4: this ownership, because of that, you see guys kind of
Speaker 4: pushed up there faster than maybe they're ready in some
Speaker 4: cases because well, we don't really have another good option.
Speaker 4: This is a team that has not had a whole
Speaker 4: lot of triple A kind of that depth that you
Speaker 4: can just plug in when an injury arises, and there
Speaker 4: have been plenty of injuries also obviously for the Angels.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very unique organization and of course it
Speaker 3: always looks weird when you match them up with the
Speaker 3: team that's pretty close by in the Dodgers. But it
Speaker 3: is what it is right now and they're going through
Speaker 3: it still as an organization. Hope you enjoyed this one.
Speaker 3: Obviously got some good Caden Dana and a little bit
Speaker 3: of Christian Mortok in there, and if you get yourself
Speaker 3: a Baseball America's subscription. You can learn a lot more
Speaker 3: about the Angels organization, specifically their farm system. We do
Speaker 3: these for every single team, going through Top prospect by
Speaker 3: top prospect, so check out some other videos.
Speaker 2: Let's see how this goes.
Speaker 1: Let's see if this guy can turn into something, and
Speaker 1: I do think he has the upside, you know, to
Speaker 1: potentially be a fringe sort of All star level player.
Speaker 3: Let's hit the top prospect in the Houston Ashers organize.
Speaker 3: The name is Cam Smith. It's prospect profile time Scott
Speaker 3: Bron with Baseball Americas, JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Jeff
Speaker 3: tell us about Cam Smith, acquired in the Kyle Tucker deal,
Speaker 3: and obviously Astros fans have been looking for that next
Speaker 3: big star to attach themselves to and follow, hopefully to
Speaker 3: the big leagues, maybe even this year.
Speaker 1: I think it's possible, probably less likely that he sees
Speaker 1: an extensive amount of time, depending upon what the injuries are.
Speaker 1: Where he ends up shaking out defensively is all big
Speaker 1: part of it. That being said, I think this is
Speaker 1: one of the first prospects the Astros have had in
Speaker 1: quite a long time that you could be really really
Speaker 1: excited about. He was a slam dunk top one hundred prospect,
Speaker 1: right inside of our top fifty. The feedback that we
Speaker 1: got throughout the top one hundred process of getting better
Speaker 1: and better and better, even the feedback that I was
Speaker 1: getting when I put together my Cubs. Listen, we put
Speaker 1: out those top tens, and he was inside that Cub's
Speaker 1: top ten. Obviously was still a Cub in the handbook
Speaker 1: ends up. You know, the trade happens after our deadline
Speaker 1: with Tucker moving to the the Cubs.
Speaker 2: This was the big.
Speaker 1: Piece that the Astros asked for in that trade. More
Speaker 1: so than Parades or Wesneesky, it was Smith.
Speaker 2: That they wanted.
Speaker 1: It was a player that they were on and just
Speaker 1: didn't have access to in the draft. Really really good athlete,
Speaker 1: somebody that over the last couple of years since I
Speaker 1: saw him as a draft eligible sophomore after his freshman
Speaker 1: season on the Cape. Throughout that summer working with Tino,
Speaker 1: Martinez took some massive steps forward in terms of the
Speaker 1: bats of ball ability, the hit tool, knowing what to
Speaker 1: swing at, getting into his power more consistently, and that
Speaker 1: continued to track upward as he went to FSU and
Speaker 1: then obviously had one of the best debuts of anybody
Speaker 1: in that twenty twenty four draft. Really really good athlete.
Speaker 1: He hasn't necessarily translated to the defensive side of the ball,
Speaker 1: but moves well for his size. There's power output, you know,
Speaker 1: the hit tool, like I said, has come along. He's
Speaker 1: always had pretty good swing decisions. You know, doesn't chase
Speaker 1: a whole lot, keeps it pretty tighty zone. He's going
Speaker 1: to get on base. He can run a little bit.
Speaker 1: The big question though, is does he end up at
Speaker 1: third base long term, which is his natural position. He
Speaker 1: has sort of the tools to maybe play a corner
Speaker 1: outfield spot, including the arm and enough foot speed to
Speaker 1: handle enough range in an outfield corner. Or he's big
Speaker 1: enough that he and has sort of the offensive profile
Speaker 1: that maybe he moves to first base. Now they committed
Speaker 1: some money to Christian Walker in a few years, it
Speaker 1: might be a few years away. That's not going to
Speaker 1: stop the Astros from potentially giving him looks at a
Speaker 1: variety of different positions. Not the same level of prospect,
Speaker 1: but we did see like a Joey Lauperfido last year
Speaker 1: play it or the last couple of years play second
Speaker 1: base play, you know, some first base play, some center field,
Speaker 1: some other corner outfield spots. So I do think they'll
Speaker 1: focus on positional versatility with Smith, hoping that he sort
Speaker 1: of locks down a position.
Speaker 5: I would say with that, we saw that.
Speaker 4: You know, Dana Brown has said that he's going to
Speaker 4: look him at third base, They're going to look him
Speaker 4: at Ryan Field, They're gona look him at first base.
