00:02.039 --> 00:05.404
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, welcome back to another baseball America Prospect podcast.

00:05.424 --> 00:07.026
[SPEAKER_00]: This is your host Jeff Pots.

00:07.687 --> 00:10.652
[SPEAKER_00]: I am joined today by my colleague, Josh Norris.

00:10.772 --> 00:16.961
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are going to be breaking down the New York Yankees top 30 list.

00:17.462 --> 00:20.166
[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, you've been doing the Yankees for quite a long time.

00:21.187 --> 00:23.010
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of over, you know, of you here.

00:23.891 --> 00:30.561
[SPEAKER_00]: How does this list compare to some of the previous Yankees lists you've done, particularly over the last three to five years?

00:31.874 --> 00:54.209
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not as good as those ones, especially when you account for the weather's tray, which cost them a little bit of depth, like they didn't decorate any slam dunk top 1, 2, 3, and their system, but this system needed depth after that, I think it's like 20 prospects they traded between July and now, so they cost the system a lot of depth.

00:54.229 --> 00:59.417
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't deal any of their huge pieces, but when you have to go 30 deep,

00:59.397 --> 01:05.268
[SPEAKER_01]: And your deal 20 guys, you're going to start running into some guys you're right enough that don't have much of a chance.

01:05.789 --> 01:10.317
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's as shallow as it's been there's some fun stuff at the top, but it's pretty shallow right now.

01:12.041 --> 01:14.385
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think, you know, shallow.

01:14.635 --> 01:27.948
[SPEAKER_00]: comparatively for the Yankees versus maybe some other organizations that don't have, you know, as much resources and the ability to acquire a variety of players across all different acquisition windows.

01:28.428 --> 01:43.242
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I think when you talk about this system and then you talk about this system and comparison to some of the other systems within their division, even it's pretty shallow.

01:43.610 --> 01:57.045
[SPEAKER_00]: the blue jays and the Orioles and to a lesser extent the red socks, some willingness to spend an majorly team that, you know, they're not unique any longer in this division in terms of their ability to spend on sort of both ends.

01:58.287 --> 01:59.668
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's dive into the system then.

01:59.728 --> 02:04.634
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk a little bit about some of the prospects here and some of the guys here at the top.

02:04.734 --> 02:07.177
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a bad top of the system.

02:07.197 --> 02:08.578
[SPEAKER_00]: There are some exciting players.

02:09.119 --> 02:11.001
[SPEAKER_00]: So how difficult was

02:11.234 --> 02:23.321
[SPEAKER_00]: To come to the ultimate decision to rank George Lombard Junior at one versus some of the other available options and what were you here and out there as you were beating the bush is talking to scouts and folks.

02:24.584 --> 02:29.395
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it wasn't that tough a decision, but there were other contenders like.

02:30.269 --> 02:37.383
[SPEAKER_01]: If I wanted to put it all on the table, I would have gone with Kildi number one, because he obviously had a really, really loud start to his career.

02:37.443 --> 02:45.959
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's just what it was, allowed start to his career in a Florida state league that was probably dealing with, you know, most of the guys were complexly guys at that point.

02:46.440 --> 02:49.285
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was late August, so you're beating up on some pretty bad competition.

02:49.345 --> 02:51.349
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to take context into account.

02:52.207 --> 02:53.288
[SPEAKER_01]: But you give credit where it's due.

02:53.348 --> 02:56.172
[SPEAKER_01]: He was, we slaughtered him in the middle of it after the draft.

02:56.252 --> 02:59.976
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you got, I think, like, three or four scouts texted me like, this guy is the cat's me out.

03:00.878 --> 03:05.764
[SPEAKER_01]: And I went three with him, because, you know, Long bar did the same thing two years ago.

03:05.804 --> 03:11.891
[SPEAKER_01]: He tore it up in low-A, scuffle the little bit and high-ed and tore it up in high-A, and scuffled and double-A.

03:12.852 --> 03:17.358
[SPEAKER_01]: And Rodriguez, you know, he had an excellent, you're one of the best starters in the minor's period.

03:17.398 --> 03:19.260
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Elmer Rodriguez, I should say.

03:19.544 --> 03:34.026
[SPEAKER_01]: uh one of the best starters in the minor leagues period last year like it was like second to join a tong and strikeouts um an all minor leagueers which is pretty impressive for a guy that got for Omar Navaya's and who should figure somewhere maybe in the rotation at some point this year.

03:34.208 --> 03:39.076
[SPEAKER_01]: But those three really guys, I went with Lombard because I heard so much good stuff about him.

03:39.156 --> 03:40.037
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still very young.

