Speaker 1: Any swags, Hi.
Speaker 2: Understanding, deep just center field and it's gone Wow.
Speaker 3: His first big league swing is gonna be a grand slam,
Speaker 3: a home line swing.
Speaker 1: Good time, walk to the show.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to the Call Up, your go to podcast
Speaker 4: in the future stars in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1: You got arm Late and Elijah Evans.
Speaker 4: We are talking big league debuts, some notable promotions, and
Speaker 4: some notable pro debuts as well. Everything from you know,
Speaker 4: I'm excited to talk Grady Emerson making his pro debut
Speaker 4: technically if you don't count the Bridge League, but I've
Speaker 4: been seeing some good video out there from Emerson in
Speaker 4: the Bridge League running from the ops or running from
Speaker 4: the ops. Great job, by the way on him covering
Speaker 4: the Bridge League out there in like Central Florida. But
Speaker 4: we also have Joshua Bias his debut. Obviously, we've talked
Speaker 4: a ton about that, but him getting caught up to
Speaker 4: the big leagues for the Cardinals. What that's gonna look like,
Speaker 4: Because we've seen both ends of the spectrum already in
Speaker 4: the early going here and then plenty in between promotions
Speaker 4: and the Biloxi Shuckers reloaded looking like one of the
Speaker 4: best teams in the Minor leagues continuously. We've got Jesus
Speaker 4: made and louis paying you back together again. So a
Speaker 4: lot of fun headlines here across the minor leagues.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got we got a good collection here. We
Speaker 3: got a couple of a number of big, big debuts
Speaker 3: that have been pretty fun. Obviously a crazy, historic big
Speaker 3: league debut to kick it off here, and then many
Speaker 3: others that have been pretty interesting to keep an eye on.
Speaker 3: Are just recalls. Some guys coming up. Ricky Tiedeman another
Speaker 3: one that's funny. I'm excited to get to him later
Speaker 3: because it's a name that we probably haven't mentioned in
Speaker 3: a long time, but he's made it parents in Toronto
Speaker 3: and that was cool to see. We'll kick it off
Speaker 3: with Joshua Bias because I feel like we have to
Speaker 3: kick it off there and it's only right to do so,
Speaker 3: because the three homer big league debut was historic, incredible
Speaker 3: and really one of those moments that makes you realize
Speaker 3: how nuts baseball is. And that's what you had mentioned
Speaker 3: to me after that happened, followed by what has been
Speaker 3: a rough couple games after that. But by this is
Speaker 3: such a polarizing prospect and obviously someone that you've been
Speaker 3: marginally lower on than some others, but super talented. Of course,
Speaker 3: the raw power is incredible and you saw it immediately
Speaker 3: the first three of that's of his career, but also
Speaker 3: going to come with his fair share of coldstreak. So
Speaker 3: where you at with bias? Like, how was that experience?
Speaker 3: Just watching that and now like, yeah, that was five
Speaker 3: games into his big league career.
Speaker 1: That was real.
Speaker 4: I mean it was really it was special to do
Speaker 4: it at regularly. I mean just just they had like
Speaker 4: thirty family members there. I mean, there's such an easy
Speaker 4: guy to root for, given the hurdles that he said professionally,
Speaker 4: I mean we've talked about it to take himself from
Speaker 4: a guy that I mean looks like he was trending
Speaker 4: towards being an ORG guy with the struggles and if
Speaker 4: you looked at what the swing looked like when he
Speaker 4: was in the lower level is I mean it was
Speaker 4: really rough, and he was striking out north of thirty
Speaker 4: percent of the time against lower level competition. And to
Speaker 4: rework as Swang and to have the success that he's
Speaker 4: had over the last two seasons, it's just been so
Speaker 4: amazing and play his way into being a player that
Speaker 4: the Cardinals are focused on and saying, hey, we can't
Speaker 4: call him up before X date because we wanted to
Speaker 4: be rookie eligible next year. Now do I think over
Speaker 4: the course of a full season next year he's going
Speaker 4: to be competing for the Rookie of the Year. I would,
Speaker 4: I lean know, because I just think the approach and
Speaker 4: the swing is exploitable. But I do think that this
Speaker 4: is still a player that can be useful at the
Speaker 4: big league level, and he's not going to be on
Speaker 4: our top point hundred update. I'm bracing for impact on
Speaker 4: that next week. We've had, you know, plenty of pushback consistently.
Speaker 4: It's just because I think he ultimately lands is you know,
Speaker 4: more of that short platoon guy.
Speaker 1: We've seen a demolish lefties.
Speaker 4: He did three times against Matthew Board when he can
Speaker 4: get those arms out there and extended.
Speaker 1: I mean that the power is crazy.
Speaker 4: But I think from the hard throwing righties, especially like
Speaker 4: two seemers running in just anything kind of that can
Speaker 4: tie him up and stuff.
Speaker 1: At the top. I saw it so frequently this year
Speaker 1: already too.
Speaker 4: Can really you can really do him in, but you
Speaker 4: leave it over the heart of the plate, you leave
Speaker 4: something that he can time up like it's gonna be
Speaker 4: gone at a really high you know, I would say
Speaker 4: a high rate compared to even some of the other
Speaker 4: you know, solid hitters that there are in the game.
Speaker 4: Like when it comes hitting mistakes, he can be as
Speaker 4: good as anybody and you can make.
Speaker 1: A career off that. My other concern is that.
Speaker 4: The glove is not as as good as you may
Speaker 4: think because of how straight line fast he is for
Speaker 4: a big dude. So I just think it's gonna be
Speaker 4: difficult to get to like two plus three war and
Speaker 4: that's what holds him just outside of the top one hundred.
Speaker 4: But the debut is just a flash of you know,
Speaker 4: what you can get with a player like Joshua Bise.
Speaker 1: When he's hot.
Speaker 4: I think it's very similar to what we've seen from
Speaker 4: like Asmarleian Valdez and and again could be a useful player,
Speaker 4: But I just think that there's gonna be a lot
Speaker 4: of turbulence. And I do think that he's the kind
Speaker 4: of guy that when you execute your game plan as
Speaker 4: a pitcher, you can set him down a little bit
Speaker 4: more frequently than the average, you know, big leaguehitter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm true Stale the Cardinals run him out too, because,
Speaker 3: like I know, they're they're not quite in like the
Speaker 3: contender bucket, but they're still a competitive team and they're
Speaker 3: still have a shot to try to make the playoffs
Speaker 3: right now. So do they give him the run to
Speaker 3: play every day or does it start to become a
Speaker 3: little bit more of a platoon type of bat. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure exactly the direction you're gonna go with him,
Speaker 3: but at the leary least, like he's he's definitely fun
Speaker 3: to watch and you know, you see those moments where
Speaker 3: it's like wow, and the debut obviously was incredible, but
Speaker 3: I am very interested to see kind of how they
Speaker 3: utilize him for the rest of the season and then
Speaker 3: going into next year, Like is he on the if
Speaker 3: he's on the opening day roster, Like is he is
Speaker 3: he penciled as one of their starting outfielders or is
Speaker 3: he penciled as a piece, you know, getting platoon at
Speaker 3: bats more?
Speaker 4: Right, I think it's gonna be pretty consistent run at
Speaker 4: least for the rest of this year, because like they
Speaker 4: want to figure that out, and they also want to
Speaker 4: I think hope that he can progress.
Speaker 1: In some of these ways.
Speaker 4: I just think ultimately he's such a stiff mover in
Speaker 4: the box and and even some of the pre string
Speaker 4: moves that it's gonna be really hard for him to
Speaker 4: cover stuff hard inside and and even at the at
Speaker 4: the top as well. And then when that speeds you up,
Speaker 4: you start chasing more and you start waving at those
Speaker 4: lighters away. But if he's ever gonna be able to
Speaker 4: work through that, like, you got to give him the
Speaker 4: opportunity to and he's gonna get a lot of time
Speaker 4: to do that now against big league pitching. He can
Speaker 4: go into the off season a guy that's clearly shown
Speaker 4: that he can make improvements and adjustments. Go into the
Speaker 4: off season, see if he can clean some of those
Speaker 4: things up to you know, maybe push that hit tool
Speaker 4: and the overall swing decisions a little bit higher going
Speaker 4: into next season where they'll give him runway out of
Speaker 4: the gate, and you see how how he performs, you know,
Speaker 4: against those rights and those harder throwing rities. But some
Speaker 4: bad batted ball luck in the subsequent games. But still,
Speaker 4: like overall, you have that three for four, three homers
Speaker 4: performance and then after that you have like a zero
Speaker 4: for thirteen with I think six k's. So it's like
Speaker 4: it's gonna be interesting to watch. I think he's going
Speaker 4: to struggle a little bit, but hopefully he has some
Speaker 4: of these home run barrages because he's an easy guy
Speaker 4: to root for, and I mean it was really special
Speaker 4: to see and like him talk about his father, his
Speaker 4: late father, and you know, after the debut and just
Speaker 4: just like wanting to make it to the bigs for
Speaker 4: you know, with this connection to him, there's so many
Speaker 4: amazing wrinkles. And I hope he proves me wrong and
Speaker 4: launches forty next year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he's got the power to do it.
