[SPEAKER_03]: Hey everybody, JJ Cooper Jeff Ponce, Baseball America, Prospect podcast, we are back as we are every week and we are talking tonight about the rise of the nationals, the future rise of the nationals.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is probably a better way to put that.

[SPEAKER_03]: But we're going to talk about that after we talk a little bit about we keep talking every week on the pod, the house too early, don't overreact.

[SPEAKER_03]: So we're going to overreact a little bit today and just kind of highlight a

[SPEAKER_03]: at the end of last week, 20 players whose starts may or may not being something and we're going to have play a little bit of game with that, which is good to see a Jeff like kind of along those lines to just kind of dive into it.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, hey, we both know that Franklin areas, the Red Sox shortstop is not going to hit 457, 554, 857 with four homers and as many homers

[SPEAKER_03]: That said, these are the kind of things where you're seeing performances like this, top prospects, kind of finding even a little bit of another gear.

[SPEAKER_04]: Doing that in the Eastern League in April, you have my attention, sir.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, he's he's so young for the level and he's doing it in the eastern league and he's playing in his home games in Portland too, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: So, samples the samples really small you're going to get a few more cancellations when you're playing up there.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, it's only 10 games he's played, but doing the whole Franklin Aureus thing where, you know, the strike out to walk rate is nearly identical.

[SPEAKER_04]: Right now he's walking more than he's striking out so the contact and the approach is ticked up a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, we'll see how sustainable all this is.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's hitting 467.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's got a 440 batting average on balls and play right now, but the on base numbers are kind of impressive.

[SPEAKER_04]: Even a small sample, him showing more patience and ultimately maybe you know, more power because he's swing the bat harder.

[SPEAKER_04]: We'll see how that tracks over the course of the season.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like I feel like it's easy to be the guy who adds

[SPEAKER_04]: But this is a game, you know, in a big part of baseball is like sustaining that consistency throughout the grind and we just have to see if if that's going to sustain and he's going to maintain the bad speed, but I think even beyond the bad speed stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: the improved swing decisions getting on base at a higher clip, but also attacking the right pitches in the zone because he's not, it's not like he all of a sudden became like just super passive.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's attacking in the zone, swing rate and zone is pretty high.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, I think what that leads to is it leads to him making more informed decisions in the balls that he's hitting, because he was kind of, you know, one of these contact first guys with just the innate bats of ballability that allowed him to hit pitches all of his own, all different shapes, stuff outside of his own,

[SPEAKER_04]: maturing as a hitter is going to make sure that all of those skills sort of track better as he continues to move up and eventually, you know, probably gets up to the big leagues.

[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if it's like this season, but I think if he continues to impress and do a lot of the things that we're seeing, hitting for more power, the better swing decisions, does that in AAA probably

[SPEAKER_04]: it's not out of the realm of possibility.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think stories got another year in his contract.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not out of the realm of possibility that RES is kind of in the mix for that starting short stop job.

[SPEAKER_04]: If not, in the beginning of 2027 at some point in 2027, and at the very least, probably entering camp in 2028.

[SPEAKER_04]: So he's not that far away, and I think the maturity that he showed with the swing decisions.

[SPEAKER_04]: And the fact that he can swing a little harder with a little bit more loft and give up a little contact because he has so much of it.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, this is a guy that's run single, mid-single-digit.

[SPEAKER_04]: kind of swinging strike rates throughout his career.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's 6.1 this year.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was 5.3 last year, was 9.60 year before so the contact keeps getting better.

[SPEAKER_04]: And we've heard.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fairly good things, despite him not being like a super-rath, we're super twitchy or really fast runner, he's a really good defender at shortstop.

[SPEAKER_04]: Good first step, just good instincts, good hands, good timing, good internal clock, all the stuff that kind of matters when it comes to really playing the position at a high level, sometimes that matters more than twitch does, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: So Franklin Aureus, to me, is like a big green arrow up guy, but it's 10 games, I wanna be careful with the sample,

[SPEAKER_04]: But he's doing some things differently than what we had seen from Frank Anarius over the first few years of his career.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'll just say with it, again, it's, yes, it's small samples.

[SPEAKER_03]: His career high at Homer's is not.

[SPEAKER_03]: Now he's extremely young, but he's had two seasons in the minors so far.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is his third to have four homers at this point.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's likely that we are going to see in addition to the analytical data that we are going to see as far as the counting steps and all we're going to see a power surge that is notable another guy having a power surge less notable prospect but one definitely worth keeping an eye on.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're talking about Winston Salem, middle-infielders.