03:40.077 --> 03:48.130
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not unusual for him for a guy to get blown up a little bit at the upper levels at that age, especially now with a minor league system that we have.

03:48.631 --> 03:56.183
[SPEAKER_01]: There are holes to fix and you might not have quite the ceiling he did at this time, you know 11 months ago really it's what he's trying to pop.

03:56.163 --> 04:02.609
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but he should be a long term majorly here and I'm been a bank on him starting pretty strong this year.

04:02.649 --> 04:08.294
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, just to put it in perspective, he's younger than a lot of the college draft guys you're going to have coming out of this year's class still.

04:08.334 --> 04:13.699
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would expect a guy that age, we plop him in the eastern league to get beat up pretty good.

04:13.899 --> 04:17.342
[SPEAKER_01]: And he took his lungs, he's got, you know, the big big league bloodlines.

04:17.362 --> 04:18.583
[SPEAKER_01]: He knows how to handle that sort of stuff.

04:19.264 --> 04:20.685
[SPEAKER_01]: They people rave about the makeup.

04:21.446 --> 04:25.309
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't see why he shouldn't have a big this year this year

04:25.964 --> 04:37.493
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's very likely, and like in the process, I don't know if you talked to them internally, do you think it's likely that, you know, he returns to double a to begin the season.

04:37.928 --> 04:44.157
[SPEAKER_00]: He struggled at periods, but I felt like there was improvement kind of down the stretch from him.

04:44.177 --> 04:54.331
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess as he got his C leg somewhat there in AA, the power wasn't great.

04:54.371 --> 04:56.013
[SPEAKER_00]: The batting effort was still pretty low.

04:56.053 --> 05:05.286
[SPEAKER_00]: He struck out more than you'd like, but was walking and there were some like under the hood internal metrics where he was catching more barrels and that sort of thing.

05:05.452 --> 05:09.036
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, he's such an impressive defender too.

05:09.456 --> 05:30.700
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and it's like not necessarily like Omar Viscal or, you know, and Simmons or like something like that, but just the little things that he does, where he positions himself on cutoff throws and just, um, the reads that he makes on particular plays and decisions there at shortstop a really high level, um, that he's, you know, a winning kind of a ball player.

05:30.933 --> 05:47.963
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm going to follow up a little bit on that Josh, how much do you think he could potentially disappoint Yankees fans hearing this because in a lot of ways, this isn't all that dissimilar from, you know, Anthony Volpe, do I do think this is a superior athlete, a bigger engine.

05:47.943 --> 06:00.176
[SPEAKER_00]: still more upside, but it's kind of a glove first guy that makes a lot of good plays, but, you know, is somewhat valuable, but could be a hole in the lineup potentially, too.

06:00.416 --> 06:04.040
[SPEAKER_00]: So how much of a vault bay concern is there with Lombard?

06:04.080 --> 06:11.368
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I do sort of hear more knowledgeable prospect centric Yankees fans talk that way about the two.

06:12.007 --> 06:16.191
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, then they're very knowledgeable because that is a name that was brought up by evaluators.

06:16.451 --> 06:17.612
[SPEAKER_01]: This could be that type of player.

06:17.652 --> 06:30.284
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a perfect comp, obviously, for a lot of reasons, but there are holes that he has to close before he can get to his offensive ceiling and be that kind of difference maker.

06:31.305 --> 06:40.613
[SPEAKER_01]: I might be the last person on the Volpi bandwagon, or at least believer, I guess.

06:40.593 --> 06:52.606
[SPEAKER_01]: I rolled in it and it was played out to be last year and you know, he's still got some big hits for them and play offs to remember correctly, but you know, I was also super young was moved super quickly.

06:52.626 --> 06:56.256
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't mean to get on a Volby tangent here, but yeah, it's kind of that.

06:56.843 --> 07:07.898
[SPEAKER_01]: The term I like to use and I use it often is spicy vanilla, like he's not going to be, you know, a superstar or like a, you know, what we kind of play or we project Connor riff it to be.

07:08.399 --> 07:26.243
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's going to be player that if he reaches his ceiling and closes the holes that he needs to close could hit in your lineup for a long time and, you know, hold down short stop for the long term.

07:27.556 --> 07:37.247
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, I 100% agree and you know, I still think when you consider, you know, how quickly Lombard was was moved out of high.

07:37.307 --> 07:38.531
[SPEAKER_00]: It was only 24 games.

07:38.571 --> 07:39.574
[SPEAKER_00]: I know he was ripping it up.

07:41.073 --> 07:48.023
[SPEAKER_00]: But maybe just giving him like another couple of months to settle in, I think people would look at him much differently than they do.