Speaker 3: So it's just about making more consistent strides, right. But
Speaker 3: let's get over to a pitcher, another very you know,
Speaker 3: fun story and someone else that we've been I think
Speaker 3: you know a lot of baseball fans that are keeping
Speaker 3: the prosper wal have probably been excited for the debut
Speaker 3: of Matt Tugboat Wilkinson. Yeah, gotta be one of the
Speaker 3: best nicknames in baseball too. Tugboat is just that's that's
Speaker 3: just hard to beat. But Tugboat obviously goes over from
Speaker 3: the Giant or from the Guardians org over to the
Speaker 3: Giants at the deadline this year and ends up, you know,
Speaker 3: he makes it. He hasn't made his debut yet, but
Speaker 3: he was called up what yesterday technically after would have
Speaker 3: been a really good run in Double A this season,
Speaker 3: had some struggles in Triple A but also pcls and
Speaker 3: stowing the Giants Org not putting too much stock behind
Speaker 3: what he was doing in the PCL. But now he
Speaker 3: gets into the big leagues and it seems like he's
Speaker 3: set to make his debut, probably in the next couple
Speaker 3: of days.
Speaker 4: I think, Yeah, I think it might line up where
Speaker 4: he makes it against Cleveland, which would be nuts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it looks like I don't think he's scheduled for
Speaker 3: a start yet technically, or he's not like on the
Speaker 3: official like scheduled starters profile, but I think it seems
Speaker 3: like it would be very likely tomorrow. Potentially they have
Speaker 3: a TVD there for the first Sanrancis against Cleveland, so
Speaker 3: that'd be kind of cool against his old team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's great timing there, you know, of course included
Speaker 4: in that Patrick Bailey deal.
Speaker 1: You know, he's an interesting arm.
Speaker 4: I will endlessly root for this guy because he's just
Speaker 4: so much fun, and I have some cards that I'll
Speaker 4: just never sell. But he it's ninety miles an hour, man,
Speaker 4: but it's kind of this invisible, this upshoot delivery. He
Speaker 4: gets down the mound like, you know, this is a
Speaker 4: six to one, two hundred and fifty pound guy, but
Speaker 4: he's an athlete up there, man.
Speaker 1: Like he drives, he works down the mound.
Speaker 4: He creates a slight crossfire and it's it's a sub
Speaker 4: five foot release, like it's a four point nine foot release.
Speaker 1: So it's this low release.
Speaker 4: Kind of upshoot run and ride that I think creates
Speaker 4: some deception. It gets above average extension, which only helps.
Speaker 4: And it's ninety miles an hour. So here's the thing
Speaker 4: with the deceptive lefties. And it either works or it
Speaker 4: doesn't in the big leagues.
Speaker 1: And I know like that it's just is what it is.
Speaker 4: I can't I can't face them one hundred times to
Speaker 4: tell you if it's gonna work or not.
Speaker 1: We're gonna find out.
Speaker 4: There's been so many guys through the years that you know,
Speaker 4: I look at the stuff, I see them in the mino.
Speaker 4: He's like, go, oh man, there's no way that's gonna
Speaker 4: work in the big leagues.
Speaker 1: And it does.
Speaker 4: And then there's been guys where it's like, I actually
Speaker 4: like this. I think this could work. You know, he
Speaker 4: misses enough bats and then he just misses no bats
Speaker 4: in the big leagus, so it's it's tough. I think
Speaker 4: the big thing with Tugboat is gonna be the secondaries
Speaker 4: because even if you have an invisible like if guys
Speaker 4: know that that fastball is common sixty percent of the time,
Speaker 4: which is what the usage is for Tugboat right now,
Speaker 4: they're going to get to it. So it's going to
Speaker 4: be interesting to see his feel for the secondary is
Speaker 4: like the change up field just really hasn't been there
Speaker 4: for him since he's been getting used to the you know,
Speaker 4: the big league ball on triple A. But the slider
Speaker 4: and cutter have been effective. Can he have a good
Speaker 4: enough feel for those pitches. That's gonna be the big thing,
Speaker 4: because again I think the upshoot weird fastball from from
Speaker 4: the way he delivers too, like he hides the ball
Speaker 4: really well.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna work well enough.
Speaker 4: But is there enough complimenting it to be able to
Speaker 4: turn lineups over.
Speaker 1: I'm just not sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know, it's a fun story. It's definitely,
Speaker 3: hopefully at the very least if he can be a
Speaker 3: swing man, maybe there's some value there, Right, there's something there,
Speaker 3: but it's like, you know, the upside is definitely probably limited. Right,
Speaker 3: It's not a profile you're looking at and saying, oh,
Speaker 3: this guy's going to be a rotations, you know, stable
Speaker 3: guy for ten years to come. Either way, Like he's
Speaker 3: just the fun pitcher. Is a unique pitcher too, which
Speaker 3: is interesting, and for San Francisco, like they're out of it, Like,
Speaker 3: see what you got here and let him get some
Speaker 3: run hopefully, And whether it's as a starter, it seems
Speaker 3: like could be like a bulk relief guy or potentially
Speaker 3: starting fully. So either way, honestly, like there's no reason
Speaker 3: for the Giants not to give him run here for
Speaker 3: the next six weeks to see how it goes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he's a good depth arm I think regardless,
Speaker 4: Like if he's an up and down guy for you,
Speaker 4: like that's you need those guys through the course of
Speaker 4: a season. You can go in there and compete and
Speaker 4: you know, give you four or five innings. But again,
Speaker 4: if he can find a feel for that change up
Speaker 4: off of that fastball, then all of a sudden, I
Speaker 4: think it becomes a little bit more interesting, but yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean it still looks like good depth and fun,
Speaker 4: easy player to root for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a really really good story. We're just all these
Speaker 3: feel good stories here off the top here today. In
Speaker 3: terms of big league debuts, Ricky Titamid made his debut,
Speaker 3: and I feel like we did not hear about it
Speaker 3: adequately because people like, this was a guy we were
Speaker 3: talking about as one of the best pitching prospects in
Speaker 3: baseball only a couple of years ago. Right has dealt
Speaker 3: with a really brutal injury track record. Obviously, TJ to
Speaker 3: All twenty twenty five, he went seven hundred over seven
Speaker 3: hundred days without pitching in a full official game. Between
Speaker 3: his surgeries the comeback, he threw what, like I think,
Speaker 3: seventeen no so far, he threw seven innings in the
Speaker 3: minors this year between the complex, he threw two outings
Speaker 3: in the complex, two outings in Single A, and then
Speaker 3: three outings of one inning each in Triple A. And
Speaker 3: then he comes up to Toronto to make a bullpen spot.
Speaker 3: He ends up getting optioned right after it. But like
Speaker 3: I actually thought, titaman in this bullpen roll looked pretty good.
Speaker 3: He topped over ninety seven and gave the Blue Jays
Speaker 3: an inning in two thirds of work, and I'm curious
Speaker 3: to see how if he get when he gets back up,
Speaker 3: because yeah, at this point it's probably a reliever given
Speaker 3: the injury history, but he could be a really good
Speaker 3: reliever for Toronto.
