[SPEAKER_00]: All right, welcome back to another episode of the Baseball America Fantasy podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is your host, Jeff Ponds.

[SPEAKER_00]: Long side me this week is not my typical co-host, Jill and White is on vacation somewhere up in the wilderness of the of the Yukon, Canada.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some some cabin he has in a remote location.

[SPEAKER_00]: Got a picture of him and his pooch and a lake.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this week stepping in, sir, pinch it or call up from

[SPEAKER_00]: Not really like Triple A, it's just almost like another team.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's more like a European transfer window kind of situation where Jacob Rodner from our college team is on loan.

[SPEAKER_00]: So welcome Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: How's it going, man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for stepping in.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going well.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be back.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is not my first transfer to the Ponce show.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's always fun to talk about fantasy baseball.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we got a big call up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've had a few recently, the silo and a few others, Dylan Beaver's for those that I think kind of been following along in all of this year, been a top performer as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that was maybe bigger than what the hype was on Casey's another one.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Boba Chandler is coming up to the major leagues finally.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like we've been talking about Boba Chandler potentially getting called up now for

[SPEAKER_00]: four or five months six months probably because we were talking about it in the offseason.

[SPEAKER_00]: It happened a lot later than we had anticipated.

[SPEAKER_00]: First two months of the season for him or tremendous.

[SPEAKER_00]: The last two months have not been very good to plus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You kind of break it into I dug into a season a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: There'll be an article on baseball America this morning, probably digging into this, but

[SPEAKER_00]: looking at like his first eleven starts where he was tremendous versus his last fourteen where he's not been so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: The numbers kind of speak for themselves overall, but I'll recite them for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So over that first eleven starts, just basic ERA stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's not not really advanced, but two point o three ERA.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over that span, forty eight point two innings, thirty five percent of the batters he faced, he struck out, posing batters had a one, eighty one batting average against him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't get called up at that point.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you kind of remember, the end of May, it would kind of reach fever pitch at that point where the fans and Pittsburgh, I think the national media, as well as all of us prospect nerds that that cover prospects, we were all kind of clamoring for this guy to get called up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't then happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over the next fourteen starts, and this happened almost immediately from his first start in June, I think, on June fourth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Over those thirteen starts, five point nine six ERA, the strikeout rate drops to twenty one point two percent.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a huge difference between thirty five percent, of course, in opposing hitters.

[SPEAKER_00]: hitting three O two against Chandler over that period.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it really is the tail of two seasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I start to dig into things a little bit in synergy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have dueling synergy screens open looking at the two samples.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's AAA, so a more confident with the right stringing of pitches, et cetera, that I know things are what they claim they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I'm digging through and the strike rates the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: The chase rate is fairly similar.

[SPEAKER_00]: The big difference was the mist rate, you know, the whiffs, the whiffs had gone down, the swing strikes had gone down.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it looked like it was primarily against the foreseamer because, you know, it centers you in the screen as you know, breaks it down by pitch type.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's kind of easy to follow and just kind of pick that out surface level.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm thinking about Baba and I'm looking at the plots for just fastballs, but you can separate it by pitches.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm looking and I'm seeing now granted between the two samples, we'll say one was four hundred and thirty fastballs.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other one was five eighty eight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, numbers stuck in my head for whatever reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a doubt to hear of, you know, whatever, a hundred and sixty fastballs.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, all right, I'm going to start digging into locations and you can break it down by different quadrant.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if we cut the zone and the shadow zone and all the area around the plate where someone could miss, right, we just broke it into like top like bottom middle top.

[SPEAKER_00]: I eliminated all the fast balls in the middle and the bottom and I just looked at the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: The difference in those two samples, okay, is only thirty pitches, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which, when you consider what bulb is Chandler's super power is, which is landing that fastball high in the zone and dominating with it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's sort of what he needs to do consistently.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the delta being only thirty pitches, I said, well, let's figure out what the percentages are.