Speaker 5: In the long term.
Speaker 4: Generally, when you hear something like that, that does not
Speaker 4: mean you can kind of look at the defensive spectrum
Speaker 4: and say he's probably not going to end up at
Speaker 4: the toughest of those positions. There are exceptions to that
Speaker 4: doesn't mean it's not going to happen. But if you
Speaker 4: told me that this means that Cam Smith's more likely
Speaker 4: to be an outfielder as an Astro, wouldn't shock me.
Speaker 4: And I think that there's going to be the opportunity
Speaker 4: there that they could use him in the outfield. I
Speaker 4: think third base. If he can pull off being a
Speaker 4: third basement long term, obviously say that's best for him
Speaker 4: and best for the Astros. But the key thing here
Speaker 4: is Jeff mentioned is the bat, and if the bat
Speaker 4: is as good as we think it could be it's
Speaker 4: not really going to matter that much because he could
Speaker 4: be a very productive outfielder, you know, has the bat
Speaker 4: to kind of carry that, and I do think that again,
Speaker 4: working on that versatility this year while he's still in
Speaker 4: the minors also kind of does kind of provide those
Speaker 4: multiple options. As Jeff mentioned, you got Christian Walker, but
Speaker 4: if there's an injury at first base, he could fit in.
Speaker 4: As applause, Blancher there, you know, let's see what, you know,
Speaker 4: what third base looks like. Obviously Bregman's gone, the zac
Speaker 4: parades is there. Let's see kind of by the time
Speaker 4: Cam Smith is ready, is third base a bigger need
Speaker 4: or is an outfield spot a bigger need where they
Speaker 4: have an astroisk do have a number of kind of candidates,
Speaker 4: but they don't have Kyle Tucker anymore. So I think
Speaker 4: that really the Astros, what they're getting here is a
Speaker 4: really good bat, and thankfully for them, a guy with
Speaker 4: enough athleticism, enough versatility that he could be kind of
Speaker 4: a viable option at multiple different positions depending on what
Speaker 4: the team needs. But you know, Jeff, kind of with that,
Speaker 4: as you mentioned, is probably a late this year, you know,
Speaker 4: late late twenty five, but realistically probably twenty six. We're
Speaker 4: hoping to see him in Houston long term. There, you
Speaker 4: know what, We're gonna know a lot more I would
Speaker 4: say by then about how this lineup kind of sets up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's it's gonna depend on sort
Speaker 1: of who ends up shaking out as the potential outfield
Speaker 1: day outfield, they're in Houston with Tucker to partying. You know,
Speaker 1: there's been some talk about jose L two they move
Speaker 1: into left field, even after Alex Bragman signed in Boston.
Speaker 1: You know, al Tuove moving to left seems like it's
Speaker 1: a viable option, a place that he might see some
Speaker 1: some run and some opportunities. I think he's keeping the
Speaker 1: seat warm, whether it's for a Jacob Melton, you know,
Speaker 1: who is number two in this system, you know, or
Speaker 1: Cam Smith if he moves there long term. I do
Speaker 1: think he has the tools, and I think it's sort
Speaker 1: of an interesting question as like, you know, when Cam
Speaker 1: Smith moved in, how close was he to Melton? Melton
Speaker 1: was sort of the de facto won the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. He was the number one in the handbook.
Speaker 1: The trade happens, Smith moves ahead of him. For me,
Speaker 1: it wasn't much of a question. I just think when
Speaker 1: you look at Melton's a very good player. He hit
Speaker 1: you know well when he was at Oregon State. The
Speaker 1: all around profile is very good there. But I think
Speaker 1: when you talk about offensive impact and tools, Smith has
Speaker 1: more power, has more feel to hit, has sort of
Speaker 1: that athleticism, that bigger body. There's there's more maybe to
Speaker 1: come as well that I think when you look at
Speaker 1: the overall player, and he was young, I mean he's
Speaker 1: a you know, for a draft eligible softomore, was just
Speaker 1: eligible for the draft. I think when you look at
Speaker 1: all those things, he's really the number one guy. Maybe
Speaker 1: him and Melton end up sort of fitting in with
Speaker 1: Myers or whoever it might be, you know, in center field,
Speaker 1: or you know, maybe Melton ends up in center field
Speaker 1: and they move Meyers over to a corner. I think
Speaker 1: ultimately that's how this is all going to shake out.
Speaker 1: He has the offensive upside, He has the big power
Speaker 1: with the hit tool to match. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a Houston Astros fan, this is kind of exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah you lost Kyle Tucker, Yeah you did lose Alex Bregman.
