[SPEAKER_02]: everybody welcome to another baseball America hot shit show and we are jumping right into it today JJ Cooper and Jeff Ponds from baseball America but more importantly raise pitcher Brody Hopkins is joining us as he has before they welcome back to the show congrats on the season congrats on the future's game

[SPEAKER_02]: We're in August.

[SPEAKER_02]: How does it feel as a minor league baseball player at the end of August?

[SPEAKER_02]: In a season that started, it feels like many months ago at this point.

[SPEAKER_02]: What does it feel like as a minor league player?

[SPEAKER_03]: Man, it's a grind.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's just spending ten, eleven hours at the field every day, six days a week, get one off day.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's tough, but I mean, if you love it, you're going to go out and grind and just keep working your butt off every day.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I love it.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's, I think it's really fun showing up, playing a game every day.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, playing the game you grow up loving.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's pretty cool.

[SPEAKER_02]: Again, you've had kind of the season where we've talked you earlier this year, but since then, probably one of the most important things this is your future's gamer.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you went out there and you shoved.

[SPEAKER_02]: What is it like to go out there?

[SPEAKER_02]: You obviously want to perform in an a moment like that, but what is it like to be in the future's game?

[SPEAKER_02]: And what is it like when you go out there and you get to show what you can do?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it's a

[SPEAKER_03]: unbelievable blessing that I was in a great for opportunity for me to be able to get you know selected for it and I

[SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't tell you what I was thinking during the game.

[SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't tell you what happened, what pitch I threw when.

[SPEAKER_03]: I just know that it was nine pitches and it was really quick.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I mean, it was unbelievable.

[SPEAKER_03]: It was the feeling, the memories, the emotions, having my family there.

[SPEAKER_03]: It was all just one big whirlwind and it was, it was just perfect.

[SPEAKER_02]: As you said, like, you had a ton of family there, didn't you?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I mean, it was like, like, fifteen people.

[SPEAKER_02]: So when you get back to them after the game and meet back up, I mean, did they probably, was it a bigger deal for you or maybe a bigger deal for them?

[SPEAKER_03]: No, I mean, it was a huge deal for me.

[SPEAKER_03]: Just because, I mean, three years ago, I was not sure where I was going to be playing college ball at.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so, like, going from that to here, they know how big it was for me.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it was just kind of, they were just happy for me.

[SPEAKER_03]: And they wanted to be there for me.

[SPEAKER_03]: And that's just, I really don't even know how to explain it.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's just one big.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, everybody was just happy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Everybody was, you know, just excited, just really grateful for everything that just happened there.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I would imagine just overall season two, like in a lot of ways that kind of has to be the cherry on top.

[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, as you talked about, you know, a couple of years ago, you didn't even know necessarily where you're going to be playing college ball the next year.

[SPEAKER_05]: You know, going to the transfer portal really establish yourself, I think, is an interesting draft prospect.

[SPEAKER_05]: end up with Seattle and even that first year, you end up getting traded.

[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, you've been at one level so far this season in AA really, you know, the majority, obviously, of the season.

[SPEAKER_05]: One organization, you get to go to the future's game, I would imagine it's got to be just much more settled in and how much do you think that has had an impact on just everything ticking up a little bit, the command and the execution in game.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's all been really just experience and reps and I feel like game by game.

[SPEAKER_03]: I feel like I just improve and I learn a little bit more and I can like last year I don't think I could have

[SPEAKER_03]: all the game on my own.

[SPEAKER_03]: But now I feel confident in that, like, if what a catcher puts down isn't something that I'm really confident in, I know I've got a different pitch in my mind.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like, now I feel confident in doing that.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like I'm confident in judging swings and like what they, what I think they're looking for.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's just like just being a complete pitcher is what I feel like has been the thing that's been kind of going in the right direction for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: So like just said, you were a mariner and you're traded to the race last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: And something happened with you that have seen happen with a lot of pictures when they joined the race.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think you had a fifty nine percent strike percentage last year with the mariner's sixty percent last year after you joined the race this year at sixty two percent.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're not the only one.

[SPEAKER_02]: This seems like something that the rays are really good at.

[SPEAKER_02]: And obviously, as part of it is, is you're working on it, too.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to take your part out of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: But what is it that happens?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, is there a magic formula that the ray or is it just something where it's just the development that comes with, you know, with maturation and more time on the mail?

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was, I mean, when I came over, really what they told me and they wanted me to do was just kind of just throw everything to the heart of the, heart of the, like zone, just kind of throw everything down the middle.