[SPEAKER_00]: The percentages of his fastball used how many of them in this good period were in the upper quadrants are over.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in his bad period, what percentage of his fastballs were in those same quadrants.

[SPEAKER_00]: The difference is sixty percent when it was going well were in the upper quadrants.

[SPEAKER_00]: When things are going bad, it's forty-eight percent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a pretty substantial difference in terms of locations.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not necessarily talking about strikes or something that's going to fully be picked up and strike rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not going to get fully picked up and chase rate because he's throwing less chase pitches essentially when you look at where he's located because he's missing in the zone now, where he was missing above the zone before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at best, it's a swing strike.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's bad contact like a pop up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even in his bad period, he's still getting chases in those quadrants.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's still getting swings and misses not at the rate that he was getting before, which was a lead.

[SPEAKER_00]: but he's still getting those pitches.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what I also started to notice too was that his location to left handed hitters with the fastball, really started to bleed, glove side a lot more.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't get beat up a ton of those pitches, but just in terms of where the locations were, they were coming in on the hands more to lefties where, you know, forcing fastball like Bubba's, you know, it rides, but it also runs a fair amount.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he runs it,

[SPEAKER_00]: eight nine ten eleven inches arm side just like a change up when you're attacking left as you kind of want to attack in the hour half of the plate because it's not bleeding into the middle of the plate it's not a center cut fast ball.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fast ball that's out on the edges, or maybe even just outside the zone.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think a lot of his struggles, Jacob, I don't know, this was very long, pre-emble.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think a lot of Bubba struggles have come down just simply to fastball location, and everything works off of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's never gonna have great command.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's always gonna carry a few more walks than I think you'd like to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the big thing for me is like utilizing his fastball in the way that it plays the best where, you know, if he's locating at low or in the middle of the zone, it's a lot easier to kind of guess on the location of that and time it up and catch a barrel than it is when he's locating up high and potentially missing, you know, just above the zone, which is often a really good mispitch.

[SPEAKER_00]: And more often than not is going to get a swing underneath the ball, whether it makes contact or not, where you know, you're bleeding into the heart of the plate in on the hands of guys, like they're going to be able to time that even if you're throwing ninety eight ninety nine hundred miles an hour or that more frequently.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know, I don't know if this is something that the pirates were cognizant of of like there's a lot of kind of smoking mirrors in the early performance.

[SPEAKER_00]: saying, hey, he can't live just living high fastball at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: The big leagues and they're trying to vary the locations or it's just simply something mechanical that I can't fully pick up or something he's feeling in his arm that we don't know about or whatever it might be that he's just not locating as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not as crisp, not as clean, but the only thing that really jumped to me was that because even the secondaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the first sample, we're located primarily low in his own.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a slider and a change up with a downer curve ball that he's been thrown away too much.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a whole other pocket of the information.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have to get into.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his secondaries, more swings and misses, worse contact and worse results against.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first half, when he was locating low in that zone, the fastball would more consistently high.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the second half, where that fastball location is down a little bit, all the second areas are playing a worse two, and it just feels like things aren't tunneling, playing off, but he's just not zoning the ball into the right spots.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, I think like that's kind of going to be the tight rope that you walk with, Baba Chandler, and my cat officially agrees with me on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you saying, Dylan?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Dylan, Jesus, I called you, Dylan, Jacob.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: So first of all, disrespecting the transfer immediately.

[SPEAKER_01]: But no, I think it is interesting and a little bit concerning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll point out, you mentioned something about how he's feeling in his arm.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's sitting on a hundred innings and his career high is a hundred nineteen and two-thirds last year between AA and AAA.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I do wonder if there's a little bit of a fatigue factor here potentially setting in at this point in the season.