07:48.484 --> 08:01.123
[SPEAKER_00]: If he had gone to AA, maybe had some of those struggles in the later second half of the season over a month and a half, you know, eight, seven to eight week period of time, I think the conversation would be a little bit different around him.

08:01.103 --> 08:03.631
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's move on to our next question here.

08:03.691 --> 08:08.125
[SPEAKER_00]: How is this system better or worse than it was last year?

08:08.146 --> 08:12.700
[SPEAKER_00]: Based on your comments at the top of the show, I think I know what direction you're going here Josh.

08:13.237 --> 08:13.818
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's worse.

08:13.998 --> 08:16.021
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's really no two ways about it.

08:16.041 --> 08:19.005
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just not very deep at all.

08:19.505 --> 08:30.761
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if Cam Schlittler pictures a few fewer innings, although I think we have the new rule now he might have graduated on surface time, but that might make it look a lot different, but you know, music Schlittler is a big deal.

08:32.203 --> 08:39.092
[SPEAKER_01]: Losing all those players that they traded for D'Oval and Jake Bird and Ryan McMahon,

08:39.258 --> 08:46.230
[SPEAKER_01]: David Bednar and Ryan Weathers, it hurts like you're dealing with players at the back that

08:46.514 --> 08:50.880
[SPEAKER_01]: In a normal year, I wouldn't rank at least maybe not in the top 30, they'd be 31 through 40.

08:51.641 --> 09:06.000
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, it's kind of understated, but the turmoil with their international director situation did cost them one of the best prospects on the market there who wouldn't have been in the book because the book goes for Christmas, but it'd be eligible now when we're talking about him.

09:06.541 --> 09:15.373
[SPEAKER_01]: So that would make it a look a little different, but they have to do a job of building the system's depth back up.

09:15.505 --> 09:25.780
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how you do that without trading from your Big League roster and if you are contending, you're probably not trading from your Big League roster, or at least much from it.

09:26.441 --> 09:30.407
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's gonna be our task ahead to get this system back up.

09:30.768 --> 09:34.253
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're probably gonna lose more players to graduation this year.

09:34.273 --> 09:44.989
[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't be surprised me at all if you'd lost a guy like LeBron Hay to graduation

09:45.070 --> 10:08.547
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are outside shots, but if they graduate from your system, well, that depth gets even bitter, totally replaced by whatever you draft, but right now, it's, among the lowest, it's been during my tenure at BA, and this is my 13th season, and I've been, you know, my backstory, I've been covering the Yankees in some former fashion since 2008, so it's been a while.

10:10.045 --> 10:10.906
[SPEAKER_00]: been a while.

10:11.226 --> 10:12.288
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been a long time.

10:12.308 --> 10:15.531
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been covering this Yankees system almost two decades now.

10:16.713 --> 10:17.694
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me follow up with that.

10:17.894 --> 10:31.569
[SPEAKER_00]: How much have they been hurt in terms of what the system looks like at the top, the depth, upside, because of some of these international guys that haven't hit over the last couple of years?

10:33.572 --> 10:34.753
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I have

10:35.138 --> 10:37.261
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm totally drawing a blank on his name.

10:37.301 --> 10:41.986
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he's no longer on the top 30, but it was the show where our area is.

10:42.808 --> 10:44.089
[SPEAKER_00]: Brought or curious, exactly.

10:44.169 --> 10:45.411
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's been others as well.

10:45.431 --> 10:58.547
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that whole, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh uh, uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

10:58.679 --> 11:02.423
[SPEAKER_00]: And then like La Lone, like, it hasn't really pitched since then.

11:02.984 --> 11:04.886
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I mean, injuries are injuries.

11:04.906 --> 11:06.067
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to happen to every team.

11:06.688 --> 11:12.174
[SPEAKER_01]: And that, for remember, Kirkwell, you know, that, that FCL team was a lot of pitchy.

11:12.194 --> 11:13.415
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it was La Grande.

11:13.715 --> 11:16.058
[SPEAKER_01]: It was La Lone who said, you know, dealt with shoulder injuries.

11:18.060 --> 11:22.925
[SPEAKER_01]: I am, oh man, Manuel Tahito, who kind of came back in the, the fallie, a little bit.

11:23.246 --> 11:25.328
[SPEAKER_01]: He dealt with a major knee injury last year.

11:26.152 --> 11:32.742
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a lot of, I mean, Francisco Valorio didn't hit in his debut season, Brando Maiai.

11:32.762 --> 11:35.446
[SPEAKER_01]: I looked like he was kind of getting on track, but he got hurt.

11:35.726 --> 11:40.353
[SPEAKER_01]: There's been a lot of injuries too, it's just a ton of injuries that have come back to bite, guys.