[SPEAKER_03]: You'd be like, okay, I know you're gonna talk about Caleb Bonnerer.

[SPEAKER_03]: Then if I said no, no, no, no, we're gonna talk about, how about we're gonna talk about a 2025 drafty college middle-infielder?

[SPEAKER_03]: You'd be like, okay, we're gonna talk about Carlo D's.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, we're gonna talk about Colby Shelton, who, by the way, another middle-infielder, Carlo D's middle-infielder, Florida Gator last year.

[SPEAKER_03]: Later around draft picks and low-dees,

[SPEAKER_03]: So far, 434, 516, 792, 4 homers, and 5 doubles, 10 extra base hits in 14 games.

[SPEAKER_03]: Jeff, like this, I do feel like when you see this again, small samples, but he's in high A, very age-appropriate considering, you know, how please moved.

[SPEAKER_03]: That kind of catches my eye, that kind of catches my attention, that this is someone we should be paying attention to, especially as he is a guy who, this is not a guy who came out of nowhere, this is kind of, oh, okay, this is what we were kind of hoping to see from COVID-19 show.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, if I remember correctly too, like two years at Florida, had a year at Alabama, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: As a freshman, we put up pretty good numbers.

[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe like decent home or numbers, like 20 plus homers if I remember.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and when it's like homeers at Alabama, 20 homers is a sophomore at Florida and 24.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it's funny because like this skills kind of ticked up with the power went way down last year.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, the isolated slugging obviously dropped a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't bad, less games, less at bats.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, some of that.

[SPEAKER_04]: But he started to show a little more hit tool last year.

[SPEAKER_04]: And he was draft eligible as a sophomore if I recall.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then went back to Florida, played another year.

[SPEAKER_04]: There were still some questions as to like, you know, we see guys do this, right, Kaden Bogen Poles a player that's eligible for this draft we were doing a draft call today.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's a guy that's given up a little bit of power for a little bit of contact.

[SPEAKER_04]: That might be a good thing for him.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's kind of a good thing for Shelton.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's kind of rediscovering that power a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: in pro ball, particularly so far this season, hitting the ball pretty hard, obviously hitting the ball at really good angles.

[SPEAKER_04]: But it's coming along with that quality of approach that he needed to have.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to sit here and say this guy has a plus hit tool.

[SPEAKER_04]: If you look at the college numbers from last year, that's not the guy that he is.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's still some swing and miss here.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's more fringy contact.

[SPEAKER_04]: But the swing decisions have been pretty good and it's kind of

[SPEAKER_04]: You don't want the overly passive guy, you don't want the guy who swings and misses at an alarming rate, but sometimes if you kind of have a balance of the two, it can work in concert with good angles, with good power.

[SPEAKER_04]: And what ends up happening is you're not a guy that's going to run a 12 or 13 percent walk rate, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: You're not going to have, when we're talking long term, you're going to have a

[SPEAKER_04]: It's probably going to come with some power.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to come with a lot more hits.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to come with a lot more at bats that end up in good outcomes.

[SPEAKER_04]: And there's not just one way to be successful as a hitter.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think he's kind of striking a balance right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: That said, this is an experience college guy who played three seasons in the SEC.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's high A.

[SPEAKER_04]: Let's see what happens when he makes that jump up to Birmingham.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think at some point probably in the first half.

[SPEAKER_04]: Him and Bonamer are kind of this bash brothers-esque tag team in the middle of that dash line up right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think it will probably keep rolling for another month or two, but

[SPEAKER_04]: It's interesting, it's something to take notice of.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're not pushing the guy like Shelton on to a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on a top on

[SPEAKER_03]: So one more along these lines before we go on to talk about the nets, which is I don't know about you.

[SPEAKER_03]: I do know.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to guess that you've also watched the Sephrane into starts.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think the last one I watched every pitchy through and

[SPEAKER_03]: The numbers are absurd, you know, he is 1 and 0 is 0.75.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's allowed three hits and 12 innings in the FSL.

[SPEAKER_03]: Three walks, 23 strikeouts.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's, it's everything you want to see as far as performance was.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's regularly getting to 100 miles an hour.

[SPEAKER_03]: I would also say when you say like, how is the fastball playing?

[SPEAKER_03]: The thing that stood out to me was in that last start for him against Tampa

[SPEAKER_03]: Like they were fouling balls off, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: He is, his fastball is not a, you can't hit it fastball, even in low way.

[SPEAKER_03]: It is a, you can't square it up fastballs when I would say they were having real trouble.

[SPEAKER_03]: Guys could foul it off, but they couldn't get on time, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: They were late.