[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned how he's missing fewer bats at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't really surprise me if fatigue is going to be what's causing this as a Bubba Chandler owner however in a dynasty league.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm hopeful that this role that he's going to take on with the pirates in this long relief bulk innings eater type situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: could benefit him, maybe just allows him to throw a little bit freer.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did walk almost five batters per nine in the minors this season, which is obviously a concern, but again, if he's going to come out of the bullpen, which is the plan as we understand it right now, I do think that maybe there's a chance that we see this stuff tick up again, plus there's always the amp and excitement that comes with being in the big leagues for the first time, and I don't think that it's

[SPEAKER_01]: wise to discount the mental aspect of that promotion and what it could potentially do for somebody but the sticking point for me without reiterating the things that you said is after nineteen innings he will be at a career high so it could be a fatigue thing I know that we're towards the end of the year so he's not going to blow away that hundred nineteen and two thirds total but again it's late and he already is in triple digits in terms of innings thrown so far this season

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think that, you know, if it's partially fatigue, it's set in pretty early.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we are talking about like June and July as well, which, you know, I think it's still a concern.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's why it takes so long for prep pitchers to be major league ready, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's six years from like when they get drafted until they actually have like productive full seasons as starters, you know, and part of that is injury and part of it is, you know, it's such a tight rope that you walk.

[SPEAKER_00]: as a pitcher in the big leagues that in just in general against good lineups, but you know, any mistakes can really be amplified, you know, with big hits, a couple of mislocations, you walk a guy, you leave a, you know, you leave a fastball over the wrong part of the plate, you hang a break and ball, you know, you can pitch really well and give up five runs like I saw, Peyton told you a couple of weeks ago, give up five or six runs and

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it was a missed opportunity on a, on an eagerly easy double play to second base that didn't get made.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guy gets on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. with a fast ball, it gets obliterated, walks the next batter, and same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You missed on two pitches, walked a couple of guys, didn't get some luck, and then the next four innings was really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I had more whiffs than he had in his best start for the AAA so far.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's just how that goes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's part of the, you need to be equipped.

[SPEAKER_00]: you know, to sort of walk that tight rope and know that there's just pitch as you can't miss with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can double a, you know, you can miss middle middle with a hundred mile per hour fastball and double a and there's plenty of guys are going to swing through it or take it down the middle without even swinging.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of those guys too, you know, frankly these days.

[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, so that's just kind of a buyer beware early on, at least in a redraft leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: with Baba.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think long term, there's still a ton of upside.

[SPEAKER_00]: The secondaries need to get better though.

[SPEAKER_00]: Put a little bit less pressure on the fastball to always be so precise.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, that's also part of the commentary as well on him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But could be interesting out of the pen and, you know, could throw some smoke, have some electric innings, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: Not against the in a shallower league, we can make daily moves where your stream and relievers and, you know, get an empty spot and there's a chance you fit just go for it, you know, and we'll see if they stretch them back out, but I think your point about the innings probably.

[SPEAKER_00]: is going to limit that from happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're probably going to keep them somewhere around a hundred twenty again, I would imagine.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's Bobo Chandler.

[SPEAKER_00]: Should be interesting to see where that goes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say a quick break.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we come back, we're going to talk about something quite interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to dig into a little bit of Jacob's college knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to ask some questions kind of comparing last year's draft class to this year's draft class and see if there might be any difference makers for twenty twenty six.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and we're back live on the podcast with Jacob Rodner's standing in for Dillon.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna try to call you Dillon at least three or four more times.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not totally by mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna do it on purpose now.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first time was definitely by mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so used to having rants like that with Dillon because I don't don't host the pot with JJ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like so used to always being like, and back to you Dillon, it was like Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like I said before the break, I wanted to lean in a little bit to your college knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even before you came to B.A., you haven't covered in college baseball for quite a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think what's great about talking to you is you're an avid fantasy player and baseball fan, some of the new follows, the miners as well, does a Marlons coverage.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also, you know, you're a Dodgers fan and someone who follows MLB and plays in fantasy league.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have some context with all this stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: in a lot of really good first hand knowledge to draw from.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this year's

[SPEAKER_00]: rookie class had a lot of standouts from that twenty twenty four draft class guys who barely spent any time in the minor weeks of course we're talking in a curse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um of you know we're talking.