[SPEAKER_03]: Kind of just, like, start everything through the middle of the plate and let my stuff do, do what it does.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I kind of at first,

[SPEAKER_03]: It's okay with a little bit of a grain of salt because I was like, if I just throw it down the middle, it's going to get hit.

[SPEAKER_03]: But then I started to realize that my stuff really plays.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so if I do that and get everything in the zone, I'm going to generate a lot more swing and miss.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so I just started pounding the zone, pounding the zone.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like that's what has really helped me so far.

[SPEAKER_02]: If your stuff, I mean, again, the thing that does jump out about it, I've talked, remember talking to other race pictures about this.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you aim for the middle of the zone with your kind of stuff, you don't end up always or don't end up even regularly right in the middle of zone.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you?

[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, not regularly.

[SPEAKER_02]: Bigger target now.

[SPEAKER_02]: It gives you eighteen inches to aim for.

[SPEAKER_05]: I also want to, I want to make a follow.

[SPEAKER_05]: If I can jump in, when we talk to your future's game, I know we talked about your pictures, you kind of show me some of your pictures, that sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_05]: You mentioned there were a couple of pictures that you had from previous years that you weren't throwing now.

[SPEAKER_05]: I know the arsenals obviously sort of always expanding, adjusting, sometimes contracting as well.

[SPEAKER_05]: What are you throwing right now?

[SPEAKER_05]: And in terms of like queues and stuff like you were talking about earlier, where do you try to throw your slider when you're trying to throw your four seam, et cetera?

[SPEAKER_05]: What sort of like areas are you targeting?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so right now I'm throwing a force seam, like a curve ball, death ball kind of thing, a change up and a cutter.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so my thought process is really just kind of just though it through the middle, like when I hold my force seam, I'm trying to generate as much carry as I can because I have a little arm slot, you know, all that stuff that the rays have kind of taught me.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so I've just been trying to throw the force seam to the catchers mask.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've been trying to rip the cutter off of a ridey front elbow.

[SPEAKER_03]: And with my change up, I just kind of throw it at my catcher's right shoulder.

[SPEAKER_03]: Just kind of let it do its thing.

[SPEAKER_03]: And then with the curve ball, I just kind of throw it as hard as it can straight down the middle.

[SPEAKER_03]: I just ripped it.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's really all I think about with it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, Brody, earlier this month, you faced Columbus.

[SPEAKER_02]: He had probably what I would say watching.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was one of your better starts.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen of your pro career.

[SPEAKER_02]: Seven innings, no runs.

[SPEAKER_02]: You go seven, you strike out ten.

[SPEAKER_02]: Did that kind of pretty similar to that?

[SPEAKER_02]: I think about a month before that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But when you have an outing like that, does it feel any different?

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know kind of when you're taking the mound?

[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, I think I've really got it tonight, or does it kind of more come to you as the game goes on?

[SPEAKER_03]: I would say it depends.

[SPEAKER_03]: I say it would depend on the day.

[SPEAKER_03]: I never go into a start thinking I don't got it that day because I feel like I usually do.

[SPEAKER_03]: But no, I think that just like some of those starts where it's like I'm getting a lot of swing and miss early so I know

[SPEAKER_03]: But if I start getting swing and miss early in the first inning, I know that I'm going to be successful throughout the whole game.

[SPEAKER_03]: But if they're putting the ball in play early, I know it's going to be probably a grind to get through five, get through six, because pitch counts are going to be a little up.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're going to be taking more being more cautious.

[SPEAKER_03]: But if a team is swinging early, then I know that I'll be perfectly fine throughout that game.

[SPEAKER_05]: want to follow real quick on this one.

[SPEAKER_05]: Um, we did talk about how you've been with, you know, um, you know, the Southern League all year.

[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think you're you're going to get a chance to visit JJ up in Durham anytime soon?

[SPEAKER_05]: Any any chances of triple a promotion come in the next week or two?

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I try my best not to think about stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, obviously it's going to be in the back your head when you're having a good year, but I mean, I'm just kind of trusting the process kind of trusting what the raise or tell me and if it's if it's not Durham and a week or at the end of the year, then

[SPEAKER_03]: It is what it is.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I've just finished the season strong here.

[SPEAKER_03]: Try to, you know, maintain my goal that I set for myself this year.

[SPEAKER_03]: And just go from there.

[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I can't control getting called up.

[SPEAKER_03]: I can't control any of that.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm just going to worry about what I got going on in Montgomery.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, whether it's in Montgomery or up here where I am in Durham, we wish you best for the rest of the season, congrats on the season so far.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know if nothing else, I'm going to see you before too long, one way or another here in Durham, because whether it's this year or next year.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like I said, that's not a control board for you, but the way you're going, be stunned if I'm not seeing you before too long.