Speaker 1: You know, two major cogs in that machine that won
Speaker 1: you multiple championships, but you know, downsizing a little bit
Speaker 1: to a young player with some upside that. I think
Speaker 1: the Astros have also done a really good job of
Speaker 1: developing their internal players and making them better, regardless of
Speaker 1: what their pedigree was. I think you have to sort
Speaker 1: of trust the process a little bit and say, all right,
Speaker 1: let's see how this goes. Let's see if this guy
Speaker 1: can turn into something. And I do think he has
Speaker 1: the upside, you know, to potentially be a fringe sort
Speaker 1: of all star level player. All right, So to bring
Speaker 1: us to what's happening right now with the current club, JJ,
Speaker 1: the Astros, like Jeff mentioned, lose some of those superstars
Speaker 1: for a variety of reasons. It's very difficult to maintain
Speaker 1: the consistency that they've had for a very long time.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: It's super impressive when you look at the big league
Speaker 3: roster as of now, as of when we're doing this,
Speaker 3: their outfield hitting wise, looks like it's projected to be
Speaker 3: one of the worst in baseball. It could be their seven,
Speaker 3: eight to nine hitters, which you rarely ever see. Okay,
Speaker 3: so we're having this conversation, I start to think back to,
Speaker 3: you know, the Verlander trade, right when they deal away
Speaker 3: who was at Gilbert and Clifford. Maybe that doesn't necessarily matter.
Speaker 3: Just want to get your scope of where they're at
Speaker 3: as a farm system to be able to replenish enough
Speaker 3: to be playoff contenders every year and not have pain.
Speaker 4: So I'll say this for them, like they've made, yes,
Speaker 4: they have. They are understandable thinner on the farm system.
Speaker 4: They had penalties, they had draft penalties, they had international
Speaker 4: penalties for you know, for trash can gaate or whatever
Speaker 4: you want to call it. They also did make trades
Speaker 4: that they've made multiple trades to try to fix up
Speaker 4: the big league club as they're making postseason runs. But Jeff,
Speaker 4: the thing that does jump out to me, I'm looking
Speaker 4: back on those trades. I can't really think of much
Speaker 4: of any of them that you look at and say, oh,
Speaker 4: they really would want to have that as a do over, right, Like, okay, yes,
Speaker 4: they would help to have their outfield delp to still
Speaker 4: have a Drew Gilbert. But it's not like Drew Gilbert
Speaker 4: has blossom into one of the best prospects in baseball.
Speaker 4: He's kind of still the question.
Speaker 5: Still out on him very much.
Speaker 4: So kind of as you look at this, is there
Speaker 4: any of these trades that have happened with this over
Speaker 4: the last couple of years, as you've been doing these
Speaker 4: astros lists that you look at and say, oh, man,
Speaker 4: they wish they could have that one over again.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I think they scout their system internally really really well,
Speaker 1: that the guys that they move moved away from. I
Speaker 1: think you could argue that it was a potential overpay
Speaker 1: by you know, moving a couple of prospects who were
Speaker 1: ascending at that point in time. I think Gilbert at
Speaker 1: the time of the trade was a top one hundred prospect.
Speaker 1: But there were some whispers, you know, internally that the
Speaker 1: team thought that Melton was better than Gilbert.
Speaker 2: I had people with the.
Speaker 1: Organization say that flat out to me, and you usually
Speaker 1: don't hear someone you know, speak that directly about their
Speaker 1: own players. I think when you look at Gilbert, he
Speaker 1: really hasn't progressed much from the guy that we saw
Speaker 1: at Tennessee. You know, I don't know that he would
Speaker 1: necessarily be fighting, you know, fighting for a job here.
Speaker 1: Maybe he'd fit in left field over Ben Gammele. That
Speaker 1: might be a slight upgrade Clifford at this point, the
Speaker 1: jury is still out if he's going to make enough
Speaker 1: contact long term.
Speaker 2: So I don't know if I if.
Speaker 1: Those trades really hurt them, especially when you sort of
Speaker 1: consider Melton still here could come up reinforce that outfield.
Speaker 1: Cam Smith, as we've talked about throughout this, you know,
Speaker 1: could be developed as a corner outfielder certainly has bigger
Speaker 1: offensive upside than Iver Clifford, or Gilbert or Melton.
Speaker 2: For that matter.
Speaker 1: So I think the other thing you sort of have
Speaker 1: to say about the Astros is, you know, we've had
Speaker 1: him as sort of a bottom tier farm system over
Speaker 1: the last four or five seasons, but they've consistently produced
Speaker 1: players that in the major leagues outperform what their pedigree
Speaker 1: was or what their prospect rank was. I think, like
Speaker 1: Yaner Diaz, we were one of the earlier outlets on them,
Speaker 1: but generally I think the overall spectrum of you know,
Speaker 1: outlets out there ranking prospects were a little slower to
Speaker 1: move on him. Jeremy Paina sort of came off of
Speaker 1: an injured year with a very small sample size and
Speaker 1: then jumped in and you know, was the World Series MVP.
Speaker 1: You know, so I think you sort of factor all
Speaker 1: those things in, it's still a really good lineup one
Speaker 1: through seven, one through six, it's you know, probably as
Speaker 1: strong as just about any lineup in baseball, especially when
Speaker 1: you have yord On Alvarez in the middle. And you know,
Speaker 1: I know, Christian Walker doesn't necessarily get the fanfare that
Speaker 1: he deserves. This is one of the best home run
Speaker 1: hit is one of the best power hitters in the game,
Speaker 1: and he's now gonna be a you know, he's a
Speaker 1: right hander, he's gonna be able to.