11:41.415 --> 11:42.697
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking at him, right?

11:42.717 --> 11:44.740
[SPEAKER_01]: Engels, Urania, never did anything.

11:44.800 --> 11:52.311
[SPEAKER_01]: They've also, since we've talked about this, we mentioned another trade guy, TJ Bumfield, hurt their upper level depth, a little bit, they traded him.

11:52.510 --> 12:17.633
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, for Angel, uh, on Hell Shivie, and let's, I'm looking at it here, like, uh, Chase Hampton, Fatcher heard those guys, obviously, heard has yet to make his pro debut, Hampton was one of the better pitching prospects in the game until he got missed, he missed last season, missed most of the season prior, and I've said before when I saw him in the FCL, he was an org guy.

12:17.994 --> 12:19.615
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was awful.

12:20.000 --> 12:21.221
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, my hope it comes back.

12:21.502 --> 12:26.567
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be really nice come back story, but, you know, it's, it was a tough one to put it nine.

12:26.607 --> 12:30.912
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of how low the systems value was at that point.

12:30.932 --> 12:47.610
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's an interesting guy that came out of the draft, but, you know, injuries and underperformance have really, really hurt this group.

12:47.590 --> 12:53.557
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just under performance and injuries are, you know, it's the one two punch that really don't want to get it with.

12:54.699 --> 13:15.825
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I think, you know, the upside in this system now is kind of like their last two drafts, which is heavily pitching focused, especially the guys that that rank higher and, you know, we'll see, you know, where some of that goes, because it can go over a variety of

13:16.413 --> 13:17.596
[SPEAKER_00]: move on to the next question.

13:17.996 --> 13:21.985
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is your guess to be next year's number one prospect?

13:22.125 --> 13:25.572
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we already talked about him a little bit, but I'll hand the mic over to you on this one.

13:26.314 --> 13:30.102
[SPEAKER_01]: That's, I mean, it's probably going to be killby if he does what?

13:30.689 --> 13:53.321
[SPEAKER_01]: and the industry think he's going to do, this was a premium bat out of the draft and he you know, surprised with a little bit more power than people would have thought, but contact an impact is a, you know, I asked someone in their organization, what makes them such a good hitter and he said, well, he puts the bat on the ball a lot and he makes contact at the right, you know, he makes the right kind of contact.

13:53.341 --> 13:54.823
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's that simple, huh?

13:54.938 --> 13:57.621
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay, this is, I don't think this is rocket science.

13:57.641 --> 13:58.182
[SPEAKER_01]: We're doing here.

13:58.943 --> 14:00.885
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wouldn't be surprised.

14:00.905 --> 14:06.031
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think he's going to play shortstop, but he's not going to need to because he got towards Lombard there and you might have a Anthony Volpi there.

14:06.592 --> 14:11.918
[SPEAKER_01]: He, you know, I've heard, you know, second base, I've heard outfield with him, but it's going to be a bad.

14:12.338 --> 14:13.960
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's, that's the name of the game.

14:14.121 --> 14:15.602
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wouldn't be surprised if he's there.

14:17.044 --> 14:19.086
[SPEAKER_01]: Would it be, is he like a slam dunk?

14:19.727 --> 14:22.971
[SPEAKER_01]: Not necessarily.

14:23.710 --> 14:24.291
[SPEAKER_01]: maybe he's there.

14:25.112 --> 14:32.780
[SPEAKER_01]: If Lombard, I don't expect to graduate, but if he, you know, goes out in his whirl beat or this year, maybe it's a dogfight, maybe it's a dogfight at one two, it'll be really fun.

14:33.401 --> 14:44.713
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would put my hypothetical chips on, uh, killby, but, you know, it's not, uh, you know, the race ain't over yet.

14:44.753 --> 14:45.414
[SPEAKER_01]: We haven't even started.

14:45.434 --> 14:46.295
[SPEAKER_01]: It's February 17th.

14:46.975 --> 14:48.277
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a holiday here in North Carolina.

14:48.297 --> 14:49.498
[SPEAKER_01]: It's Michael Jordan's birthday.

14:50.305 --> 14:51.266
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is.

14:51.466 --> 14:55.732
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the day after my wife's birthday, which is a holiday here in Massachusetts.

14:55.752 --> 14:56.813
[SPEAKER_00]: We stood in my household.

14:56.934 --> 14:58.616
[SPEAKER_00]: So there you go.

14:58.876 --> 15:09.490
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I don't even know if there's necessarily like another contender to be the number one in this system, otherwise.