[SPEAKER_02]: And hopefully again, not for too long.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, see for a little while, I mean, you know, which of the best did you head off to Tampa Bay?

[SPEAKER_02]: But thank you for joining us, Brody.

[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you again, best luck for us the season.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we will be back right after this quick break.

[SPEAKER_04]: OK, KP, this is your first arena club experience.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to open a slab pack together.

[SPEAKER_04]: So first off, we're going to buy one of those twenty five dollar slab packs and we get to see what is in the pack.

[SPEAKER_04]: There it is.

[SPEAKER_04]: The grail, which is the best card in the pack and worth the most.

[SPEAKER_04]: There are some other cards that we're chasing and you can see the entire lineup so that you know what you're in the running for.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's the Yamamoto signed card now.

[SPEAKER_04]: Let's open up our pack and see how we do.

[SPEAKER_04]: We have ourselves.

[SPEAKER_04]: a really cool graphic, and then a showhail, Tony, fifty-fifty card from last year.

[SPEAKER_04]: What do you want to do?

[SPEAKER_04]: Should we sell it right back to them?

[SPEAKER_04]: For sixteen or should we keep it?

[SPEAKER_00]: You should give it to me.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: Good answer.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fine.

[SPEAKER_04]: I will give it to you since the BlueJays didn't get Otani.

[SPEAKER_04]: You can get this fifty-fifty card instead.

[SPEAKER_04]: Here's the code, foul, F-O-U-L to get yourself twenty percent off your first slap hack or card purchase.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, you get to keep that card if you want it.

[SPEAKER_04]: They send it to you.

[SPEAKER_04]: F-O-U-L at arenaclub.com slash foul.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody, we got Jacob Rudder joining us, and Jacob is gonna, I'm gonna hand over the baton here, and Jacob is gonna take over as host.

[SPEAKER_02]: As we dive in to the, we talk about, we're talking about it, we've brought in, we talk about, we've brought in Hopkins about cops and promotions.

[SPEAKER_02]: We also have had some notable ones, some ones that maybe we're still looking for.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we had the news, I'll kick it to you, Jacob, of the same besides not only up, but same as besides a very wealthy man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, certainly.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, a deal that lines his pockets, eight years, sixty seven million dollar extension, twenty thirty four.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is an option there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can extend the deal, eighty eight point two million dollars is the total value.

[SPEAKER_00]: It lines his pockets.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the question, JJ, is this deal good for baseball at large?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we seeing a troubling trend here with deals like this for young players like Pesayo?

[SPEAKER_02]: I would say it's trouble for the MLBPA, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like if you're talking about baseball as large, I don't know because you can see the argument.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can see the argument many ways and the thing I would also say what that is, is that for each individual player, the player understandably has to act in their own best interest.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a Stamilbastayo, this is a level of financial security.

[SPEAKER_02]: that he will never, his family will never have to worry about money again.

[SPEAKER_02]: If he invest in any way semi-wisely, because this is life-changing generational wealth, obviously.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if you look at it from the standpoint of the MLBPA, I would say that this is a little bit of a troubling trend because Bassayo is one of the players who

[SPEAKER_02]: If he hadn't signed an extension, he could sign a break the bank deal as a free agent down the road.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because if you look at it, the way to make the most money in free agency is be one of those players who hits free agency as a twenty six twenty seven year old.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, go into your age twenty seven season where you are

[SPEAKER_02]: One of the youngest players in pre-agency, where your peak may still be ahead of you, where a team could be saying, well, as we saw with Juan Soto, hey, I'm gonna pay you massive money because I'm looking ahead and saying, I'm not paying on past performance.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that you're gonna be topped your player for the next five years, six years, seven years, where you can make kind of that, okay, we're, yes, we're paying a ton of money, but we're still getting a bargain because of how good this player is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Messiah was going to be one of those guys potentially because he reached the majors just after his twenty-first birthday.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen that with Messiah.

[SPEAKER_02]: We also saw earlier this year an extension for Roman Anthony who also could have been a break the bank type of player in free agency years down the road.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen this a lot of the recently.

[SPEAKER_02]: We saw this with, you know, Jackson Churreal as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: We saw this with Jackson Merrill.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the thing that does jump out here is is if you're the MLBPA

[SPEAKER_02]: These are the players who by not just getting a big free agent deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: But are the ones who when they go to arbitration?