Speaker 4: Yeah, especially because you know that fastball the viilo is
Speaker 4: still there in short spurts like we saw, like you
Speaker 4: mentioned it, topping out at ninety eight and sitting ninety
Speaker 4: six plus. And then from that angle, we've seen that
Speaker 4: three pitch mix that in his breakout season that made
Speaker 4: him one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. The fastball, slider,
Speaker 4: changed combination is really good. And I think what's fun
Speaker 4: for him is like the fastball slider, like that's gonna
Speaker 4: make him from that angle, is gonna make him a
Speaker 4: nightmare left on left matchup. But this is not a
Speaker 4: guy that, like, you know, when when they counter on
Speaker 4: the other side with a righty pinch hitter that you're like,
Speaker 4: oh no, you know now, now it's a disadvantage on
Speaker 4: our end. Like he's got the change up to equalize
Speaker 4: that too. And he's always been a guy that's had
Speaker 4: really steady platoons, but when he's been healthy. It's been
Speaker 4: a ridiculous history, as you mentioned, like so many different
Speaker 4: ailments on the way to then having the TJ. And
Speaker 4: I was a little bit I held out some hope
Speaker 4: that okay, maybe it was all things trying to put
Speaker 4: off the TJ. Now he got the TJ, he'll come
Speaker 4: back healthy. And then since coming back from the TJ,
Speaker 4: it was like a neck thing and what there's you
Speaker 4: can't even keep track. And so I really feel for
Speaker 4: Ricky and I just think the most realistic path is
Speaker 4: for him to be a reliever guy that they have
Speaker 4: on the forty. Anyways, like might as well have to
Speaker 4: make his debut. I think that was awesome and like
Speaker 4: the American League's wide open still somehow, so he's a
Speaker 4: guy can help you in the bullpen.
Speaker 1: But I think when.
Speaker 4: You can see what you've got this year and go
Speaker 4: in to next year and say, well, hey, we've got
Speaker 4: like a leverage lefty, and maybe down the line you revisit,
Speaker 4: you know, if he can prove that he can stay
Speaker 4: healthy and stay on the field for a whole year,
Speaker 4: maybe you can revisit stretching him back out. But I
Speaker 4: think priority here is just fill a big league role,
Speaker 4: and he's shown us that he can.
Speaker 3: The craziest part is that he just turned twenty four,
Speaker 3: Like today actually happened with Arika Tineman Today's twenty fourth birthday.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's the great Like you talk about a
Speaker 3: guy that had so much of this hype. He was
Speaker 3: a nineteen year old with a two to one ar
Speaker 3: that made it to double A. I mean, this was
Speaker 3: the talent was like it was up here. It wasn't
Speaker 3: just the guy we were looking at. It's like he
Speaker 3: could be good. We were looking at this guy as
Speaker 3: one of the best pitching prospects in all of made
Speaker 3: the due baseball, and then he goes through all these
Speaker 3: different ailments. He still just turned twenty four and made
Speaker 3: his big league debut at twenty three years old. So yes,
Speaker 3: he is a reliever for right now, and he probably
Speaker 3: is a reliever for the rest of his career. Maybe
Speaker 3: you revisit a couple of years like you mentioned, but
Speaker 3: in the time being, like, this is an extremely talented
Speaker 3: guy who could be a high leverage lefty at the
Speaker 3: very least right now in terms of what he's doing.
Speaker 3: And like, I mean, it was a forty four percent
Speaker 3: strikeout rate as a twenty year old in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: before the before more the injury started to set in,
Speaker 3: and then the last three years have just been a mess.
Speaker 3: But like forty four percent strikeout rate at twenty years
Speaker 3: old in double it, I mean, come.
Speaker 1: On, I really I agree. I just I really hope
Speaker 1: he stays healthy.
Speaker 4: And yeah, this Blue Jays team, like they've got some
Speaker 4: some fun pieces and yeah, he's yet another one that
Speaker 4: again when you can go into the next season just
Speaker 4: just knowing you've got another young, you know, nasty lefty
Speaker 4: to add to the fold. There he's another player than man. Like,
Speaker 4: I'm just I'm rooting for it because you don't want
Speaker 4: to there's nothing worse than the what could have been
Speaker 4: with these pitching prospects.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's sneaky. The Blue Jays are a team that
Speaker 3: I still I still kind of think they might make
Speaker 3: the playoffs. Honestly, I don't know. Maybe that's a little
Speaker 3: too bullish, I mean, but like, no, there's no, there's
Speaker 3: no say the American League books and like considering they're
Speaker 3: a World Series, I mean, American Leagu's a mess obviously
Speaker 3: and giving out good this team was last year, Like
Speaker 3: I mean if literally, just if, like if Laddie turns
Speaker 3: the corner, that team could easily be a playoff wildcard,
Speaker 3: Like I could see it happening, Like I don't even
Speaker 3: think it's that crazy.
Speaker 4: Like none of them, none of them want to make
Speaker 4: the playoffs in the American League anyway. So like you,
Speaker 4: there's no two bullish on any of these teams. For me,
Speaker 4: I think I'll believe anything. One other note too, though,
Speaker 4: like just just it makes this interesting, Like they've used
Speaker 4: Mason flu Hardy Aton and like Stinky, he's only twenty five,
Speaker 4: but with the struggles from Bred and little like, they
Speaker 4: don't really have a lefty reliever. So not only can
Speaker 4: he help this year, can help? Yeah, it'd be a
Speaker 4: big piece for them next year team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt. Let's take a quick break and then
Speaker 3: we'll get back into a couple more big league call
Speaker 3: ups and then some minor league call ups promotion. Jumping
Speaker 3: right back in here, we've got big league call ups,
Speaker 3: minor league promotions here on this episode of the call Up.
Speaker 3: Next one up is Zach Vine and this is a recall,
Speaker 3: not a debut, but it still qualifies for the sake
Speaker 3: of this because Zach Vine was lighting the ball on
Speaker 3: firing triple A and it was just like we've just
Speaker 3: been saying, like when when is he gonna get back
Speaker 3: to Colorado. So obviously the Rockies are not a contending team,
Speaker 3: and he struggled a lot in his brief big league
Speaker 3: stint last year, but really hasn't gotten significant big league
Speaker 3: run at twenty four years old. Now Zach Vine is
Speaker 3: getting a chance. He's five games in, He's got a
Speaker 3: pretty fun first few games here with a pair of
Speaker 3: homers so far, and he looks like he's gonna get
Speaker 3: you know, I ever ready reps down the stretcher for Colorado.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, a lot was made of like the
Speaker 4: physical transformation and obviously mental and I think that's been
Speaker 4: the biggest part for Zach Viene. But you know, I
Speaker 4: think some people didn't know what to make like And
Speaker 4: there's some kind of funny numbers thrown around when Vian
Speaker 4: showed up, you know, about how much like strength he
Speaker 4: added or whatever it may be.
Speaker 1: But I think what's abundantly clear is that this guy's added.
Speaker 4: He's hitting the ball harder, and I think just getting
Speaker 4: into better shape, getting healthier in general has allowed him
Speaker 4: to do that. Whether you believe he put on X
Speaker 4: amount of muscle or whatever it may have been. He's
Speaker 4: just healthier and he's he's impacting the baseball where he's
Speaker 4: more explosive. He's more like that athlete that we saw
Speaker 4: drafted in twenty twenty and taking better care of his
Speaker 4: body and all those things translate to better evs. But
Speaker 4: I mean, this was a guy that I think, even
Speaker 4: when you saw the really impressive minoigue season, that made
Speaker 4: him one of the you know, better prospects out young
Speaker 4: outfield prospects in baseball before things started to kind of
Speaker 4: derail a little bit. You go, you would go beneath
Speaker 4: the hood and the evs weren't quite what you thought.
Speaker 1: And that was a little bit surprising to me.
Speaker 4: I remember even at the time because you see the
Speaker 4: long levers, he looks like a guy that's hitting the
Speaker 4: ball harder than you think. And it wasn't really until
Speaker 4: this season where we started to see zach Vien pop
Speaker 4: the one ten pluses more consistently, and I think that
Speaker 4: really helps the profile because he's not going to be a.
Speaker 1: Guy that is going to hit for a ton of average.
Speaker 4: I think he's done a good job of improving you know,
Speaker 4: the plate discipline and walking a little bit more. But
Speaker 4: he's never really historically been you know, an OBP machine either.
Speaker 1: So when when you look at just the ability to.
Speaker 4: Add this raw impact and you know that he can
Speaker 4: he can elevate pretty consistently with the way his swing
Speaker 4: is is kind of geared, I think it's it's exciting
Speaker 4: and it makes it a lot more easy to envision
Speaker 4: you know, a potential big league bulk platoon piece here
Speaker 4: for you know, I think what is another really good
Speaker 4: story with the adversity that he's had to overcome, like
Speaker 4: how candid he was about you know, some of the
Speaker 4: substance issues he had and all the different things to
Speaker 4: be up there in the big leagues now and I
Speaker 4: mean putting balls in McCovey cove Like, Yeah, I think
Speaker 4: it's gonna be hard for him to accumulate war relatives
Speaker 4: to some other guys because he's not the best defender
Speaker 4: in the world. But I do think he's improved even
Speaker 4: in that regard and he's gonna with But this could
Speaker 4: be a solid bulk platoon bat that now is really
Speaker 4: getting into some power.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Rockets League, there's some guys there that are
Speaker 3: worth watching, at least the offensive side, Like there's a
Speaker 3: there's some decent pieces in place, and you know, we're
Speaker 3: not too far away from I think Charlie Condon is
Speaker 3: well joining potentially with Zach Vien. So I think it
Speaker 3: means a bulk platoon guy in Coors and the added
Speaker 3: power plays up and he's able to give you, like,
Speaker 3: you know, fifteen homer type fifteen to twenty homer production
Speaker 3: as a bulk platoon guy cours. You feel pretty good
Speaker 3: about that. And you've seen the power his first two
Speaker 3: games he went deep and then he's had a couple.