15:09.810 --> 15:15.958
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I guess if Lumbar doesn't graduate, Ben Hess,

15:16.664 --> 15:26.977
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, like, it really, and then after that, I don't even think there's anyone that you would not get laughed at for bringing up is a potential number one next year.

15:26.997 --> 15:28.920
[SPEAKER_00]: But so even beyond, he'll be being good.

15:28.960 --> 15:34.126
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an elephant if he doesn't, he doesn't have a lot, he's already lap the field kind of.

15:34.147 --> 15:35.448
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's, here's the thing about this.

15:35.468 --> 15:42.317
[SPEAKER_01]: This, we have these jobs and it's not just, you know, an easy job to do.

15:42.635 --> 15:49.564
[SPEAKER_01]: Last year, if I had said, Cam Schlittler would be challenging for number one prospect in the system by mid-season.

15:49.584 --> 15:52.829
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have gotten laughed at, but he developed.

15:53.129 --> 15:55.272
[SPEAKER_01]: And he found all this philosophy and he found command with it.

15:55.352 --> 15:59.397
[SPEAKER_01]: And now he looks like a mid-rotation to front-end starter.

15:59.918 --> 16:03.803
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, those guys do happen and they're pretty, if that's why we do this job.

16:04.324 --> 16:07.528
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I got laughed at when I put him at two in the mid-season.

16:07.812 --> 16:09.915
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it worked out for him.

16:11.196 --> 16:15.241
[SPEAKER_01]: That started his in the postseason as one of the best starts of ever seen in the big league's period.

16:17.003 --> 16:18.124
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes they come out of nowhere.

16:19.987 --> 16:21.368
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, 100%.

16:21.468 --> 16:29.798
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think this organization does a track record of being able to take something and turn it into something else.

16:29.818 --> 16:34.444
[SPEAKER_00]: And Schlittler was certainly the most recent and maybe most extreme example.

16:34.981 --> 16:35.802
[SPEAKER_00]: of that.

16:35.902 --> 16:37.164
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that kind of...

16:37.184 --> 16:44.273
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what type of organization hasn't produced stuff, like, you know, it's been a while, but Aaron Judge, that pretty darn good.

16:44.313 --> 16:55.648
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, no, 100%, Austin Wells, pretty darn good, for all the crappy gets Anthony Volpi is a big leader, and that's better than a lot of stuff in the varnish system right now.

16:56.129 --> 17:00.314
[SPEAKER_01]: They have produced that and they produce tradable prospects to get them the reinforcement.

17:00.715 --> 17:02.457
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the name of the game too.

17:02.842 --> 17:07.696
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be able to have something in there to trade and get those guys.

17:08.378 --> 17:09.762
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that leads into my next question.

17:09.782 --> 17:13.512
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where I was I was segue and right into Josh and you kind of already touched on a little bit.

17:13.552 --> 17:16.581
[SPEAKER_00]: But what is this organization good at developing?

17:18.653 --> 17:22.059
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say it's good at developing pitching, but at least high-end velocity.

17:22.780 --> 17:26.406
[SPEAKER_01]: The strides that Schlittler took are pretty impressive.

17:26.987 --> 17:30.773
[SPEAKER_01]: I key, the velocity with command is pretty impressive.

17:31.194 --> 17:32.917
[SPEAKER_01]: They've done a decent job with Lebron Hay.

17:32.997 --> 17:34.780
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm going to touch on him later this week.

17:34.860 --> 17:42.012
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's an interesting comparison to be drawn between him and somebody else who broke out in the big leagues last year.

17:41.992 --> 17:45.538
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think in the past, they've shown velocity as well.

17:46.039 --> 17:52.410
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just right now, they are really, really, really, at an unfortunate crossroads with a lot of injuries and on underperformance.

17:52.450 --> 17:58.441
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think you can usually count on some high and velocity in some powerful arms coming out of the civilization.

17:58.461 --> 17:59.502
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of stuff they target.

17:59.983 --> 18:02.568
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, big physical, powerful guys.

18:02.668 --> 18:05.653
[SPEAKER_01]: And if, you know, Hampton and heard,

18:05.633 --> 18:09.677
[SPEAKER_01]: the two-h club, you know, come back with a vengeance this year.

18:09.717 --> 18:10.858
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe things look a little different.

18:10.878 --> 18:21.048
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're a little rozier at mid-season, but their careers were on hold and they read, look like, they Yankees obviously think they see something with Jason Hampton still because they kept them on the 40-man.

18:22.189 --> 18:32.839
[SPEAKER_01]: So if he looks like 23 Hampton, you know, maybe, maybe things start looking up a little bit for this system, but right now it was kind of a

18:33.815 --> 18:35.617
[SPEAKER_01]: bit of a slog to write this last time.