[SPEAKER_02]: set arbitration records, which kind of brings the arbitration numbers up for everyone else as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, MLB teams have figured out, hey, we can sign these players to extensions, keep them out of arbitration, keep them out of free agency.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the risk on a team side isn't that much, because if you look at it, yes, you can find examples like an Evan White, or examples like that where you say, okay, it didn't work out for the team.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jonathan Singleton, it didn't work out for the team, they signed an extension.

[SPEAKER_02]: The money that they risk is so modest and comparison to, I will just give you this example.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at Ronald Acunia and Juan Soto, Cunia signed an extension, Soto did not, and just signed a free agent deal, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: They came up at the same, basically they've been a month of each other in twenty eighteen.

[SPEAKER_02]: Juan Soto makes more money per year, or the same amount of money I should say, each year, as Ronald Acunia makes in the three largest years of his extension.

[SPEAKER_02]: Ronald Acunia is making seventeen million per year in his extension.

[SPEAKER_02]: one so does making fifty one million.

[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, before he hit free agency, one so does also was over twenty million dollars ahead of what Ron McCunney is making because Ron McCunney signed extension.

[SPEAKER_02]: Again, that doesn't mean that was a bad decision for Ron McCunney necessarily.

[SPEAKER_02]: He has had two knee injuries, but it does stand out that for teams, there is a giant advantage potentially of being a team and signing one of these extensions.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I think, you know, the thing that's troubling, getting back to sort of the original question about, you know, the MLBPA, and is it bad for baseball or not?

[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I think that we're all familiar with all the different things that have happened over the last couple of years.

[SPEAKER_05]: And proceeding that in terms of teams sort of calling guys up late, manipulating service time, all those nasty things we don't like to talk about, you know, there's been procedures, the PPI, things put in place.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is the new manipulation.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, as JJ said, it impacts what the standard is that's set in arbitration because so many of these guys don't get into arbitration now after this good.

[SPEAKER_05]: And it's also sort of exploiting the system where they have so much control and they can leverage whether you're going to be in AAA until the end of September or whether you're going to be in the big leagues and August sort of against you to try to get you to sign this.

[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, they're offering you more often than not generational money.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that sort of what the big question is is like this is already having a negative impact on the arbitration system.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's having a negative impact on free agency.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I think what's going to end up happening is like in this current system, this is going to keep happening.

[SPEAKER_05]: We think there's going to be discussions about, you know, the salary cap, things of that nature, once the CBA is discussed in a few years.

[SPEAKER_05]: I think this is something that maybe for the player side of things might make more of a case for their being a salary cap so they can't circumnavigate this.

[SPEAKER_05]: And what they trade away is maybe the high end dollars that go to show you a Tony that go to Juan Soto, but you're getting players to free agency in year four or something along those lines.

[SPEAKER_05]: That way guys are able to hit the market at peak potential, make more money.

[SPEAKER_05]: The middle ground makes a lot more in this particular scenario.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I think it's just it's it's sort of the late stage of this CBA and what that current economics are like in baseball.

[SPEAKER_05]: And in some ways it's good for players and glad that they're getting big contracts, but as JJ just laid out, if you're willing to make that bet in yourself like Juan Soto did, you can earn substantially more money.

[SPEAKER_05]: And that's got to be for the whole industry of baseball, not just even the players, all the cottage industries around the agents, everything else.

[SPEAKER_05]: it's not a good development in my opinion.

[SPEAKER_05]: And this is the kind of thing where if you go through interviews with teams, they're asking you questions about players and how you would structure an extension for a player now as part of your questionnaires.

[SPEAKER_05]: So it is pervasive.

[SPEAKER_05]: It is part of every front office's process if they're even

[SPEAKER_05]: remotely tuned into what they should be tuned into now.

[SPEAKER_05]: And you can't blame the foreign offices and you can't necessarily blame the teams because it's the system that's set up.

[SPEAKER_05]: And it's, you know, the best thing for them in this JJ kind of laid out.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's very little risk for the team.

[SPEAKER_05]: You sign a Scott Hangerion.

[SPEAKER_05]: It doesn't work out great.

[SPEAKER_05]: But if you save money on Akuni, you save money on Albeys, you save money on Roman Anthony.

[SPEAKER_05]: These are potential, maybe not Albeys.

[SPEAKER_05]: But a few of those guys are potential Hall of Fame level type of talents.

[SPEAKER_05]: Block those guys up for the best years of their career, and you know what the dollars are going ten years out.

[SPEAKER_05]: The other part of it is with inflation, everything else.

[SPEAKER_05]: These contracts, you know, the ninth, tenth year aren't even necessarily worth the same real dollars that they're worth in the moment that they sign them.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I think there's a lot of elements to this that are kind of funky.