[SPEAKER_00]: J. Jack Cagley and own though that didn't necessarily materialize the big league level just yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um Chase Burns who's been up and down.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think you know when we're talking FYPD.

[SPEAKER_00]: anything you get in that first per full professional season from a player that you draft in the off season.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not, you're not, if the guy debuted with like no one's channel before the FYPD, he's, you know, you already know that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You already know that he's going to get, but getting anything that first year I think is always gravy and you're typically looking down the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like if you're a cags owner, I wouldn't be panicking right now because

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to get opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already been up super, super early.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know he has his ability, has the ability to now adjust, get back to where he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I guess my question to you is, who are the fast movers?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't anticipate there's going to be a rookie of the year candidate who puts up historic numbers like Nick Kurtz.

[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't seen that generally over several years, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But is there that guy who can come up next year, whether it's early or even mid-Summer, who could potentially be a difference maker in all league sizes, shapes, and scoring formats?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are there a couple names that come to mind?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are there any hitters?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so that was going to be the biggest thing for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that the biggest difference between the twenty twenty four and twenty five draft classes are that the hitting talent is not as strong for people who pay attention to our amateur coverage over at baseball American you've heard Peter Flairty and I talk about this on our podcast.

[SPEAKER_01]: This offensive class was not nearly as robust.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are just not tons of guys who have profiles that we think will move quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think Merrick Houston, with the twins, if he continues to hit and he's off to a great start, potentially could be somebody who moves quite quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has a middle of the infield profile.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's gonna hit the ball a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know exactly what he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've also seen a willingness from the twins, especially recently, to start promoting guys a little bit more quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so do I think that he could be a candidate?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_01]: But again, this is not somebody who's going to go out there and hammer the baseball.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't necessarily think that he is the prototypical fast mover.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, six foot three, two hundred pounds, like I said, a very hitter-ish guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that somebody who moves up and you want to get a little bit sneakier on the offensive side and I know this is going to be much to your chagrin specifically, but I think that Devon Taylor's bat is a bat that could in theory move quite quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has all of the traits offensively and I cannot emphasize enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: offensively not defensively to move quite quickly through the miners.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is somebody who last year hit the ball really hard and often ninety four mile power average exit velocity.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't necessarily the most efficient swinger when it came to balls in the zone and that's going to be some will be

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe a drag on him as he tries to move up quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you look at how often he was swinging the bat and maybe you could say that he was a little bit passive.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was thirty nine point five percent swing rate last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do I think that that could be coaxed to be a little bit higher possibly and with how hard he hits the ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just the type of hitter he is plus the contact overall contact rate that he ran last year, eighty two percent.

[SPEAKER_01]: That could be somebody who I can see moving quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to talk about value fast from this draft class though, it's absolutely on the mountain.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can go through the first round and I think that there are at least

[SPEAKER_01]: Three names, maybe four, who could move quite quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tyler Bremner being the second overall pick to the angels.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are all, as you just mentioned, Nolan Shannual, very well familiar with how quickly they like to promote.

[SPEAKER_01]: We, you and I specifically on the fantasy podcast, have talked about how he had one of the top pitches in the draft with a very, very good change up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's somebody who could move quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's partially because of the organization.

[SPEAKER_01]: But also because I think he's a better picture than people gave him credit for when he was drafted slightly earlier than maybe expected.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kate Anderson, no secret.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's probably a really easy one.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Mariners are great developers of pitching.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's reasonably advanced.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not so sure that there's a ton of projection left in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know what Kate Anderson is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Could that move quickly?

[SPEAKER_01]: Possibly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then I go down to the bottom of the first round.

[SPEAKER_01]: Age what?

[SPEAKER_01]: To the fillies.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is somebody who I have had a lot of confidence in for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've talked to several college coaches and scouts over the course of the last couple months.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of whom have said in no uncertain terms that they thought gauge would was in the conversation for the best fastball in this draft class.