18:38.019 --> 18:39.620
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and we'll see.

18:39.840 --> 18:41.702
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see what direction it goes here.

18:42.303 --> 18:53.152
[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, this is the end of the video portion of the Yankees deep dive for those of you that are sticking around and on the podcast feed, we got plenty more to come.

18:53.512 --> 19:02.100
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be right back after this

19:02.401 --> 19:08.013
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the podcast feed we're breaking down the Yankees top 30 list Jeff Ponds Josh Norris.

19:08.033 --> 19:11.742
[SPEAKER_00]: Josh, you're going to ask you the question that you do not want to answer.

19:11.762 --> 19:13.606
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about Spencer Jones.

19:14.247 --> 19:16.933
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk a little Spencer Jones.

19:18.095 --> 19:32.321
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a period last year where everyone wanted to go nuts, because Jones was on a herkulean run for about two weeks, three weeks, where he hit a bunch of home runs, and the trip away, yada, yada, yada.

19:33.563 --> 19:35.066
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, there were a ton of concerns.

19:35.667 --> 19:42.499
[SPEAKER_00]: You were always the voice of reason on that one, saying, uh, it's still Spencer Jones, so with is still pretty bad.

19:43.475 --> 19:44.476
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the floor now.

19:44.516 --> 19:47.879
[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to us a little bit about Jones, not a top 100 prospect for us.

19:48.500 --> 19:51.903
[SPEAKER_00]: You have him sixth in this Yankees system.

19:54.225 --> 19:55.487
[SPEAKER_01]: What are the concerns about such?

19:55.727 --> 19:55.967
[SPEAKER_01]: Such.

19:56.968 --> 20:06.918
[SPEAKER_01]: Even during that hot stretch, my contingent was that he was just getting a lot of really bad pitches for a lot of really bad pitchers and doing what you're supposed to do with them.

20:07.658 --> 20:12.503
[SPEAKER_01]: Every time he in a home run, I would go look at it and more often than not, he did have one off my book painter,

20:12.601 --> 20:17.847
[SPEAKER_01]: He, most of them were 91, 92 at the belt or hanging whatever.

20:18.007 --> 20:20.430
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was doing what we supposed to do with him, which great.

20:21.111 --> 20:30.522
[SPEAKER_01]: But unfortunately, he is still six feet seven inches tall and still has very bad swing decisions is still vulnerable to spin and is still vulnerable to good velocity.

20:30.963 --> 20:41.275
[SPEAKER_01]: And he swings and misses through way more stuff than he needs to, like even the general manager, Brian Cashman came out of their day and said he's blocked.

20:41.474 --> 20:48.121
[SPEAKER_01]: Judge, Grisham, Belinger, Stanton, and somewhere, even Jason Dominguez might be blocked.

20:49.042 --> 20:52.125
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't see where he plays for the Yankees in 2026.

20:52.245 --> 20:58.791
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if they trade him, that's another thing, and they didn't debut with a different club, but he needs to get the swings and misses in order.

20:59.172 --> 21:10.603
[SPEAKER_01]: I said this two years ago, and it's like a broken record at this point, but he's the only player in the history of the New York Yankees to strike at 200 times the this season as a minor leader.

21:10.583 --> 21:14.328
[SPEAKER_01]: last year he would have done it again, it probably.

21:14.628 --> 21:16.310
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like at 180 something.

21:16.591 --> 21:21.036
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's just too much because I mean, it's not rocket science here.

21:22.778 --> 21:24.921
[SPEAKER_01]: Pictures in the big leagues are better than the pictures of AAA.

21:25.402 --> 21:29.847
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you are not going to get that many mistakes of 89 to 92 down the shoot.

21:30.508 --> 21:31.790
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're a mistake, it might be like 98.

21:31.870 --> 21:38.498
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying he might not come up and have like a

21:38.967 --> 21:40.310
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't think he's ready yet.

21:40.932 --> 21:49.534
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it was a big tell last year when they sent him back to double-eye after a pretty good counting stack here.

21:50.138 --> 21:52.440
[SPEAKER_01]: He's produced with all these drugs.

21:52.460 --> 21:55.984
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not like he's hit five home runs with 200 punches.

21:56.484 --> 21:59.427
[SPEAKER_01]: He still hit, when he makes contact, it still goes very far.

21:59.488 --> 22:00.929
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can see flash of the ability.

22:01.329 --> 22:06.154
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's got to find this one that works for him and allows the barrel to stay in his own for a long time.

22:06.214 --> 22:08.016
[SPEAKER_01]: He's got to get better swing decisions.