Speaker 3: He's got hits in four of his five so far
Speaker 3: since getting up there, and I think he's gonna stick him.
Speaker 3: And he seems like he plays a solid corner outfield
Speaker 3: as well, in which case you're good there. You know
Speaker 3: he's a piece, He's at least a piece in Colorado
Speaker 3: and deserves the chance to play the rest of this
Speaker 3: season and going into next year.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent, I think, just to contextualize how much
Speaker 4: harder he's hitting the ball now too, since twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: The start of the twenty twenty four season, Vean's twelve
Speaker 4: hardest exit velocities or twelve highest exivelocities are.
Speaker 1: All from this season.
Speaker 4: Not only does he have his MAX this year, he
Speaker 4: has his twelve maxes this year, And so that's that's
Speaker 4: a transformed, you know, hitter physically, and I just included
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three as well. That ain't helping his case
Speaker 4: is to be expected. So you can go all the
Speaker 4: way back, I'd say probably from his pro career. This
Speaker 4: is his entire pro career. His twelve highest evs are
Speaker 4: all this season. He's physically different, and I think that's
Speaker 4: a great sign for Van who you know again, could
Speaker 4: it's always always gonna be power over hit, so might
Speaker 4: as well add more power.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Speaking of teams in the American League that kind
Speaker 3: of want to win but maybe don't, the Astros are
Speaker 3: scrapping together pitching, They're they're doing what they can. They've
Speaker 3: had a couple guys coming up. Ethan Peko is set
Speaker 3: to make his debut tomorrow on Wednesday the nineteenth, as
Speaker 3: we speak here and then Miguel Yolo is an interesting
Speaker 3: one who's transitioned from starting into primarily relieving now got recalled.
Speaker 3: He's made a couple like spot appearances for them this year,
Speaker 3: but both those guys now joining Houston down the stretcher
Speaker 3: as they continue to just kind of put in different
Speaker 3: arms than stockpile as they can and make it work.
Speaker 3: And they're winning a division right now somehow, which is
Speaker 3: crazy because it didn't seem like earlier in the year
Speaker 3: they had any shot too. But they're they're in the
Speaker 3: lead in the aos and they're they're making a good
Speaker 3: run at it, and they add two young pitchers to the mix.
Speaker 3: Not sure how much these guys factor in, but I
Speaker 3: am curious what you think about if these two can
Speaker 3: at least be a piece to making the pitching war
Speaker 3: in Houston.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean all hands on deck, right, and I
Speaker 4: think at least in this instance, like these are a
Speaker 4: couple of guys that do have the goods to help them.
Speaker 4: Peco Is is really progressed nicely. The Astros, like their
Speaker 4: system is always towards the bottom, at least over the
Speaker 4: last handful of years, but they have had some some
Speaker 4: intriguing arms, especially the last year or so.
Speaker 1: We talked about Meyer as well, what he's been able
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 4: But you know, you throw the surface of era kind
Speaker 4: of out the window when we're talking about the pcl
Speaker 4: and that's where Peco has been thrown. But he's a
Speaker 4: guy that does a good feel to pitch and it's
Speaker 4: a pretty deceptive delivery. It's kind of a flat approach angle,
Speaker 4: below average release height, and he.
Speaker 1: Gets pretty far out there horizontally.
Speaker 4: So I am interested to see, like if that, even
Speaker 4: though he's not a huge strikeout guy, if that kind
Speaker 4: of correlates to him.
Speaker 1: Being a barrel misser.
Speaker 4: There's also a lot of different pitches that he will
Speaker 4: go to, Like he's got from that kind of more
Speaker 4: horizontal release, the four seamer, a sink or a change up,
Speaker 4: a cut or a slider, and a curveball, and so
Speaker 4: he could just kind of change his looks. He's got
Speaker 4: a pretty good feel for all these pitches, and I
Speaker 4: could see Pecko being a decent swingman and potentially a
Speaker 4: back end the rotation starter that can kind of spot
Speaker 4: start for you. Again, the swing and miss hasn't totally
Speaker 4: been there as he's just for whatever reason this season,
Speaker 4: but I still think he's been effective enough. And you know,
Speaker 4: where the Astros can kind of take whatever endings they
Speaker 4: can get.
Speaker 1: I think he can give them decent innings. The really
Speaker 1: interesting one.
Speaker 4: Is MIGUELI Yola, because I mean it's one of my
Speaker 4: favorite it's been one of my favorite fastballs. He just
Speaker 4: sprays it, though, but it's crazy run and ride. He
Speaker 4: really stays behind the baseball. And it's one where like
Speaker 4: when he's commanding it, he can throw the fastball seventy
Speaker 4: percent of the time and you'll be in trouble just
Speaker 4: because of the life that it features. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: like twenty inches avert from a below average release side.
Speaker 1: He's getting an elite, elite carry and he works down
Speaker 1: the mound really well.
Speaker 4: It's just it's really hard for him to uh to
Speaker 4: consistently land and I said run and ride, it's more
Speaker 4: of like just just threw ride behind the baseball.
Speaker 1: But that's the one where, like I think he has
Speaker 1: a leverage stuff Withola.
Speaker 4: It's just he's got to throw strikes and I just
Speaker 4: don't know if he he will consistently enough. But again,
Speaker 4: the life that his fastball has gives him a really
Speaker 4: strong foundation, and then he's got a cutter, slider, curveball
Speaker 4: off of that.
Speaker 1: It's just he doesn't go to those with a ton
Speaker 1: of confidence.
Speaker 4: And the walk rate seems to always kind of creep
Speaker 4: up there for him, though it's been a little bit
Speaker 4: better this year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what the usage exactly
Speaker 3: will be for Uston down the stretch, and like how
Speaker 3: they're going to deploy things. It looks like, I mean,
Speaker 3: if Pecko's sliding into the rotation, obviously Hunter Brown, Christian
Speaker 3: Javier Peter Lambert hate him, was nesky, and then Peco
Speaker 3: right now is in that five spot, and then the
Speaker 3: pen I mean, Tsuyama is still question mark, right, I
Speaker 3: think it seems a little unclear what's gonna happen with
Speaker 3: his plan going forward. And then you've got a Yola
Speaker 3: like other than Josh Ader and obviously Brian Brado, I
Speaker 3: know he hasn't in the best year, but still, like, well,
Speaker 3: Yola seems like a guy who could, again if he
Speaker 3: threw strikes, could quickly rise into a pretty decent leverage situation.
Speaker 3: He's not closing games for them, but like it seems
Speaker 3: like someone who could make his way into some pretty
Speaker 3: big spots for them in September and potentially October.
Speaker 1: Even if he's hot.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, I mean, the fastball has a thirty three
Speaker 4: percent with rate, the slider has a forty five percent
Speaker 4: with rate, and and you know, just it's really hard
Speaker 4: to separate the two out of his hand. And then
Speaker 4: even even the cutter as a bridge is effective, so
Speaker 4: he could overwhelm hitters. I mean, the average EGX velocity
Speaker 4: against his fastball's eighty four moss per hour with a
Speaker 4: seventeen percent hard hit rate. So when you're a verty
Speaker 4: fastball guy that no one's even ever barrowing, really that
Speaker 4: bodes really well. It's just can you can you throw
Speaker 4: enough strikes? And they've kind of used a Yola in
Speaker 4: this swingman role, so you wonder like if it's single
Speaker 4: ending relief and maybe he'll be a little bit more you.
Speaker 1: Know, within the zone.
Speaker 4: But this is a ride the hot hand thing, and
Speaker 4: if he's throwing more strikes and it has a stretch
Speaker 4: of throwing a lot of strikes, he could be very
Speaker 4: useful for this Astros bullpen.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, and two of his outings, like he had these
Speaker 3: two like two outing spurts where he was really good,
Speaker 3: and then his last outing in the bigs in July
Speaker 3: he struggled more. But like I do think they'll let
Speaker 3: him let it rip potentially and then see how it
Speaker 3: fits into that pen mix and then you go from
Speaker 3: there and Pecko, like like you said, if he can
Speaker 3: just be a decent back end guy who can stick
Speaker 3: around and give you innings like that, that's more than
Speaker 3: they've gotten from some of their other pitchers this year.