[SPEAKER_01]: Liam Doyle is there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's another guy who could move quickly, but those two players profile to me as pictures who could move fast if for no other reason than like Bubba Chandler, they could potentially contribute out of a bullpen

[SPEAKER_01]: at some point next season.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that's the kind of value you want to be super confidently investing in right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody who's going to end up in a bullpen at least to start.

[SPEAKER_01]: But those are two pictures who have the traits to go quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that you like guys like Tyson with her spoon with Boston.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's potentially somebody who can move quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, to kind of sum up everything I've just said.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're looking for fast value from this draft class, it probably on the mound.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are a couple hitters who I think could go quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: Taylor, I said, Merrick Houston, Andrew Fisher is somebody who you and I like a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another one of those guys who just hits the ball really hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: It does a really good job of making contact isn't too aggressive to a point where it hurts him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's off to a solid start.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's hitting the ball hard in the miners already.

[SPEAKER_01]: So

[SPEAKER_01]: Those are probably the names that stand out to me the most.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure that there's going to be somebody who I didn't just say that's going to be a rapid riser and make me look so good for not saying their name, but I think that this is a picture over hitting class overall.

[SPEAKER_01]: And those are probably your best bets in terms of fast movers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, the other part of it too is when you look amongst the college class outside of I've arched, there aren't a lot of

[SPEAKER_00]: guys with good hitting traits, fisher, you know, you want to throw a Irish in there, Charles Davelin, and others Compton, Devon Taylor, Petrie, Henry Godbout, who's just hitting the crap out of the ball right now, I'll give shout out to the Henry Godbout guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Outside of our kit, none of those guys really have defensive value, which is what's going to help you move.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you think about those guys over time, obviously Nick Kurtz is a phenomenon, and also when really, really high, and I think was more advanced than any hitter in this draft, Spencer Torkle, some was more advanced than any hitter in this draft at the time of the draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew Vaughn, we're seeing what Andrew Vaughn apparently always was, but at the time of the draft to be more advanced than anybody in this draft,

[SPEAKER_00]: And I also think it's the teams.

[SPEAKER_00]: The teams that took college hitters aren't necessarily teams are going to move these guys quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think the Orioles are going to move their trio of college hitters that they got in the first round, you know, an Irish bodine or a lawyer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think any of those guys are going to move up to the majors next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, maybe Gavin Kelen if he really hits the hell out of the ball and is playing well and the giants have a whole second base.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could maybe see that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the twins would be similar if there's a whole short stop and Houston's really hitting.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even if Kelen or Houston got called up Jacob and correct me if I'm wrong here.

[SPEAKER_00]: like both players.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he went his great plate skills.

[SPEAKER_00]: Houston is really good place skills and good angles as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Questionable in the power, maybe with both.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think they're going to be impact fantasy players right off the bat.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're more guys that if you have them in Dynastie, you're going to try to stick with them for two or three years and eventually they get their sea legs underneath them, maybe gain a little weight.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they hit their power peak, peak years of twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even if they remove quickly, I don't expect them to be impact bats.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if guys this year like Cags wasn't an impact bat at the major league level, we at least had that anticipation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there is some value to that, you can trade those guys away.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think it's just the difference in the college pitching classes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe isn't that different?

[SPEAKER_00]: You kind of had the two guys top or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even a few more this year that could move quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the difference is the hitting.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just don't have a bunch of high level names.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Bizana was hurt, but I think, you know, had he been healthy all year and was producing, they moved him up pretty quickly.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we'll see.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see where all this goes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's change topics a little bit here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And

[SPEAKER_00]: had a little bit of an awkward transition because it could have had a good one off of the sauna, but I wanted to ask you moving away from Kurt's.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to use more examples from the, excuse me, I was called the Oakland Athletics, the Athletics, Athletics, where they play, where their home is, shall not be named them nomadic.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's this year's, twenty-twenty-six?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's this year's Jacob Wilson?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's the guy who's finishing his first full proceeds in this year that you anticipate could be a needle mover next year in twenty-twenty-six?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there anybody like that from this college class that maybe hasn't debuted yet that you're looking at and saying, I'm gonna draft that guy in a redraft because I think he could give me four hundred plus at bats of really quality statistics.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there anybody like that or maybe a few?