Speaker 2: Take advantage of those Crawford boxes.
Speaker 1: So I think when you look at the overall picture,
Speaker 1: there's still really strong offensively, there's still a really solid
Speaker 1: defensive team, and then you look at the pitching. They
Speaker 1: still have plenty of pitching that's under control for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, so they could still win this division.
Speaker 1: I still think they're going to compete. I'd love to
Speaker 1: see them make another move and try to reinforce that outfield,
Speaker 1: but maybe that comes internally.
Speaker 2: Well, good, you did it.
Speaker 3: You made Astros fans feel better just now with all
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 2: So there you go.
Speaker 3: Astros fans. Much more coverage over at Baseball America dot Com.
Speaker 3: Go get yourself a subscription. Subscribe to this YouTube channel
Speaker 3: for many more videos, including ones that cover each top
Speaker 3: prospect per organization being unveiled throughout spring training.
Speaker 2: We'll see on the next one.
Speaker 1: I don't think Emerson, like, are you gonna get Emerson's peak?
Speaker 2: Maybe with those guys.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think there's a runway here
Speaker 1: for those guys in the next year or two. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of these hitters to be knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: We've seen it over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: The Seattle Mariners have a very strong farm system. Let's
Speaker 3: get into their top prospect right now, Colt Emerson your
Speaker 3: prospect profile Scott brun along with Baseball Americas JJ Cooper
Speaker 3: and Jeff Ponce. Jeff Colt Emerson has a chance to
Speaker 3: be a star factor of fiction.
Speaker 2: That's fact.
Speaker 1: Had an opportunity to see him in person over a
Speaker 1: couple of games during the Arizona Fall League during the
Speaker 1: first week only had thirteen games out there. You know,
Speaker 1: it was one of the younger players, was actually I
Speaker 1: think over four years younger than the average player in
Speaker 1: the AFL, so you know, obviously was showing off really
Speaker 1: well against good competition. Hit three seventy four to thirty
Speaker 1: six five thirty seven, had nine runs scored over thirteen games.
Speaker 1: It's an offensive league, but even as far as you know,
Speaker 1: standout offensive performances for as young as he was as
Speaker 1: a as a nineteen year old in that league, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody that didn't have any experience outside a ball I
Speaker 1: thought he really really showed well. Maybe wasn't the greatest season,
Speaker 1: Maybe he didn't necessarily meet full expectations of what we
Speaker 1: had anticipated or expected from him in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: I think some of that was Obviously he was dealing
Speaker 1: with injuries. That's one of the reasons that he ended
Speaker 1: up in the Arizona Fall League because he was limited
Speaker 1: to seventy games. But when we look at the underlying data,
Speaker 1: it's just like great bats of ball skills. There's no
Speaker 1: questions about that at all. Twelve point six percent miss rate,
Speaker 1: which is pretty goofy, you know, doesn't swing and miss,
Speaker 1: doesn't chase or expand the zone very much. Is still
Speaker 1: the type of a player that you know, isn't passive
Speaker 1: in the zone. He's attacking strikes when he has those opportunities.
Speaker 1: Shows above average power for his age and level. I
Speaker 1: think this is, you know, the Corey Seeger comp. You know,
Speaker 1: the bat first bigger shortstop comps get thrown around a lot.
Speaker 1: I think it is app to here. I think he
Speaker 1: is definitely somebody that sort of fits into that category
Speaker 1: of a guy who could hit for average. The power
Speaker 1: should grow. He doesn't necessarily have to sell out for
Speaker 1: that power as well. But I think when we come
Speaker 1: back to this video in five, six, seven years and
Speaker 1: he's had a couple of years of service time in MLB,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna be talking about, you know, a
Speaker 1: twenty five home run bat that can hit two eighty plus,
Speaker 1: you know, play a solid shortstop, maybe a really good
Speaker 1: third base, but it's going to stick on that left
Speaker 1: side of the infield.
Speaker 2: Just a really talented all around player.
Speaker 4: I got good news Mariners fans. I know that there's
Speaker 4: a lot of understandable frustration. I feel like there might
Speaker 4: even be a little bit of anger about the Mariners'
Speaker 4: lineup and the lack of production they've gotten. Obviously, ad
Speaker 4: middedly it's a pitcher's park, but Emerson is one of
Speaker 4: a number of very very impressive Mariners bets who.
Speaker 5: Are on the way up.
Speaker 4: The thing that's the thing that really does jump out
Speaker 4: with him is you just feel really confident that he's
Speaker 4: going to hit for average, he's going to get on base,
Speaker 4: the power is going to be there. But you know,
Speaker 4: if you said that speaking of Seegers, you know, if
Speaker 4: you said that it was a Kyle Seger type power
Speaker 4: down the road, if you've said that it's kind of
Speaker 4: that prime and profile down the road, I actually would
Speaker 4: think that that's not a bad profile either, which is
Speaker 4: maybe he ends up at third base, maybe he ends
Speaker 4: up being a high average guy, gets on base and
Speaker 4: shows above average power, but not like thirty plus home
Speaker 4: run type power. That would be great and that would
Speaker 4: be a star like to answer Scott's question, that, to me,
Speaker 4: that's the kind of guy who goes to All Star Games.