[SPEAKER_03]: They were fouling it off off.

[SPEAKER_03]: They were fouling it off off.

[SPEAKER_03]: And then he does have the second areas to be like, okay, you're good enough for that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Here's a change up.

[SPEAKER_03]: Or here's a, you know, here's a breaking ball.

[SPEAKER_03]: I do think that like that kind of combination of that in control.

[SPEAKER_03]: and it's kind of left him toying with fitters in low-A.

[SPEAKER_03]: I could not be kind of more like, yep, that's what we wanted to see from Sephiranean does, than what we've seen in these firsts, we start to feel like.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think it's tough to argue with.

[SPEAKER_04]: We knew that he was really advanced.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's really good athlete too, so like he moves well on the mound.

[SPEAKER_04]: Those like release characteristics that he can create, which I think is a big separator.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's a lot of guys who throw hard, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: We have Jack Bauer who can't really get out of the midweeks or relief as a freshman who throws super hard.

[SPEAKER_04]: Harder than Seth Hernandez and he's a left-handed.

[SPEAKER_04]: But like,

[SPEAKER_04]: those pitch-trade characteristics, he doesn't have those.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that's something that, as we get better and better at kind of like quantifying, what makes

[SPEAKER_04]: pictures good as professionals.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're learning that it's not just velocity, it's not just command and control, and just being able to kind of hit your spots.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's also a few other things, which is like, well, how does the ball come out of your hand?

[SPEAKER_04]: Like, what are the things that you do in terms of getting down the mound, either a lot or a little and kind of creating a steep plane if it's a little or a really flat, unusual plane, if it's a lot like Seth Hernandez.

[SPEAKER_04]: But it's also how do the secondaries play off

[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have multiple fastball shapes like we're getting deeper and deeper into it where you know we really have a better understanding of what makes pictures successful at the highest level.

[SPEAKER_04]: And we're getting pictures now out of high school that have a lot more of these kind of traits that are going higher they're not getting to college.

[SPEAKER_04]: They have big stuff, they have like kind of developed arsenals.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that's what we're seeing with Seth Hernandez.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not that different and I know unfortunately he got hurt in a few years and he's gotten back on track that the guy we thought he was.

[SPEAKER_04]: But Andrew Painter was kind of like this too.

[SPEAKER_04]: He came out in the FSL.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was very easy to see early on that he was toying with hitters.

[SPEAKER_04]: The fastball was too good.

[SPEAKER_04]: The command of the secondaries and spin.

[SPEAKER_04]: was too good.

[SPEAKER_04]: And with Hernandez, it's like he's got this big fastball with unusual release traits and playing in a ton of velocity.

[SPEAKER_04]: But he commands it pretty well.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's in the zone consistently.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's the control piece and portion of it is also there.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's got a good off speed pitch in the change up.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's got good breaking stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: All that stuff can probably get a little better.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think he's probably going to get a little more defined in the fastball shape.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's a little bit like a total movement kind of fastball in the sense that like it's maybe 16 or 17 inches of induced vertical break and like 15 inches of arm side run.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think when we see guys like that, especially coming over from college or like the lower minors

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, a more happy shape and then maybe like a two seam shape because they're showing the ability to not only run it, but also write it a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: So he kind of has all these characteristics that it's like he's already really good.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's already toying with these these low-way hitters, but then you get this guy a little bit more advanced.

[SPEAKER_04]: You get him a full off season like all those sort of things and his repertoire is probably going to grow.

[SPEAKER_04]: Get more defined and he's going to be getting out to the upper mind is very soon.

[SPEAKER_04]: So.

[SPEAKER_04]: You never know how long it's going to take with some of these high school pitchers like you just don't know the it's a it's a really takes long I think these guys are right so we don't want to set expectations, but like it wouldn't be crazy if he's making a few starts now tuna in September or something like I don't I think Greens borrow is calling at this point now.

[SPEAKER_04]: It may still be two, three weeks away.

[SPEAKER_04]: They may have a certain number of games, and they want the weather to be a certain amount.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, this is a Southern California kid.

[SPEAKER_04]: But I'm sure not that North Carolina is cold right now, but I'm sure they don't want to have them, I don't know what their schedule is, but if they're traveling to Brooklyn or Hudson Valley, or someone like that, they could get some 50-degree days, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: So,

[SPEAKER_04]: There's no reason to kind of push him at this point, but it's very clear that the call is gonna come at some point soon, and it's a rocket ship right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, he looks like he could be a guy that this offseason we're saying, this is the best pitching prospect in the miners.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, McLean's graduated, you savages graduate, totally probably graduates, you know, all these guys.