[SPEAKER_01]: it's hard not to say JJ weatherhold and and for those who pay attention to our online coverage that somebody who were shooting up the rankings and he continues to climb top ten prospect in the game right now and it's really looking like he's primed to impact I mean he's having a fantastic season somebody who I think next year could come up very quickly if not right away and you can slow me down there if I'm wrong but

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that JJ Weatherhold is positioning himself to be highly valuable for fantasy owners next to your especially in reach athletes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's obviously owned or should be if you're playing with competent people in all of your dynasty leagues, but

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard to think of anybody who tops the list over him.

[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned Travis Besana, that's another guy who I think providing he stays healthy and can produce early next year and has a clean spring training that could come up quickly.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I don't know that there's any name other than JJ weatherhold who stands out as brightly as that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are there other guys for sure?

[SPEAKER_01]: But JJ weatherhold is on a tear right now and he's he's really doing something impressive.

[SPEAKER_01]: I struggle to imagine that he's not very quickly valuable in fantasy next season.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here, I'm going to throw an out there that's kind of not neat in the sense that it's not a college guy, but somebody that I do think could debut as a second year pro.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the number one prospect on a Griffin.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think when you look at Pittsburgh situation, I think you look at the fact that they don't get aggressive in free agency.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't want to pay in free agency.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a lot cheaper to try to get, excuse me, Bob.

[SPEAKER_00]: Connor Griffin up to the majors.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, I messed up my Pirates prospects too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just co-hosts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get Connor Griffin up to the majors and, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: Potentially, he's already your best player.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, O'Neill Cruz does some remarkable things, but everything that O'Neill Cruz can do for the most part, outside of maybe the throws from short in terms of miles per hour, but he's not playing short stuff any longer, so it doesn't matter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was calling Bob again, Connor Griffin can do, like, Connor Griffin can do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: When I sort of look at it, I think Connor Griffin's a guy who could come up next year as a second year pro and have some impact and maybe has a runway because he's in a situation where he's in the organization that's most devoid of talent at the major league level and that's not going to change.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think about that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that crazy?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that's crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it actually, it sparked my brain to think about somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think is worth talking about Carson Bench with New York.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, somebody who was a two-way player in college, now he's just a hitter, gets promoted to AA, goes crazy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We move him up, sixty five spots from number ninety eight to number thirty three on the top one hundred.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was our biggest riser in our latest update, our final update before the prospect handbook.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hard to argue that that's not somebody who's gonna potentially make an impact with the Big League club next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the Met's number one prospect for a reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of the hottest hitters in minor league baseball right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Believe he is on the injured list at the moment, but I'm pretty confident that Carson Benge belongs in the conversation that we're having right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll throw one out at you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and I am

[SPEAKER_00]: as big of a Travis, Bazana fan, as you'll find.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love Travis, chatted with him many, many times.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in person, Travis knows me, I know Travis.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a big fan.

[SPEAKER_00]: There aren't many players that cheer for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hard as I cheer for Travis.

[SPEAKER_00]: That said, if you had Travis Bazana and someone who offered you Carson Benj right now straight up, would you make that trade?

[SPEAKER_01]: Probably, I mean, I think that there's, I think a lot of helium, yeah, I think I would.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of helium behind Benj's name right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we just talked about, you're probably investing in the hottest hitter in the miners right now in terms of prospects and what they're doing for their stock.