Speaker 3: So I think you feel great about that if he
Speaker 3: can even just hold down the five spot the rest
Speaker 3: of the season potentially well.
Speaker 4: And Peter Lambert he's a better version of it, obviously,
Speaker 4: but no one knew that coming in. Peter Lambert's kind
Speaker 4: of a similar archetype to Peco or it's just nothing
Speaker 4: jumps off the page, but it's you know, a ton
Speaker 4: of different offerings that you know, move in different directions,
Speaker 4: and he when he's executing like he's really tough.
Speaker 1: And Lambert's turned into a phenomenal season.
Speaker 4: So maybe kind of following a similar blueprint and Pecko
Speaker 4: can maybe outperform maybe some of the surface level expectations.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: One last big league call up to discuss here, and
Speaker 3: that is Brett Callahan of the Detroit Tigers organization. I
Speaker 3: can't say I know much about Brett Callahan. I don't
Speaker 3: because thirteenth round pick I had a Saint Joseph's back
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three by the Tigers. I just watched
Speaker 3: him come through with a clutchet against the White Sox
Speaker 3: this weekend and then followed it with a nice RBI
Speaker 3: knock against the Pirates as well, two games in. It
Speaker 3: seems like he couldn't be a little bit of just
Speaker 3: a you know, versatile outfielder added to the mix in Detroit.
Speaker 3: I don't know how much run he's gonna get. Honestly,
Speaker 3: we'll see if he's you know, a everyday player for them.
Speaker 3: With the Riley Green injury, with other things they've been
Speaker 3: going through on that roster. Seems like he's there to
Speaker 3: fill a role and had two nice starts to his career.
Speaker 3: So curious to see how much Brett Callahan continues to
Speaker 3: factor into the mix for Detroit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, this is the one thing that you
Speaker 4: got to give Scott Harris and just kind of the Tigers.
Speaker 4: It's like even the lesser prospects that you're not very
Speaker 4: aware of like end up either just popping up and
Speaker 4: helping you or like serving a forty man role.
Speaker 1: And like we'll see if if Callahan ultimately does that.
Speaker 4: But it's a guy that was not really being paid
Speaker 4: attention to a ton going into this year. Put up
Speaker 4: a pretty good year as a twenty three year old,
Speaker 4: and Hi a last year was banged up and then
Speaker 4: just puts up a great season in Double A, plays
Speaker 4: his way up to Triple A and he was only
Speaker 4: up there for thirty six games, but you know, held
Speaker 4: his own and they had a new heat, and Callahan
Speaker 4: comes up and has.
Speaker 1: Filled in with some comfort. You think about Valencia in order.
Speaker 4: Valencia like that was a guy that I kind of
Speaker 4: was confused as to why he was added to the
Speaker 4: Tigers forty man and protected from the rule five when
Speaker 4: he was, and he's been a huge, you know, contributor
Speaker 4: for them of late. So these guys that they you know,
Speaker 4: and you wonder what Max Anderson's ultimately en end up
Speaker 4: being and probably a nice little.
Speaker 1: Role player for them and how you lean whatever it
Speaker 1: may be.
Speaker 4: So there just seems to be a lot of those
Speaker 4: kind of afterthought prospects, some more than others that end
Speaker 4: up coming up and filling a role and developing nicely.
Speaker 4: And Callahan's got giving you speed uptick in power this year.
Speaker 4: I don't know where he ultimately, you know, lands he
Speaker 4: might be more of like a second division regular type
Speaker 4: or or or more depth. But the fact that he
Speaker 4: has a chance to be that is a guy that
Speaker 4: wasn't really in you know, the top prospect list or
Speaker 4: anything like that this year is exciting and ultimately, you know,
Speaker 4: you look at the left handed swing, it's kind of
Speaker 4: fun and easy to get excited about. I think is
Speaker 4: that he controls his zone really well, like eighty eight
Speaker 4: percent zone contact right this season, and you know, he
Speaker 4: could be a fine piece for them with decent bat speed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm not sure that Tigers fans were expecting a
Speaker 3: starting outfield of Brett Callahan, Next Clark and Zach McKinstry
Speaker 3: at this time of year, but you know, you roll
Speaker 3: with what you've got. It's been an interesting year and
Speaker 3: they're they're still in the mix. Speaking of Ale teams, like,
Speaker 3: I know, the White Sox swept them this weekend, but
Speaker 3: even then, I even as a White Sox person who
Speaker 3: follows it carefully, I'm not counting the Tigers out by
Speaker 3: any means. I do the This team is still has
Speaker 3: the talent and if they really got in a role
Speaker 3: they would they could.
Speaker 1: Still have a shot.
Speaker 3: And Callahan sometimes you need a little infusion of some
Speaker 3: life and see what this guy gives you. And he's
Speaker 3: doing a fine job. And I think he's going to
Speaker 3: keep getting some reps out there, at least with the
Speaker 3: current roster construction to have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I mean he's always shown too like you
Speaker 4: can compete. So when you have healthy guys back healthy whatever,
Speaker 4: and just if guys go back down again, like you've
Speaker 4: got an updown guy that can you know, go out
Speaker 4: there and fill a role.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get into some minor league guys, and we'll
Speaker 3: start it off with Ethan Salas Ethan Sallas. They were
Speaker 3: a little bit delayed on this one. We didn't get
Speaker 3: to this one whenever he actually did get promoted to
Speaker 3: Triple A, which was I think two weeks ago. Maybe
Speaker 3: he was right in there on the deadline that probably
Speaker 3: caught our attention primarily, But Ethan Sallas gets promoted from
Speaker 3: double to triple and in his first fourteen games at
Speaker 3: the Triple A level as a twenty year old catcher,
Speaker 3: by the way, one sixty nine WRC plus. He's hitting
Speaker 3: three seventy seven since getting promoted to the Triple A level,
Speaker 3: three homers, the walk grates higher in the strikeout rate.
Speaker 3: He has taken his you know, pretty solid season in
Speaker 3: Double A and is looking even better in Triple A.
Speaker 3: And there's a chance we see a twenty year old
Speaker 3: catcher debut in the big leagues this year, which would
Speaker 3: be were he crazy.
Speaker 4: Nothing would surprise me at this point, especially with just
Speaker 4: the way Prowler is and you know, especially if someone
Speaker 4: goes down, I think it.
Speaker 1: Becomes a no brainer at that point.
Speaker 4: But I am interested to see how they navigate the
Speaker 4: catching position because you know, camp Pisano has been amazing
Speaker 4: offensively for me and is you know, I guess does
Speaker 4: a decent job defensively and bring some other things to
Speaker 4: the table. But yeah, you never know, especially if one
Speaker 4: of them goes down, because I do think, like, you know,
Speaker 4: Salas is going to defend. You know, he's way ahead
Speaker 4: of his years in terms of the way he goes
Speaker 4: about his business. And like, if you haven't listened to
Speaker 4: the interview that we had with him, you know during
Speaker 4: the Futures game, go check that out. There's a reason
Speaker 4: why the padres on top of a J. Preller being
Speaker 4: the most impatient executive in baseball. The bigger reason why
Speaker 4: that they've pushed Salas like this because he's built to
Speaker 4: be able to do it mentally, and now you're seeing
Speaker 4: you know, physically, he's got a ninety percent zone contact
Speaker 4: rate this year and eighty six percent overall contact rate.
Speaker 1: So, like, the big thing with with Salas has.
Speaker 4: Been the uptick and power and what we've seen this season,
Speaker 4: and maybe if he gets up, you know, to the
Speaker 4: big leagues at the end of this year, like the
Speaker 4: early next year, that power may not shine through immediately,
Speaker 4: but he's going to defend. He's not going to chase much,
Speaker 4: and he's going to put bad on ball. And so
Speaker 4: if you've got a guy that's giving you good abs,
Speaker 4: whether that turns into super high level production or you know,
Speaker 4: just competitive abs that I think give him a floor
Speaker 4: of at least slightly below average production and the defense
Speaker 4: that he brings to the table. There is a player
Speaker 4: that even if the final stages of his development are
Speaker 4: being had and in the big leagues, I still think
Speaker 4: he's going to be a net positive player behind the dish.