Speaker 4: And the thing that's going to be interesting to see
Speaker 4: with this Mariner's group of prospects coming up is there
Speaker 4: is going to be a lot of figuring out who
Speaker 4: fits where because there are a number of these guys
Speaker 4: who you know, Jeff, when I look at it, there's
Speaker 4: a healthy competition going on here because when we say
Speaker 4: who's the number one prospect of the Mariner system, it's
Speaker 4: called Emerson. But if you said who's two, three, four,
Speaker 4: five six, you could make a whole lot of different
Speaker 4: arguments because there's a lot of these guys who you
Speaker 4: could look up at the end of this year and say, oh,
Speaker 4: that guy's one of the best offensive prospects in the
Speaker 4: minor leagues, could you?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And I think you know, when you consider that and
Speaker 1: you consider what the talent they have in their player
Speaker 1: development system, just in terms of getting the best out
Speaker 1: of their pitching prospects, I think it's really exciting that
Speaker 1: they have all of these talented hitters up at the top.
Speaker 1: You have guys like Cole Young. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: really good all around player. The tools are maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit less loud than others around him.
Speaker 2: Johnny Farmelo is pretty tooled up. I think has big upside.
Speaker 1: Michael Arroyo just from a pure bats ball power age
Speaker 1: two level production sort of standpoint, checks all those boxes
Speaker 1: in a really high level way. I know, we put
Speaker 1: out our robo Scout Top one hundred during the offseason.
Speaker 1: He was number two, much to my surprise. But that's
Speaker 1: sort of how the model views him. It's very similar
Speaker 1: to a lot of models that teams use we roll
Speaker 1: in some data to that as well, so I think
Speaker 1: it kind of puts into perspective all these guys, and
Speaker 1: we haven't even talked about Felnon Sellston, who's a very
Speaker 1: talented international prospect which just hasn't been on the field
Speaker 1: all that much, Harry Ford, lazarro Mantes, and then we
Speaker 1: start to get into some of the pitching prospects who,
Speaker 1: as we just talked about, with their play development system,
Speaker 1: I think anytime a talented arm gets into the Mariners system,
Speaker 1: you maybe boost them a little bit, the same way
Speaker 1: you would with.
Speaker 2: The Dodgers prospect et cetera.
Speaker 1: So the fact that they have this young core of
Speaker 1: hitters that are all kind of coming up around the
Speaker 1: same time, really really talented, is going to be interesting
Speaker 1: to see how it all shakes out.
Speaker 2: And it's something that Seattle certainly needs.
Speaker 1: They need some firepower offensively kind of match up with
Speaker 1: Julio Rodriguez, who's still very very young in the future
Speaker 1: and in the coming years. So I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons for excitement, especially in the infield. We
Speaker 1: talk about some of these Mariners prospects.
Speaker 3: JJ I'm not a Mariners fan, but I watched this
Speaker 3: team a lot, and I feel the frustration I think
Speaker 3: many people in baseball field of frustration when you see
Speaker 3: the starting staff that they put together, especially over the
Speaker 3: last couple of years, and how good they've been from
Speaker 3: start to finish in a season.
Speaker 2: And you know, I haven't even.
Speaker 3: Made the playoffs for these last couple of years.
Speaker 2: So let me ask you this.
Speaker 3: We're talking up Mariners prospects, including Emerson. Are they going
Speaker 3: to match up their timetable, their ETA with the starting
Speaker 3: staff that they have. If not, it's a big problem. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's because those guys are stars. They're going to get expensive,
Speaker 3: and some of them are going to leave if not
Speaker 3: gets traded. So I've seen this happen before. I couldn't
Speaker 3: think of one in the last thirty seconds, but there
Speaker 3: are examples, if I think deeply enough, about teams that
Speaker 3: have one stage coming, but the other stage is already there,
Speaker 3: and by the time the position players all get to
Speaker 3: the show, they're like, damn, we don't really have the
Speaker 3: aces like we used to have, so we didn't time
Speaker 3: this up.