[SPEAKER_01]: I, again, struggle to imagine a scenario in which he's not a major league contributor next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd probably do that trade in my crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, and here's the thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a runway for it, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're good in the corners.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're pretty much set in the corners, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So it could de-H, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sodo's under contract for many, many, many years, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Brandon Nemo is under contract until twenty-thirties the last year of his deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: So quite a long time, all right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You go obviously play Nemo in center if you want.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are not right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're playing Cedric Mullins there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So wherever, but there was an outfield spot that's up for grabs because Cedric Mullins is going to be a free agent after the year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unless they decided to resign them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Starling Marta is out of his deal this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the last of this four-year contract.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's getting paid twenty million dollars to just hit lefties right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good for you, Storm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Mullins, as I said, is a free agent as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the kind of thing where Bench could potentially walk right into a starting role next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's crazy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And especially the way that they view him in the way that he's performed,

[SPEAKER_00]: And as fast as Carson Benches moved as well, you know, they're kind of signaling that a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that Benches potentially the guy because, you know, he's on the IL right now in AAA.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, they already have him at the highest level of the miners.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't have to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they could have kept him and Binghamton a little bit longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't even there that long.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was only there for thirty two games.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that Ben just probably the biggest mover and probably the dark horse name in this situation or this conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well done.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask you, let me ask you about one more guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just curious.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think about Cayland coal pepper?

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody who was drafted last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: towards the back end of the first round.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's having an outstanding season this year, played in the future's game.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that he could be on the fringe of that list.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not as quick a mover as we're talking about with some of these other guys, but I also wouldn't be like floored by seeing Kale and Cole Pepper make an impact at some point next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: At some point, not right away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think it's possible in the thing that's working in, you know, his favor, of course he's had some serious time already in the high miners and see what's up and double it pretty quickly, but he's a good defender at shortstop.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whether they plan at short or second base or third base, I don't think really matters because I think he can do all of it and do all of it pretty well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really high in the defensive tool there.

[SPEAKER_00]: The impact's still gonna come.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't really pull the ball at home, which is something for a guy like him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to have to really optimize those pull angles.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bat to ball was really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a bit of a free swinger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's maybe like a thirty thirty one thirty two percent chase rate, but it's not like a obnoxiously high and he's really aggressive in the zone that if he swung just a little bit less overall that chase rates probably going to plummet into like, you know,

[SPEAKER_00]: normal average territory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think with a hit or like that, hit the ball around the field, using your speed, getting the ball, you know, in play.

[SPEAKER_00]: Making hitters work a little bit, isn't necessarily a bad idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not to say that I don't want to see him hit Homer's and that's not more valuable from a fantasy perspective, but could hit for a high batting average, steal some bases, get on base and his glove could keep him in the lineup and he could accumulate some run stats like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we sometimes over look guys like that and what their potential value could be.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, no, I think that was

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that was a good one that you called up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, last question here, and then we'll wrap up kind of like a prospect soapbox a little bit, similar to what we do on the prospect pop of JJ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there one player that you've added recently or just generally maybe have roster that you like more than maybe consensus or those that are out there that you want to stump for and maybe recommend is a player that should be picked up if he's out there and available and you're able to add prospects at this point in your season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's your recommendation?

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know before and off the air, you and I talked about my guy, Luis Kova.

[SPEAKER_01]: I covered the Marlins for BA.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's somebody who's had a lot of fries up in their system now up to number five.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that he's probably a fringy, maybe a little bit further than the fringe, top one hundred prospect right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I had to peg another Marlins guy though, who I think is super interesting and worth talking about, let's talk about Kevin DeFranck.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have had some pretty outstanding video on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our colleague, Josh Norris, when he was down in the Dominican Republic, got to see the Frank in person and every review that he gave.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is also every review that I've heard from talking to sources at the pro-level guys who are evaluating these players on a day-to-day basis.

[SPEAKER_01]: to Frank has some serious stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're talking about a fastball that could grade out in the seventy-ish range.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe at some point next year, I think he's due for his state side debut at some point in twenty twenty six.

[SPEAKER_01]: If he doesn't get that call at some point late in twenty twenty five.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd be interested if you're in a nice deep league and you're looking to fill out your minor league roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kevin to Frank is not somebody I'd be shy about rostering right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: The fastball is into the triple digits rather consistently.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's touched.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a hundred two at this point in the Dominican DSL.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, those are the qualities that you want to look for when you're trying to add a player who has some upside and we do have him now ranked rather prominently.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's not as much of a secret as it was before.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the number six prospect in the Marlin system.