[SPEAKER_04]: So there's some opportunity there, and I think he's got probably got as much of a green arrow as anybody that's already

[SPEAKER_03]: The only thing I wanted to add to that is when you have the velocity like this, you know, we talked about the movement and all in the life and kind of all that, but the other thing about it is, is it just gives you this baseline foundation that everything plays off that, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: So, the key thing I would just kind of add to that is if you can throw 100 miles an hour as a starting pitcher and sit in the upper 90s.

[SPEAKER_03]: And if you said, I'm just taking this fastball and a slider and a change up and you say that every aspect of that, you're like, if you could perfectly clone that picture and say every aspect of that, but now he throws 95.

[SPEAKER_03]: same exact movement all those pitches.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's just going to be so much easier for a hitter, because you have to gear up.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know we can say that hitters can hit a hundred, and to some, especially if he climbs loud, they can, but it just means that you're starting point for all of this is I have to gear up for.

[SPEAKER_03]: premium velocity.

[SPEAKER_03]: And the moment I do that, that makes every breaking ball, every change up, every other aspect of this, you're shortening that decision window to where you're having to, you're having your more challenged.

[SPEAKER_03]: That is a look at three prospects we've kind of stood out in the early going.

[SPEAKER_03]: But after the break, we're going to dive into an organization that

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, that's fans, we have some good news.

[SPEAKER_03]: We'll be right back after this.

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[SPEAKER_03]: So Jeff.

[SPEAKER_03]: We've been talking about it.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think we keep pinning about it.

[SPEAKER_03]: But, okay, let's just hint a little less and just be more straightforward about it.

[SPEAKER_03]: NAS fans, I know that, you know, it's still, it's been a rough go, but we are seeing in the lower minors.

[SPEAKER_03]: In Class A,

[SPEAKER_03]: very much the green shoots, the signs of potential here, and I would say that we have to start with when we're talking about that with the just promoted Ronnie Cruz, who circle that name, write it down, that's a pop-up prospect was already on the top 30, but I promise you this, we're going to be updating before long, and when we do, he got to move up on a lot in the next

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll be shocked.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, he's going to be, I'm going to be doing this list now.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's going to be top 10.

[SPEAKER_04]: Man, we'll see what the feedback is, but I seriously think that this guy is easy top 5 in this system now.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I mean, you're talking about like Harlan Susana, Harry Ford, Louis Parallis, Gavin Fiend.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's some question marks with some of those guys, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: I think some of this list will probably shake up a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, first high game tonight, Homer's, it was a little win-a-win-dated, but, you know, we'll take it, we took a good swing on the ball and saw something he liked.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, it's one of these profiles, JJ, where I think can get really excited about the tools, the power, the speed, the potential versatility defensively I had said this earlier on the hot sheet show, but I feel like, yeah, I mean, like shortstop is a good chance he plays shortstop.

[SPEAKER_04]: If they move into third base, fine, he's going to be a really good defender there.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's going to be a good defender at second base.

[SPEAKER_04]: If they want to put him in center field, he's probably going to be a really good defender in center field.

[SPEAKER_04]: because he's a plus, the plus, plus runner.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's an elite base dealer.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think you watch some of his jumps are super quick.

[SPEAKER_04]: He makes great reads.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's aggressive, but so he'll get thrown out from time to time.

[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of his game really does kind of remind me of like it's a T-type of player, where, and I said, there's no hot T-show too.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's like, you see a little bit of swing and miss, a little bit of like the overly aggressive, overzealous approach, but he's super young, and the quality of contact is there, and that the contact is good enough.

[SPEAKER_04]: That is, he starts to kind of mature a little bit in his approach, because he doesn't have a ton of, you know,

[SPEAKER_04]: full season games, you know, two to his name at this point.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think we'll start to see him take a pretty big leap forward again.

[SPEAKER_04]: So this is a guy where it wouldn't shock me if he kind of gets better at each level.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's got a real test here though.

[SPEAKER_04]: Wilmington is not an easy place to hit in.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's as tough as tough as they get caught basically.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and I'll say Carolina League isn't an easy place to hit in either.

[SPEAKER_04]: But for player, this is as advanced as he was.

[SPEAKER_04]: He was going to hit there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Can I sit or check?

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, we'll see how that goes, but I think the upside is huge.

[SPEAKER_03]: So we're talking about Wilmington, Wilmington is the only place that I could remember where when they had an all-starting back when we had those in the minor leagues.

[SPEAKER_03]: They had a home-run derby and they flipped it around because they realized that if they had a home-run derby using the park like it normally is shaped.