Speaker 4: Well, that's the great question, and the answer is no,
Speaker 4: because the time is now like you would have to
Speaker 4: have all these guys ready to go, because I don't
Speaker 4: know where you could point to and say that this
Speaker 4: is not the time for the marriage rotation you know
Speaker 4: they have. I'm not saying that maybe you know, George
Speaker 4: Kirby or Brian wu or take your pick, someone has
Speaker 4: a better year in their future. But they're pitching staffs
Speaker 4: one of the best in baseball right now. They're starting
Speaker 4: rotation and Luis Castillo and these are guys who ideally,
Speaker 4: if you had this group of prospects all ready to
Speaker 4: arrive this year for Opening Day, which you don't, then
Speaker 4: that would be when it's matching up pretty well. Really,
Speaker 4: to be honest, it would be them arriving the midpoint
Speaker 4: of last year so that this year they go into
Speaker 4: the season having already checked off the know what the
Speaker 4: big leagues are like. And we're talking about a number
Speaker 4: of guys who are n a ball So I think
Speaker 4: the other way you could approach this, and it doesn't
Speaker 4: seem like this is the way that really they're they're
Speaker 4: you know, there are the Depoto quotes about sustainability. This
Speaker 4: is a team that this wave of hitters could arrive
Speaker 4: in time to kind of keep the team above five
Speaker 4: hundred above above heads above water as the pitching gets expensive,
Speaker 4: as the pitching starts to hit free agency, even in
Speaker 4: some cases. But I don't think it's going to arrive
Speaker 4: in time to say, oh, it's synced up perfectly, because
Speaker 4: if it syncd up perfectly, they'd already be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that kind of led me into my conclusion here,
Speaker 3: which is, for a team that's been run by a
Speaker 3: GM president baseball ops who loves to make trades, it's
Speaker 3: been shocking to see them kind of toned down the
Speaker 3: trade activity at a time when I thought, maybe they
Speaker 3: should turn it up if they don't have the budget,
Speaker 3: acquire those cheaper league minimum bats that are potential stars
Speaker 3: who can give you more of return now and sacrifice
Speaker 3: a little bit more of the future because who cares.
Speaker 3: I know you want to keep it rolling for a
Speaker 3: long period of time, but now you're shaking your head, Jep.
Speaker 3: I mean the fifty four that thing only works so much.
Speaker 3: I'd rather have sixty percent for a few years and
Speaker 3: then go back down to forty five to fifty percent
Speaker 3: wins for a few years.
Speaker 2: Up, I'm the Mariners.
Speaker 1: Well, you got Gilbert until twenty seven. You got Kirby
Speaker 1: until twenty twenty eight, that the final season that they're
Speaker 1: under contract, and then you got Miller and Wu until
Speaker 1: twenty nine. So like there is a runway here. I
Speaker 1: don't think Emerson, like, are you going to get Emerson's peak?
Speaker 2: Maybe with those guys.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I think there's a runway here
Speaker 1: for those guys in the next year or two. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of these hitters to be knocking on the door.
Speaker 1: We've seen it over and over and over again. A
Speaker 1: guy gets up a double A. He is not that
Speaker 1: far off for making the jump of the major leagues
Speaker 1: that it wouldn't shock me if Emerson and a couple
Speaker 1: of these other guys debut in twenty twenty six, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five, probably out of the question, But there is
Speaker 1: a window there where they could get those guys together
Speaker 1: for two or three years. Gilbert would be the one
Speaker 1: they would have to extend. I don't think Castillo is
Speaker 1: really in this equation for me. I'm thinking about the
Speaker 1: young pitchers that they have, and you know, they drafted
Speaker 1: Ryan Sloan, They've gotten you know, Jurangela Senia, Like, they
Speaker 1: have some arms here that you know, potentially could sort
Speaker 1: of backfill Castillo and Gilbert in the future.
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I feel like they have anne
Speaker 2: homegrown corps.
Speaker 1: And the other part of it, too is you got
Speaker 1: to expect that any hitters you go out and get,
Speaker 1: the production is probably gonna plummet a little bit when
Speaker 1: they go into that ballpark. They got to figure out
Speaker 1: the ballpark and how to make it a better offensive environment.
Speaker 4: Frankly, the thing I would say with all of this
Speaker 4: is is much like we talk about with the Orioles,
Speaker 4: the Orioles are we talk about the Oriols, wehre's like
Speaker 4: their one playoff series win away from putting a lot
Speaker 4: of this question behind them. The Mariners are one really
Speaker 4: good season away. If everything comes together this year, then
Speaker 4: this will seem kind of like an obsolete thought. But
Speaker 4: until they do, this is a very fair question to
Speaker 4: ask because we.
Speaker 5: Saw a young core come up together.
Speaker 4: When we just mentioned all those pictures throwing a Julio
Speaker 4: Rodriguez throwing a cal Riley, you got to win something
Speaker 4: with it, and so far that hadn't happened. It very
Speaker 4: well could this year or in the future. But until
Speaker 4: you do, there's gonna be that pressure. There's gonna be
Speaker 4: that frustration, understandably from a really good fan base to
Speaker 4: see them get over.
Speaker 5: That what's been really a long drought. Let's just be honest.
Speaker 5: This is a team.
Speaker 4: If you're a Seattle Mariners fan, you've known heartbreak more
Speaker 4: than you've known success.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you deserve better. So that's why we're here to
Speaker 3: talk it out. And you do have a really good
Speaker 3: farm system right now with some depth to it. So
Speaker 3: thanks for watching this one. We do this on every
Speaker 3: single team here in spring training, so if you've missed
Speaker 3: any and go back and check them out and look
Speaker 3: forward to more here on the Baseball America YouTube channel.
Speaker 4: Do not kind of lump the A's in with the
Speaker 4: bottom feeders, because I promise you if you compare this
Speaker 4: A's lineup to say the Rockies lineup or the Marlins
Speaker 4: lineup or the White Sox lineup, it's not in that
Speaker 4: same comparison.