[SPEAKER_01]: But again,

[SPEAKER_01]: Good fastball, he's got developing off-speed pitches.

[SPEAKER_01]: The control is a little bit all over the place, but that's to be expected for some of these super young guys, which he is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that he has this workhorse type frame that I still think he has some room to grow into, plus the shapes coming out of his hand, they really intrigue me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's probably a good stash at this point, and I can tell you,

[SPEAKER_01]: that he is one of the guys who I have stashed on my minor league roster at the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I do not have Luis Kova.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the other thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Before the show, you told me to act talk about somebody who I've added.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do not have Luis Kova in my league.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do have Kevin Defranck.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that other people should too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had Defranck in one league, but ended up dropping in because I needed to use those roster spots.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll not talk about that when he's a big star, but he's still what I think floating out there in that league again.

[SPEAKER_00]: So somebody else in that league that's wasn't going out of while you still can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Guy, I'm going to call out this week as the same guy I called out as my prospect so box and I'm writing him up for tomorrow, but it just finds his trajectory and path to be really, really interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's Joshua Bias of the Cardinals.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think in deeper leagues, he's probably already long been picked up.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's time to kind of pick them up and even shallower leagues like twelve, fourteen, ten leagues where there's like a hundred and fifty prospects rostered.

[SPEAKER_00]: The difference year over year and just this year versus his career in terms of the inzone contact rates in terms of the chase rates.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it coming with power and great angles and all the tools that Joshua Bias has always had the big arm, the running ability.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has a chance to go twenty-fifty this year with the lowest strikeout rate of his career by a substantial margin.

[SPEAKER_00]: His contact rates now are squarely average to maybe slightly above average.

[SPEAKER_00]: The swing decisions are above average.

[SPEAKER_00]: The angles as I set are great.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's always been seventy raw power here and it's now showing up in games.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he's going to get to even more of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's a really valuable defender.

[SPEAKER_00]: He can play all three outfield positions, probably best corner.

[SPEAKER_00]: Has a huge arm.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to keep runners on us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the kind of guy that you're going to want to keep in there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Day in and day out.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's hitting in the right.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a right hand of bats.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hit against lefties.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got to be honest, I really think that this guy could potentially debut from the Cardinals next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And might be the best breakout story of the season that we're not talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just turned twenty two at the end of June.

[SPEAKER_00]: North East guy certainly was, you know, a helium name and a guy that was had some notoriety as a prep.

[SPEAKER_00]: People knew who he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it was a first of second round pick, but got kind of late first round money in that draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's finally all started to click and I think you look at the underlying numbers and it backs up a lot of the baseball carders, you know, statline slash line number, two, eighty, four, three, and seven, four, seventy, eight, fourteen homers, forty, six deals.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's forty, six deals on fifty three attempts too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's been, you know, above that eighty percent marker.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thirteen percent walk rate, twenty two point four percent K rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a one-to-seven point one, one-to-seven point two, ninety-th percent of EV high barrel rate.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as I mentioned, the bats of ball skills, the contact rates are very good.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not just very good for Joshua, but is very good for a power hitter and a guy that's doing the kind of damage that he has that walks as much as he does that also as tools.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's actually a top one on our prospect.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think he's a sneaky, sneaky buy as a potential rookie that could have some impact in twenty twenty six.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll get off my soapbox finally and put my Joshua bias hat in the closet.

[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think you could be an interesting one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you're right with the Frank, too, of kind of buying now before the hype gets crazy once he comes state side because it could go.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to get fast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Real create your real fast as you said.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this has been another episode of the baseball American fantasy podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to thank my standing co-host Jacob Rodner for sitting down with me this week and talking through some of these names.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought this was an interesting podcast and those that are out there listening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for tuning in as always.