22:08.717 --> 22:10.719
[SPEAKER_01]: And unfortunately, for him, he cannot get shorter.

22:11.260 --> 22:18.627
[SPEAKER_01]: Like he tried with some of those stances last year, where he was in that deep squat last year,

22:18.607 --> 22:23.814
[SPEAKER_01]: Remove some of that strike zone, but it's just, it's a hard fit right now, man.

22:24.335 --> 22:27.360
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not like he's a young man either well relatively speaking.

22:28.561 --> 22:34.149
[SPEAKER_01]: He's almost 25 years old, so I don't know what you do with them right now.

22:34.650 --> 22:40.118
[SPEAKER_01]: I would probably think he's in a different organization come July, but that's what's me.

22:43.222 --> 22:45.205
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's.

22:46.130 --> 22:46.851
[SPEAKER_00]: spot on.

22:47.432 --> 22:51.357
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even understand the style of hitting from a type of player.

22:51.417 --> 22:54.141
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the fact that his swing decisions are so egregious.

22:54.241 --> 22:56.424
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he's some of that needs to be passive.

22:56.444 --> 23:05.016
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, like, try to eliminate some of the swingists and really like hone in on spots that you're going to attack and swing on, right?

23:05.367 --> 23:18.561
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'd rather seem to take a more looking strike out since swing and through the amount of pitches that he swings through and it seems like he's gotten more aggressive as he's moved up as well, which isn't always something that you see with these three true outcome type of hitters.

23:18.581 --> 23:23.226
[SPEAKER_00]: So, um, it, it almost makes him a little bit more risky.

23:23.246 --> 23:27.030
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like he has to be the most divisive prospects.

23:27.731 --> 23:29.873
[SPEAKER_00]: I can remember since Joey Gallo.

23:29.853 --> 23:34.038
[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't have the supporting skills, I think.

23:34.298 --> 23:34.558
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

23:34.578 --> 23:37.701
[SPEAKER_01]: Joey Gallo was a freak athlete.

23:37.721 --> 23:39.103
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, so, so expensive.

23:39.123 --> 23:40.124
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so expensive.

23:40.304 --> 23:41.325
[SPEAKER_01]: Not on the same level.

23:41.626 --> 23:42.967
[SPEAKER_00]: Not on the same level.

23:42.987 --> 23:44.849
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a loading 11.

23:44.889 --> 23:46.791
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a freak.

23:47.612 --> 23:51.036
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I saw Joey, I saw Joey make the Geter jump throw.

23:51.356 --> 23:54.339
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's, one of those, his baseball skills are better.

23:54.520 --> 23:56.662
[SPEAKER_00]: His baseball skills are better than his Johnson.

23:56.682 --> 23:57.022
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's there?

23:57.062 --> 23:57.683
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's there?

23:58.287 --> 23:59.609
[SPEAKER_00]: Gallos, Gallos baseball.

23:59.689 --> 24:05.239
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's not Gallo never, for all Gallos stuff, like he never struck out two hundred times in the minor leagues.

24:05.259 --> 24:07.683
[SPEAKER_01]: He never struck out at the race, Spencer Jones does.

24:08.023 --> 24:09.606
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's also, it was a younger player.

24:09.666 --> 24:11.449
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he has a high school player.

24:11.990 --> 24:16.157
[SPEAKER_01]: He was, and he was great before that trade to New York.

24:16.177 --> 24:20.464
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there was a reason he commanded so much stuff in that trade.

24:20.444 --> 24:37.345
[SPEAKER_01]: He was, I don't know if he made it all start team, but he was, he was very divisive certainly a few years ago during his range of tenure in the BA Slack world for sure, and I think Spencer Jones was a little more divisive last year than he was right now.

24:37.365 --> 24:40.489
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think right now it's just kind of like, I think it's more negative.

24:41.070 --> 24:41.170
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.

24:41.251 --> 25:00.475
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it is what it is and I hate to be this guy like this dream crush or whatever and I would love for him to prove me wrong, I've eaten a fair amount of crowed my day on ready for more it's that's fine, but there's one big area that's keeping him from achieving his ceiling and it's it's not getting better.

25:03.307 --> 25:03.828
[SPEAKER_00]: It's true.

25:04.289 --> 25:06.232
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's move on to some more happy notes.

25:06.313 --> 25:08.817
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you can bring the positive Josh out.

25:08.857 --> 25:11.362
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are some sleepers that are outside of the top 10?

25:11.402 --> 25:15.149
[SPEAKER_00]: I know they traded away a couple of them in the weather's deal.

25:15.390 --> 25:16.171
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they did.

25:18.415 --> 25:23.104
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do this two months ago to set Brendan Jones, but he's gone.