[SPEAKER_05]: You know why teams are doing it, but I think players are leaving a lot of money on the table.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about some more standout youngsters right after we take quick break.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's that time of year where top prospects start to get into the conversation to reach the big leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're paying attention to baseball America, there's one really popular guy in the Met system.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah Tong has been outstanding this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a front runner to win our minor league player of the year award.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's looking out standing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's in AAA is there a chance, Jeff, that we see him pitch for New York before the end of the season.

[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think it's as improbable as we probably would have thought it was two or three weeks ago when he hadn't even been called up the AAA yet.

[SPEAKER_05]: Since these last few starts, his first two AAA starts where he still hasn't allowed in earned run over eleven or twelve endings that have to look.

[SPEAKER_05]: He's dominated, you know, we have public Hawkeye data and the stuff looks phenomenal.

[SPEAKER_05]: So any of those counts that are out there on Twitter and other social media that are talking about

[SPEAKER_05]: the analytical side of it.

[SPEAKER_05]: He's getting that buzz.

[SPEAKER_05]: He's got the Met's fan base buzzing.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then I think on top of it, you know, we saw Nolan McLean get called up and has been really, really good in the big leagues.

[SPEAKER_05]: The Met's rotation overall kind of sub par.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a potential playoff team.

[SPEAKER_05]: I think there's a lot of smoke here that Tom could potentially, you know, make his debut with a mette within the next few weeks.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's no reason not to, I would imagine that, even the forty-man roster sort of considerations here probably are in a big deal, simply because you're going to have Tom in the forty-man roster next year anyway.

[SPEAKER_05]: So there's no reason not to, I think when you look at the stuff, you know, there's some question, is it maybe a two pitch guy predominantly sure we've seen some of those guys perform very well very early and not be figured out by the league, you know, obviously Spencer Strider being the extreme example.

[SPEAKER_05]: you know, Jared Jones being another one a few years ago.

[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, I think that calling him a two-pitch pitcher despite the fact that so much of the usage of this year has been relying on that that foreseen fastball and that change of, it's really about the quality because if you talk to a lot of evaluators about

[SPEAKER_05]: the twenty twenty four version of Tom, they all had fifty five to sixty's in the slider and yeah, it's it's tick back a little bit this year, but that's still in there.

[SPEAKER_05]: So and and the curveballs are usable pitch early in counts.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I do think there's four pitches here.

[SPEAKER_05]: It'll be interesting to see how he navigates and and it'll be lined up and what sort of you know,

[SPEAKER_05]: Things trip them up, but I do really think that when we look at this player, he's an outlier.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's an outlier unusual operation, but he just does things that other guys don't generate lots of swings and misses, and they just hasn't been a lot of hard contact against him this year at any level.

[SPEAKER_02]: The thing I would say is, yes, I would say bring him up in September.

[SPEAKER_02]: I would say that to me, bring him up to relief.

[SPEAKER_02]: That because you don't think he can start long term.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I do think to what Jeff just said, this is a really unusual delivery.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's really over the top much more so than you're used to seeing from a picture.

[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of a little bit of a funky delivery as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you only see, if you're a hitter and you only get to see Jonathan once,

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that you're gonna have a really comfortable at that.

[SPEAKER_02]: To what Jeff said, maybe if you see him a second or a third time as a starter, and you go, okay, he's really fastball change up dependent, maybe I can figure it out a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: But if you're picking those spots and you're saying, hey, this is just gonna be another elite arm that we add to our pen for now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Long-term, it could be a starter, but right now we're trying to win right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Add him to a pen that obviously already spent a lot of trade capital and finances at the trade deadline to improve,

[SPEAKER_02]: I think the tongue could really make an impact and could be very useful for them, not just in September, but in October.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's going to do it for this week's episode of The Hot Cheat Show.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to thank everybody who tuned.

[SPEAKER_00]: She made sure you hit on over to baseballamerica.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, JJ.

[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to add one more thing real quick, which is just we have more columns like this, check them out over at Baseball America.

[SPEAKER_02]: We didn't even get a chance to talk about Harlan Susanna, who, by the way, we'll talk about on another hot cheat show because I can't help but drill about the one hundred and two hundred and three, you could even round up to one hundred and four that he's shown as a starter this year, but he also has a ninety four mile an hour, a change up that's such a ninety five and a slider.

[SPEAKER_02]: We didn't get to him today because we had so much power packed job.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, back to you, Jake.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, with that being said, head on over to BaseballAmerica.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Check out all of our content on our prospects.

[SPEAKER_00]: Want to thank Brody Hopkins for hopping on the show today and make sure you like and subscribe to the Baseball America YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will see you next time.