Speaker 4: So that's where I get really excited about Salas. His
Speaker 4: floor is as high as anybody's in the minor leagues,
Speaker 4: especially now that he's running a freaking eighty six percent
Speaker 4: contact rate as a nineteen slash twenty year old at
Speaker 4: the upper levels this year and now you throw him
Speaker 4: in the PCL, like the numbers are just going to
Speaker 4: continue to be ridiculous. He's he's at the point now
Speaker 4: where it's just like the final checkpoints just going to
Speaker 4: be the big leaks and maybe getting into the power
Speaker 4: slightly more consistently. But we've seen the raw power increase
Speaker 4: its on, we've seen the home run output increase this year,
Speaker 4: and and you know it's it's easy to buy into
Speaker 4: the potential that he has.
Speaker 1: Impact wise, Yeah, and.
Speaker 3: Look, I get it. Luis Ko Pisano has been solid
Speaker 3: and good, not even solid, he's been very very solid,
Speaker 3: very good for the last two months. When's the lesson
Speaker 3: the Padres had like a starting catcher that like got
Speaker 3: you really excited.
Speaker 1: About yeah, and on like both sides of the ball, on.
Speaker 3: Both sides of the ball, like an overall, like the
Speaker 3: Padres have a good starting catcher. It's been it's been
Speaker 3: a bit. It's been a bit. So That's where I'm like,
Speaker 3: with solid, like it's easy to get excited and I
Speaker 3: obviously you hope they don't rush him, and you hope
Speaker 3: it's not like too early. At the same time, though,
Speaker 3: like he is no doubt going to be the most
Speaker 3: exciting Padres starting catcher in quite some time, which gives
Speaker 3: reason to like, if they're making a playoff postion, they
Speaker 3: look like they're gonna be in the postseason, Like it
Speaker 3: really wouldn't shock me as much as it sounds crazy
Speaker 3: in theory. It'd be like, oh, he's twenty thirty games
Speaker 3: into his triple A career and he's going to be
Speaker 3: on a playoff team starting behind the plane at twenty
Speaker 3: years old. Like it's a little crazy, but like he's
Speaker 3: very he's a mature guy, as you mentioned earlier, Like
Speaker 3: he was very clear when you were talking to him
Speaker 3: in the futures game, like the guy is above is
Speaker 3: ahead of his years mentally and physically. Of course obviously physically,
Speaker 3: but also just from the mental side of the game
Speaker 3: and understanding catching, being able to work with pitchers, Like
Speaker 3: I do think there's a real shot that he gets
Speaker 3: up and either way though he's on a crash course
Speaker 3: for being a big league you know, regular next season
Speaker 3: and as a twenty one year old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's and he's even said like he feels like
Speaker 4: he could be better in the catch and throat apartment,
Speaker 4: Like he could be more accurate this season, and he's
Speaker 4: thrown out twenty four percent of base dealers.
Speaker 1: So like.
Speaker 2: It.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be in fun to see how they handle him.
Speaker 4: And the fact, I mean, the PCL is just going
Speaker 4: to be a cakewalk, I think with how much contact
Speaker 4: he already makes and the fact he's walking more than
Speaker 4: he strikes out through fourteen games and hitting three seventy
Speaker 4: seven backs.
Speaker 2: That up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's take one more quick break and then we'll
Speaker 3: get into our last few promotions. We got a few
Speaker 3: more promotions here to talk about on the call up.
Speaker 3: We'll start with a pair of brewers. You mentioned it
Speaker 3: off the top of the BLOXI Shuckers, just to keep
Speaker 3: on replenishing that team. Whenever someone goes up to Triple A,
Speaker 3: they get more talent coming up the system. Two big
Speaker 3: time guys now heading to Double A in the Lease
Speaker 3: Pena and Brailing Pain. Both these guys have had really
Speaker 3: impressive seasons at the high level. They've been mashing dark
Speaker 3: the year. Paanya obviously has dealt with some physical stuff,
Speaker 3: some health issues this season, so hasn't had a full
Speaker 3: Seasonly about fifty games so far from Pena, whereas pain
Speaker 3: has really started to put together his power upside as
Speaker 3: twenty three homers so far at the high level this year.
Speaker 3: Both these guys heading to Double A. Now Paine is
Speaker 3: still nineteen years old, Pain is just turned twenty years old,
Speaker 3: So basically a pair of teenagers now for the Brewers
Speaker 3: heading up to that Double A team joining Hays, Suspinet
Speaker 3: and other guys up there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is fun.
Speaker 4: I mean Painia and and just back together is so
Speaker 4: much fun. But I think the challenge for both of
Speaker 4: these players because Pinia look back to ball wise, he's
Speaker 4: got it right and we've seen the contact skills, but
Speaker 4: you know he's aggressive. I want to see him slug
Speaker 4: a little bit more too, because he's got the bat speed,
Speaker 4: but he gets a little armsy with his swing and
Speaker 4: I think it can make it hard sometimes to airpole
Speaker 4: and he can kind of catch stuff deeper and it's
Speaker 4: a lot of more more hard ground balls and shooting
Speaker 4: stuff the other way.
Speaker 1: So that's something I do want to see get better.
Speaker 4: But I think for Pania, like this is a challenge
Speaker 4: in the respect that like, hey, he chases like thirty
Speaker 4: five percent of the time that could exploit it a
Speaker 4: little bit more in double A.
Speaker 1: Which is a good thing.
Speaker 4: The Brewers want their prospects, like especially guys like this,
Speaker 4: to struggle a little bit so that they can, you know,
Speaker 4: make the adjustments going into next season. And I do
Speaker 4: think that both of these guys, yeah, I look, I
Speaker 4: would never I wouldn't be surprised if they keep rolling.
Speaker 4: But if I had to guess, I think both of
Speaker 4: them are going to struggle a little bit in double A.
Speaker 4: That's a good thing, and then they'll be ready to
Speaker 4: go for next season. You mentioned how young both are.
Speaker 4: Painia probably more likely to just keep swinging it. It
Speaker 4: wouldn't surprise me Pain. It's just other worldly tools and
Speaker 4: upside and the fact that this guy's you know, hit
Speaker 4: the ball as hard as he has this year, with
Speaker 4: the speed that he.
Speaker 1: Brings to the table.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've seen homers north of one fifteen from
Speaker 4: Brayln Pain, but it's kind of a swatty swing and
Speaker 4: he tends to step in the bucket and pull off
Speaker 4: and I think it really affects him left on left,
Speaker 4: and I think this is something that the Brewers are
Speaker 4: aware will probably need to be like cleaned up and rectified.
Speaker 1: But how do you do that before he struggles?
Speaker 4: Like, how do you tell Brayln Pain to some a
Speaker 4: justice swing when he's popping one fifteen's pool side and
Speaker 4: he's a nine to thirty two ops with twenty three bombs, Like, it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be hard to do that. And I will say, like,
Speaker 1: it's off to a good starting double A.
Speaker 4: He's played two games so far and he's already tripled
Speaker 4: and you know, so maybe he doesn't hit that adversity
Speaker 4: this year, who knows.
Speaker 1: At the end of this year.
Speaker 4: I think ultimately he's gonna need to, you know, kind
Speaker 4: of improve his direction a little bit more. But the
Speaker 4: fact that he's already taken the big step Pain has
Speaker 4: this year and using the ground better, like using his
Speaker 4: base overall better, I think the next tweak will probably
Speaker 4: come in the spring and in the offseason, and that's
Speaker 4: where you'll start to see. Yeah, I think just a
Speaker 4: little bit more contact because with Pain, that's kind of
Speaker 4: the final piece here to sixty five percent contact, right,
Speaker 4: like that's gonna be it's a little bit too low obviously,
Speaker 4: even for a player with his power. So just kind
Speaker 4: of finding a little bit more barrel depth, being able
Speaker 4: to I think have just a cleaner path and also
Speaker 4: not leave the ball with the front side will help.
Speaker 4: And then ending with painia, there's just some simple things
Speaker 4: to not simple, but some small things to clean up
Speaker 4: as well. And I think you feel like double A
Speaker 4: is typically the test for that, when you have some
Speaker 4: mechanical inefficiencies, that's usually where they'll get exposed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for both these guys, it feels like a scenario
Speaker 3: where like they're going to be there the year. They'll
Speaker 3: probably start there right again next year, but they'll they'll
Speaker 3: see kind of what this looks like over the next month, right,
Speaker 3: you get this final month of the season in double
Speaker 3: and then you can kind of identify the areas that
Speaker 3: they'll need to go in the off season. Working on
Speaker 3: go off of their pain is just fascinating because, like
Speaker 3: you said, there's there's clearly some things you've noted with
Speaker 3: like his just his swing is operation maximizing, but like
Speaker 3: the pure raw speed and raw power combo is like
Speaker 3: is up there with like almost any prospect in baseball really.