25:23.438 --> 25:25.180
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get this pronunciation wrong.

25:25.220 --> 25:27.083
[SPEAKER_01]: They told it to me and I'm going to butcher it.

25:27.503 --> 25:31.468
[SPEAKER_01]: But Mac Hoyer at 12, it's, yeah, I don't know how you pronounce that last name.

25:31.649 --> 25:35.594
[SPEAKER_01]: H-E-U-E-R at, I mean, thank you, Josh.

25:35.614 --> 25:40.620
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw them pronounce Carlos the Grad Hay's name incorrectly.

25:42.443 --> 25:44.806
[SPEAKER_00]: From the team account earlier, didn't they?

25:44.826 --> 25:47.269
[SPEAKER_01]: I can heal out me to,

25:48.211 --> 25:52.857
[SPEAKER_01]: to write my favorite sentence in 14 handbooks, and I will read to you.

25:53.719 --> 26:06.055
[SPEAKER_01]: When he wasn't on the mound, Hoyer found time to raise and you, and you female sheep named Oakley, who won Grand Champion at the 2022 Georgia Junior National Livestock Show.

26:06.937 --> 26:08.659
[SPEAKER_01]: I was so happy when I found that out.

26:09.120 --> 26:14.607
[SPEAKER_01]: Fun fact, too, that animal origin is happening.

26:15.076 --> 26:15.356
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

26:15.376 --> 26:19.503
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it took place in the hometown of our boss JJ Cooper.

26:20.124 --> 26:21.466
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's there.

26:21.566 --> 26:26.193
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got I got a picture of that of that sheep.

26:26.213 --> 26:26.974
[SPEAKER_01]: It was pretty cool.

26:27.254 --> 26:28.456
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm rooting for that kid.

26:28.637 --> 26:32.963
[SPEAKER_01]: I know something that was a tiger's guy back in the day that had like a degree in animal husbandry.

26:33.384 --> 26:35.026
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's right up there with that guy.

26:36.208 --> 26:42.197
[SPEAKER_01]: When I saw that, I'm like, this is the easiest

26:42.177 --> 26:46.901
[SPEAKER_01]: writing the backgrounds for guys who haven't thrown a pro pitch is tricky.

26:47.622 --> 26:54.088
[SPEAKER_01]: So when I just kind of went to his webpage at his college, I was like, oh, that's the gold mine.

26:54.108 --> 26:56.530
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I spent 20 minutes trying to find a picture of this animal.

26:57.251 --> 26:59.132
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, that was pretty fun.

26:59.493 --> 27:00.614
[SPEAKER_01]: But he's not so pretty good stuff, too.

27:00.774 --> 27:02.635
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, big fastball.

27:03.176 --> 27:12.184
[SPEAKER_01]: Looks like you've got potential for two average off speed pitches and maybe you'll occur ball lag a little bit behind, but that's

27:12.164 --> 27:31.320
[SPEAKER_01]: But big physical throw's hard kind of typical Yankees guy who else but I put on this list right now of sleep or guys Boy, it's not a whole lot they traded they traded Dylan also

27:31.958 --> 27:53.781
[SPEAKER_01]: Allen Fakundo might be a guy to watch big big arm throws 170 fastball 60 sliders straight reliever maybe a guy who makes noise this year we'll see what Carson Coleman looks like you know he got rule five by the Rangers and then didn't throw a pitch for them for two years and now he's back and he looks pretty good at double lay last year like

27:54.402 --> 28:02.157
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's kind of interesting and maybe a guy that zooms to the big leagues this year you might Talk about a guy like Harrison Cohen as well.

28:02.718 --> 28:04.882
[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's not a whole lot of sleepers right now.

28:04.962 --> 28:08.068
[SPEAKER_01]: It's I guess that it's a pretty shallow system.

28:08.188 --> 28:15.803
[SPEAKER_01]: So finding sleepers was a little trickier, but there's There's some stuff to watch as the season goes on

28:17.723 --> 28:18.484
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

28:18.905 --> 28:23.552
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to thank you for joining me on this Yankees Top 30 deep dive.

28:23.592 --> 28:25.575
[SPEAKER_00]: All those that are tuning in and listening.

28:25.615 --> 28:26.597
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you guys as well.

28:26.797 --> 28:29.461
[SPEAKER_00]: And always a big thank you to all of our subscribers.

28:29.541 --> 28:33.107
[SPEAKER_00]: What allows us to do all this work that we do that we really enjoy.

28:33.167 --> 28:35.891
[SPEAKER_00]: For Jeff Ponds for Josh Norris.

28:36.131 --> 28:39.276
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been another baseball America prospect podcast.