Speaker 3: Okay, A's fans, let's talk about Nick Kurtz, their top prospect.
Speaker 2: Is he coming to the show in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: It's a Baseball America Prospect profile Scott bron with ba's
Speaker 3: JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponce. Obviously, I want to get
Speaker 3: your take on Nick overall, But JJ, do you think
Speaker 3: that he will make an impact on the twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five A's a team that could surprise some people and
Speaker 3: certainly could use some more help to the lineup if.
Speaker 4: He's healthy, and that's a big gift because he's had
Speaker 4: some injury issues when he was at Wake Forest. But
Speaker 4: if he's healthy, I would say I'd be surprised if
Speaker 4: he doesn't. The best way I could lay this out
Speaker 4: is if you look at Jacob Wilson kind of his
Speaker 4: path and him last year, Nick Kurtz should, if anything,
Speaker 4: move faster than Jacob Wilson. Nick Kurtz is has less
Speaker 4: concerned about the defense. He's a great you know, he's
Speaker 4: a very good defender, but he's a first baseman, so
Speaker 4: we're not really having to worry about that too much.
Speaker 4: And then on top of that, you talk about his
Speaker 4: polish at the plate, Well, this is the guy who
Speaker 4: came out of Wake for us, it's not a little
Speaker 4: bit more, you know, higher, you know, a tougher conference
Speaker 4: in college ball and everything we've seen so far as
Speaker 4: a pro which admittedly is about that much.
Speaker 5: So you know, it's it's.
Speaker 4: A very short pro career so far, but everything that
Speaker 4: the A's have seen so far seems to indicate that
Speaker 4: Nick Kurtz could absolutely be a fast mover. The way
Speaker 4: I would put it is is if I was Tyler Soderstrom.
Speaker 4: Obviously you can kind of fit Soldstrum in a couple
Speaker 4: of places, could d H. But if I was telling Salidstrum,
Speaker 4: I would really want to get off to a really
Speaker 4: good start because there is a Nick Kurtz sized freight
Speaker 4: train coming down the tracks behind him, and it would
Speaker 4: not shock me at all if by mid season a
Speaker 4: little bit after that, we see Kurts in the big leagues,
Speaker 4: and I wouldn't be surprised at all if he kind
Speaker 4: of hit the ground running the majors, because Jeff, this
Speaker 4: is a really impressive and a really polished bat, isn't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think, you know, even the athleticism Occurts
Speaker 1: is probably a little bit under sold. He's going to
Speaker 1: stick at first base, but I think it'd be a
Speaker 1: plus for first baseman. I don't think we'd necessarily talk
Speaker 1: about first base defense and care that much about it,
Speaker 1: but it is important and I think it does make
Speaker 1: a difference. I sort of look at the lineup right now.
Speaker 1: They have Ruker kind of penciled in a DH. It
Speaker 1: wouldn't shock me if the hint, you know, if Kurtz
Speaker 1: comes up and they want to keep Soderstrom's bat in
Speaker 1: the lineup, maybe Soderstrom moves to DH, they move Ruker
Speaker 1: to the outfield, and he kind of pushes out Seth Brown.
Speaker 1: I could see Kurtz coming up by July, maybe even
Speaker 1: a little bit earlier than that, but by mid season
Speaker 1: and kind of holding down that a's first base job.
Speaker 1: They need something to get the fans excited. It could
Speaker 1: be a better team than people expect to think. Scott
Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head when he said that,
Speaker 1: But I look at Kurtz and I think he's also
Speaker 1: super polished. You know, the bats of ball skills are
Speaker 1: well above average, the swing decisions are plus, the power
Speaker 1: is plus, Like his raw power isn't that far off
Speaker 1: from Jack kglianone, and he has much better plate skills,
Speaker 1: is a better first baseman. I think this was one
Speaker 1: of the best hitters in the draft. It was a
Speaker 1: really talented college positional class with Bizana, with Kurtz, with
Speaker 1: weather Hall, with Cagnianon and others, and It wouldn't shock
Speaker 1: me if we come back to this in a few
Speaker 1: years and say, all right, like Nick Kurtz might actually
Speaker 1: be the most impactful hitter. Maybe not all around player,
Speaker 1: but just in terms of what he can do. The
Speaker 1: big question is just staying healthy. He really hasn't made
Speaker 1: it through a fully or healthy Every single summer during
Speaker 1: his college tenure at Wake Forest, he was shut down,
Speaker 1: had some sort of procedure.
Speaker 2: He had the same thing when he came into.
Speaker 1: Pro ball last year, and then it arrived in AFL
Speaker 1: a little bit late because of it. So I think
Speaker 1: the big thing with Kurtz is just staying on the
Speaker 1: field and staying healthy. We've seen this with hitters before.
Speaker 1: He can go back and you know, you know, bring
Speaker 1: a name up like Ian Kinsler, a guy that was
Speaker 1: really injured over the early part of his career and
Speaker 1: then kind of became an iron man. Like I've heard
Speaker 1: this expression before when it comes to hit her injuries.