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at a guy with he's over
Speaker 3: twenty homers and twenty bags this year, it's probably you know,
Speaker 3: you could argue it's sixty grade plus of both raw
Speaker 3: and and speed as well, like I think it's it
Speaker 3: might be higher than that.
Speaker 4: Honestly, it might be dual seventies man's fifteen.
Speaker 3: So that's where it just gets enticing. And that's the
Speaker 3: type of guy that I'm willing to like get a
Speaker 3: little fired up about it and get excited about because
Speaker 3: I just I think there's still there's when you can
Speaker 3: point like this is an area where like he needs
Speaker 3: to get better with overall contact and the efficiency of
Speaker 3: a swing, but he's already popping one fifteens and running
Speaker 3: the way he runs, and also playing like a primary
Speaker 3: he's playing primary center field right as well, so it's
Speaker 3: like he's playing centerfield every day. Hasn't played a single
Speaker 3: game right in anywhere other than center this year. So
Speaker 3: that that all of those tools and ingredients gets you
Speaker 3: another really high upside prospect. I know, he's like kind
Speaker 3: of on the border your top one hundred, I think
Speaker 3: when you're working through this list right now, which will
Speaker 3: be interesting, but he's still from an upside standpoint, is
Speaker 3: pretty enticing, even though he's buried behind some other guys
Speaker 3: in that system.
Speaker 4: Well, you know what's funny is, you know, you look
Speaker 4: at you list all of those things out with Brown
Speaker 4: Pain strengths, weaknesses, you know what he ultimately like could
Speaker 4: look like. And they've got basically that at the big
Speaker 4: league level. Like the template's there Garrett Mitchell, and he's
Speaker 4: got a lot a lot of time to you know,
Speaker 4: be better than Garrett Mitchell, right, Like, and he already
Speaker 4: airpoles better than Garrett Mitchell. But Garrett Mitchell's kind of
Speaker 4: the archetype there, right, I mean, like he's gonna whif
Speaker 4: as much as anybody in the game, but he absolutely flies.
Speaker 4: We're talking about ninety eight percent house sprint speed and
Speaker 4: he hits the shit out of the ball like it's
Speaker 4: it's ninety two point five mile per hour average ECX
Speaker 4: of all and average batspeed in the ninety eighth percentile.
Speaker 4: So it's a very similar archetype and a guy that
Speaker 4: can go get it defensively, which I think Pain is
Speaker 4: going to continue to develop to be a good center fielder.
Speaker 4: So it's interesting, like I think you have that archetype
Speaker 4: up there at the big league level with more time
Speaker 4: to try to squeeze out a higher ceiling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's an exciting guy for sure. Talk about another
Speaker 3: exciting guy from an upside standpoint. Justin Gonzales of the
Speaker 3: Red Sox organization is heading up to Double A. We
Speaker 3: just heard about this, I think yesterday or two days ago.
Speaker 3: He hasn't debuted yet in double but I think he
Speaker 3: should be debuting there as we're recording your Tuesday afternoon.
Speaker 3: It should be tonight his Double A debut. Gonzalez has
Speaker 3: had a great season at the high level. Is still
Speaker 3: a nineteen year old who I know is also set
Speaker 3: to be a top one hunder guy I believe in
Speaker 3: the Boston organ someone who they you know, they bought
Speaker 3: at the deadline, but they didn't move Gonzales and he's
Speaker 3: sticking around and now he's getting a Double A at
Speaker 3: nineteen years old.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is another one where I'm really excited for
Speaker 4: the test because you know, he hits the living crap
Speaker 4: out of the baseball big kid six, five to ten.
Speaker 4: But when you look at Justin Gonzalez's swing, you would
Speaker 4: assume that the strikeout rate would be.
Speaker 1: Higher, and it's not.
Speaker 4: And I think that's a testament to his feel for
Speaker 4: the barrel and you know, just simple moves overall.
Speaker 1: In the box. But I do wonder.
Speaker 4: If that could get exploited a little bit more against
Speaker 4: stronger competition, And similar to the conversation with like with
Speaker 4: Joshua Bayaz, where I think you could you can kind
Speaker 4: of tie him up inside. I'm just interested to see
Speaker 4: because I think, you know, double A pitchers will start
Speaker 4: to do that a little bit more frequently and then
Speaker 4: can that set stuff up away. But Gonzalez says, again,
Speaker 4: a pretty good feel for the barrel for a guy
Speaker 4: as big as he is, and he absolutely pulverizes baseball.
Speaker 4: So we've seen him hip post one sixteen at nineteen
Speaker 4: years old, so I think there's like some simple changes
Speaker 4: for him too, Like I think just getting the barrel
Speaker 4: more vertically, more vertical for him and his hands not
Speaker 4: maybe so far away from his body could kind of
Speaker 4: help him be a bit more efficient and turn things
Speaker 4: around on the inner part of the plate. But again,
Speaker 4: another player that hasn't really seen a ton of adversity,
Speaker 4: and probably he's not going to make a major change
Speaker 4: until he does. The biggest thing I can't escape when
Speaker 4: I watch him, though, is it looks like you can
Speaker 4: really tie him up. So if that's something that he
Speaker 4: can you know fend off that's obviously going to help
Speaker 4: his case aton because there's no questioning the raw power,
Speaker 4: and for a guy with his raw power, there seems
Speaker 4: to be a pretty good overall field to make contact.
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you what are some of the things, like
Speaker 3: do you have tangible things? Because I think that is
Speaker 3: it's not an uncommon thing for especially powerful young guys
Speaker 3: to get tied up inside, right. Is there is there
Speaker 3: one or two things you mentioned the barrel? Obviously? Is
Speaker 3: there other things you think that he could do like
Speaker 3: him just players in general tous and kind of counteract
Speaker 3: that little like getting stuck in the inside pitches.
Speaker 4: It's it's funny, I think I think it's case by case.
Speaker 4: I think in Gonzales's case it still just is a
Speaker 4: pretty armsy swing. And I think the armsier you get, like,
Speaker 4: the harder it is to be able to turn that
Speaker 4: pitch around on the inner half. And you know, these
Speaker 4: longer levered guys to just naturally it's gonna be a challenge.
Speaker 4: He's six' five with he might be taller than that.
Speaker 4: NOW i think he's closer to six seven with.
Speaker 1: With long long.
Speaker 4: Limbs if you're not super super efficient and your arms
Speaker 4: are a lot more.
Speaker 1: Involved like think about Like Aaron.
Speaker 4: Judge he's so tight to his body and and really
Speaker 4: just turns the barrow so efficiently and effectively that allows
Speaker 4: him to just kind of crush stuff. Inside when you're
Speaker 4: a little bit more armsy or even just like kind
Speaker 4: of handsy, too with.
Speaker 1: That long of, levers, uh it.
Speaker 4: Might help you make a little bit more, contact you,
Speaker 4: know and stuff away and be a little bit more.
Speaker 4: Adjustable but AND i think he's able to kind of
Speaker 4: fence some stuff off, inside BUT i think it's hard
Speaker 4: for him to to avoid being tied up in, there
Speaker 4: and So i'm interested to see it might just be
Speaker 4: a challenge he has to to deal. With BUT i
Speaker 4: always get worried about those guys getting sped up a
Speaker 4: little bit.
Speaker 1: More And gonzalez has been a guy that tended to
Speaker 1: tend tends to chase a little bit.
Speaker 4: More but when he gets his his arms out there
Speaker 4: and when he's able to catch the ball further out,
Speaker 4: front he destroys, them like absolutely destroys. Them so you,
Speaker 4: know there may be a little bit of needing to
Speaker 4: catch it out, front being a little bit more, aggressive
Speaker 4: and that may result in a little bit more With
Speaker 4: but if that allows him to get into his power,
Speaker 4: consistently that could. Work he may also just have to
Speaker 4: lay off of your hard stuff, inside and if that's located,
Speaker 4: consistently that's how you beat him. AGAIN i Just i'm
Speaker 4: excited to see how he responds to that in DOUBLE,
Speaker 4: a because it just it just does seem like that
Speaker 4: would be the thing that could limit. Him but stuff, away,
Speaker 4: man like he can crush, it and stuff that you
Speaker 4: know is hanging or that he's able to still just
Speaker 4: catch further out, front it's getting hit.