Speaker 1: But you know, with pictures, it's kind of, you know,
Speaker 1: a sign of things to come. When there's injuries early
Speaker 1: on with hitters, sometimes it's just little stuff and even
Speaker 1: some of the tissue injuries can go away over time.
Speaker 1: That's not to say that it's it's something that you
Speaker 1: should sort of like just you know, wave away with
Speaker 1: one hand and you know, ignore. But I do think
Speaker 1: as long as he stays on the field and is
Speaker 1: healthy and gets a full first half, it wouldn't shock
Speaker 1: me if he spends the second half of the season
Speaker 1: in the major leagues and really hits, because I think
Speaker 1: he's not that far off from being a major league
Speaker 1: quality hitter now, just a matter of maybe just seeing
Speaker 1: it a little bit more.
Speaker 4: I will offer one counterpoint as far as a hitter,
Speaker 4: a top draft pick hitter who started out with seeming
Speaker 4: like an injury played career, then had a stretch of success,
Speaker 4: and then the injuries came back, and that would be
Speaker 4: Anthony Rendon, who you know, a kind of the unfortunate
Speaker 4: example of that. But no, I agree with you in general.
Speaker 4: And the thing that does stand out Kurts is it's
Speaker 4: not like he has a back injury that causes his problems.
Speaker 4: A year after year he had a rib injury, he
Speaker 4: had a shoulder injury. And that shoulder injury, I remember
Speaker 4: when that happened last year, there was some thought like, Okay,
Speaker 4: are we going to see Nick Kurts again during the
Speaker 4: uh you know, during the regular season for for Wake
Speaker 4: and he was back really quick, had a hamstring injury.
Speaker 5: These are the kind of injuries that.
Speaker 4: They happen and obviously it's not great, but they're not
Speaker 4: things where you say, oh, that's a chronic shoulder injury
Speaker 4: or a rib injury. That's the kind of thing that uh,
Speaker 4: you know that that you say, Okay, it may just
Speaker 4: be a fluke. And if you put that, whenever he's
Speaker 4: been on the field, Nick Kurt has always performed. So
Speaker 4: it's not even something where it takes him a long
Speaker 4: time when he gets back. When he gets back, he's
Speaker 4: usually back. He has that swing, he really knows his
Speaker 4: swing where he just kind of hits the ground running
Speaker 4: and back to being a Polish hitter almost from day
Speaker 4: one when he comes back off the aisle.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: And then I'm going to take the global picture, of
Speaker 3: course for this A's team, because they're trying to get
Speaker 3: themselves into a better public sphere as they head to
Speaker 3: Vegas at some point maybe but at least spend some
Speaker 3: time in Sacramento. And I think this is the team
Speaker 3: that has really gotten the most negative attention in our
Speaker 3: sport for the last at least half decade. Is there
Speaker 3: a future here just based on the farm system right
Speaker 3: because I mean this team still gets tied on a
Speaker 3: casual basis JJ to the movie that came out a
Speaker 3: couple decades ago in Moneyball, and really they haven't been
Speaker 3: ahead of the curve, I would say for a while now.
Speaker 3: So do you think they're at a point here where
Speaker 3: at least the losing has led to some success with
Speaker 3: their farm system that's able to supplement a team that's
Speaker 3: now at least spending a little bit more and could
Speaker 3: turn them into a wildcard contender.
Speaker 4: Well, I think so, because I think that you look
Speaker 4: at this team right now. Jeff mentioned Brent Rooker. Brent
Speaker 4: Rooker had a breakout year last year. Lawrence Butler, you know,
Speaker 4: had a great half of the season last year. This
Speaker 4: is the team that now, do not kind of lump
Speaker 4: the A's in with the bottom feeders, because I promise
Speaker 4: you if you compare this A's lineup to say the
Speaker 4: Rockies lineup or the Marlins lineup or the White Sox lineup,
Speaker 4: it's not in that same comparison. This is a team
Speaker 4: that right now can put a reasonably reputable lineup onto
Speaker 4: the field and then you throw in Fa Kurtz and
Speaker 4: guys like this arrive before long. It could get even better.
Speaker 4: Now the AO West is wide open. It does not
Speaker 4: look like that the Astros are the Astros that dominated
Speaker 4: this division for years. We'll see if the Rangers can
Speaker 4: get back to the team that won the World Series
Speaker 4: two years ago. So all that being said, the A's
Speaker 4: look like a competitive team, and that's a big improvement,
Speaker 4: even if, okay, they're gonna be a competitive team playing
Speaker 4: in a minor league ballpark.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this team could make some noise in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five and some promise here going forward, including also a
Speaker 3: pretty good manager who they extended recently as well. And
Speaker 3: that seems to be the formula, man if I'm the
Speaker 3: A's trying to pinpoint that young talent and get some
Speaker 3: extensions going because you know, otherwise you're going to get
Speaker 3: closer to free agency and probably have to move those
Speaker 3: guys unless they're suddenly going to be spending at a
Speaker 3: different level. I highly doubt that I'm worried about them
Speaker 3: paying their construction bills for Vegas if that happens. So anyway,
Speaker 3: as fans and anyone else. Hope you enjoyed this one.
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