Speaker 3: Hard, yeah that makes a lot of. SENSE i think
Speaker 3: it'll be one. Monitor but, again like he's so young
Speaker 3: and has so much time on his side already getting
Speaker 3: to double a'll finish the year there at nineteen and
Speaker 3: go into next year as a young twenty year old
Speaker 3: in DOUBLE a probably so a guy that'll be very
Speaker 3: cool to. Watch And, yeah like we've talked about a million,
Speaker 3: Times DOUBLE a is kind of that that point where these,
Speaker 3: guys like the guys who get through minors and they
Speaker 3: rake their way through the lower, levels they get to
Speaker 3: DOUBLE a and they usually got to adjust some things
Speaker 3: and challenge and that'll be what this offseason looks like For.
Speaker 4: Gonzales, yeah, absolutely AND i think it's just like one other,
Speaker 4: Note like it's not bad numbers AGAINST, vlo but like
Speaker 4: the quality of, contact like average ex velosity of eighty
Speaker 4: six miles per hour against ninety four, Plus like that's
Speaker 4: what you're going to see mostly the big.
Speaker 1: Globle it's a seven eighty eight.
Speaker 4: Ohps but you know when that ninety four plus now
Speaker 4: is located a little bit, More, yeah how do?
Speaker 1: You how do you handle?
Speaker 4: It, also that chase rate creeps to almost forty percent
Speaker 4: against ninety four, Plus so it's another. Player i'm Just
Speaker 4: i'm really excited for the DOUBLE a challenge and then
Speaker 4: see how he can maybe come back next year.
Speaker 3: Too last guy up on this Call ups And promotions
Speaker 3: check in episode Of Grady, emerson man number two overall,
Speaker 3: pick will make his minor league, debut Not Bridge, league
Speaker 3: but its official minor league debut this. Week The raider
Speaker 3: are sending him To SINGLE. A, obviously no games to
Speaker 3: talk about are From, grady but, like as you're doing
Speaker 3: your your prep for the top one hund you're working through,
Speaker 3: it what are some things you're just like looking forward
Speaker 3: to seeing for you, Know it's only gonna be a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks of games here For, grady but still
Speaker 3: will be cool to see him make his.
Speaker 4: Debut, YEAH i think just just seeing him in that
Speaker 4: game setting, consistently because it's just such a, fun well
Speaker 4: rounded game that you, KNOW i don't think one little
Speaker 4: clip or highlight is going to be the best way
Speaker 4: to Appreciate Grady. Emerson so just being able to see
Speaker 4: him play day and day, out even if it's just
Speaker 4: for a few weeks TO i want.
Speaker 1: TO i really want to see the defensive side of.
Speaker 4: Things SO i think he doesn't get enough credit for
Speaker 4: his athleticism there because he's really just a smooth. Mover
Speaker 4: BUT i think he's a little bit more athletic than
Speaker 4: he gets credit. FOR i think seeing how he controls
Speaker 4: his abs because it's such a good feel to. Hit
Speaker 4: it's such a good feel for the zone for where
Speaker 4: he's at, Already LIKE i JUST i want to see
Speaker 4: twenty thirty forty at bats so WHERE i can really
Speaker 4: enjoy it Because i've watched all the amateur abs and,
Speaker 4: whatever but like seeing it against professional stuff is going
Speaker 4: to be. Great LIKE i already know really like the
Speaker 4: swing and where it's at for his, age really like the.
Speaker 4: Projectability think the glove looks solid at, shortstop but you,
Speaker 4: know just against professional, arms you, know how does it.
Speaker 4: Look i'm excited to see BECAUSE i think across the,
Speaker 4: board it's all these it's above average across the, board
Speaker 4: and you feel a lot more confident in that assessment
Speaker 4: on an amateur when you get a chance to those
Speaker 4: well rounded types to see, them you know in a professional.
Speaker 3: Setting, Yeah, NO i think it's gonna be cool to.
Speaker 3: See obviously we've started to see you, know we've Seen rock,
Speaker 3: Debut we've Seen Von lackey. Debut So grandy'll be the
Speaker 3: next one, up which will be. Cool i'm looking forward
Speaker 3: to just get more of these. Guys the draft guys
Speaker 3: are always fun and at the end of the, day
Speaker 3: LIKE i think we've talked about this a little, bit
Speaker 3: like the the end of, season especially with the draft
Speaker 3: BEING midgeli now the guys like there's not really like
Speaker 3: you're not making big adjustments in this like last two
Speaker 3: months of the. SEASON a lot of it's just getting
Speaker 3: these guys run and LIKE i think with guys like
Speaker 3: grading with guys even you, know we talked about it
Speaker 3: With rock and swing changes that are probably coming from
Speaker 3: The White sox toward like these high end draft, Picks
Speaker 3: like if they were debuting after their draft, year they're
Speaker 3: not really doing much other than just the experience of,
Speaker 3: it getting their feet, wet seeing how they feel in,
Speaker 3: games getting real live, looks and keeping them. Fresh all the,
Speaker 3: adjustments some of the changes we're going to see from
Speaker 3: these players realistically will be in the.
Speaker 4: Offices it's tough, too Because i've talked to some people
Speaker 4: with teams AND i always get the feedback of, like,
Speaker 4: yeah don't take too much from you, know these these pro,
Speaker 4: Debuts like you, know it's not a big, Deal like
Speaker 4: WE'RE i, try we try not, to you, know make any, crazy.
Speaker 1: DON'T i almost don't put much talk at it at.
Speaker 4: All but it's also our first chance to see some
Speaker 4: of these guys in a pro setting that it becomes
Speaker 4: difficult to, uh to not take something from. It Like Drew,
Speaker 4: burris he's popping one to seventeens with metal and you,
Speaker 4: know we have like twenty something bad at balls and
Speaker 4: he's yet to exceed one oh. Five and the whole
Speaker 4: question with him was like how is he going to
Speaker 4: do with with?
Speaker 1: Wood because he struggled.
Speaker 4: On The, cape and it's like you don't want to
Speaker 4: you don't want to overthink, it you don't want to
Speaker 4: get ahead of.
Speaker 1: Yourself but it's like you don't want to fully ignore it,
Speaker 1: Too so it's.
Speaker 4: Interesting Andrew fisher also had quality of contact concerns in
Speaker 4: his brief pro debut last, year AND i don't think
Speaker 4: he's got those. Now so ultimately it's to be taken
Speaker 4: with a grain of. Salt BUT i think especially for
Speaker 4: these high school, guys just to see the way they
Speaker 4: go about their, business see the way they move out,
Speaker 4: there see how comfortable they, ARE i do think is more.
Speaker 1: Revealing some of these college guys are.
Speaker 4: GASSED i was thinking The goove is a lot of
Speaker 4: fun to, watch like to See Rock, scholaski you, know
Speaker 4: with the game speeding up a little bit more, professionally
Speaker 4: how he looks, defensively those things are always fun to
Speaker 4: it's a monitor.
Speaker 3: Too on that, NOTE i do think he looks pretty good.
Speaker 3: DEFENSIVELY i will say the bats haven't been all, great
Speaker 3: but there's some places he's made it short be very
Speaker 3: impressive to me so, far which we. Expected but it's
Speaker 3: been cool to.
Speaker 4: See, yeah, exactly and it's just the comfort there because
Speaker 4: it is a faster, game and it is just the
Speaker 4: ball is coming off a little bit, different and these
Speaker 4: guys are generally moving up the line, quicker and so
Speaker 4: all all those things you, know can can speed up
Speaker 4: a shortstop making their pro.
Speaker 1: Debut SO i think that's all we got for this one.
Speaker 4: Again top one hundred update on the way On, monday
Speaker 4: so keep an eye out for. That we'll be doing
Speaker 4: some other fun check ins later this, week probably good
Speaker 4: for another heat sheet, soon some other fun stuff in
Speaker 4: the pipeline as, well card related THAT i think you'll
Speaker 4: be excited about.
Speaker 1: Up so very much looking forward to.
Speaker 3: That it's gonna be, cool. Man i'm really excited to
Speaker 3: get more card content. Going we Will we'll leave the
Speaker 3: full announcement for a little bit later this, week but
Speaker 3: actually later this week we'll be doing some more specific
Speaker 3: card related stuff as it relates to. Prospects i'm really
Speaker 3: excited to be working with some great people on that.
Speaker 3: Stuff so fired up about what all that's going to,
Speaker 3: incentivize because you, know the, prospects the, cards it all
Speaker 3: ties in and if you're a card person listening to
Speaker 3: us for prospect, stuff make sure hopping On whatnot At
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Speaker 4: Too, yeah, Yeah i'm. Excited i'll be in there FOR
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Speaker 1: Us so, always thank you for. Listening What tough prospects
Speaker 1: with you with this week, okay