[SPEAKER_03]: that they didn't think that there would be any homers.

[SPEAKER_03]: It would be the most boring, homer and derby ever.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's how that park plays.

[SPEAKER_03]: So they actually had them hit from the outfield to try to hit into the stance.

[SPEAKER_03]: It was very strange, but that's the Wilmington park for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, I mean, I think you just kind of look at even beyond crews, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: So let's move on a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: Even beyond crews, there's a lot of players in this system.

[SPEAKER_04]: where the talent was there, it was just simply a matter of sort of the right approach in player development, people really sort of taking their time, doing the right things to, you know, produce the best outcomes.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's one of the reasons that this group was brought in to kind of think in a more modern way.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not just the players that were in the system.

[SPEAKER_04]: They've acquired some really good players as well.

[SPEAKER_04]: Devin Fitzgerald, who's somebody I love, kind of digging into the data, digging some of the video.

[SPEAKER_04]: Father is the head coach at Stone and Douglas, a pretty famous high school program.

[SPEAKER_04]: So you know, he's a police hall rat.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's been in high a, he's going to be playing alongside Ronnie Cruz, you know, going forward, he's really exciting.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, he's walking more than he's striking out, it's walking at a pretty high clip.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's hitting the ball hard, making a lot of contact, really quality at bats there.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, maybe not to defend her that crews can be long term, but an interesting one.

[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, you're Remi Cabrera, who was a Rangers prospect, the kind of got buried was in the lower levels for a bunch of years.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's playing center field, looking really good out there defensively is hitting.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's some swing and miss there.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, like it's.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not the same level as like a cruise or a Devin Fitzgerald, of course, in Eli Willets, who was in the number one overall pick last year, just started to go through some of these names.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ethan Petrie, who's a guy that, I think we all thought could hit.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, he hit a lot in college, but there was maybe some questions in the profile.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think you kind of look at him now and it's not crazy to say, all right, like, is he that different from like an Andrew Fisher or someone like that?

[SPEAKER_04]: It was maybe had a little

[SPEAKER_04]: Seever King, we kind of tagged him as a potential bounce back candidate coming into the year.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's kind of bounce back in a big way.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was on the hot sheet this week.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's producing in AA, I think it's age appropriate.

[SPEAKER_04]: Even Luke Dickerson, who was a guy that was heavily scouted out in New Jersey, kind of a historic high school player there, felt flat in his face in his first year.

[SPEAKER_04]: But he's hitting pretty well and, you know, there's guys like Koy James, who's kind of interesting and, you know, we talked about Eli Willitz and then you go on to the pitching side and, you know, somebody who we had on the hot sheet show a little while ago, but like Miguel C. May Jr. has been really interesting, really good.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's throwing, you know,

[SPEAKER_04]: high 90 smoke touching triple digits.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like we could add 100, 100 plus on that too.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_04]: But his best pitch is actually a slider.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's his most thrown pitch.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's the one he generates the most whiffs with kind of like a hard cutter or slider.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's a really good pitch.

[SPEAKER_04]: On the other side, you have Landon Harmon who has, you know, me, it's like a cut ride fastball.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of an interesting shape.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's not a ton of velocity there, but his command

[SPEAKER_04]: has been really good.

[SPEAKER_04]: Some of the numbers and metrics that like teams keep around locations for him over his first few starts have been really, really impressive.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's got a starter's arsenal.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think, you know, that's another arm that they got last year in the draft who could turn out to be pretty good.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then like Davian Garcia was somebody that

[SPEAKER_04]: The national's front office folks that I chatted with in the backfields have kind of been like, hey, David Garcia was pretty good last year.

[SPEAKER_04]: His stuff's up again.

[SPEAKER_04]: He's had a pretty good year so far in AA.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's, you know, only like free appearances or starts to date.

[SPEAKER_04]: Obviously limited innings, but he also looks pretty good.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I think you kind of look throughout this system.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's some players to be excited about.

[SPEAKER_04]: Alex Klemies throwing a little bit more strikes than he had previously.

[SPEAKER_04]: Kind of, but not really, actually.

[SPEAKER_04]: But like I think there's something here to get excited about and then you look at, oh, Harlan Suzan is still in this system.

[SPEAKER_04]: you know, there's there's still a guy like Travis to Coral like guys that are injured that could be coming back and they all kind of factor into this into this team and kind of the future.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's really really interesting or the exciting.

[SPEAKER_03]: So to just give an example, so again, this is it's very early, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: But the Fred Nats last year hit

[SPEAKER_03]: Again, we said Carolina League's not the easiest place to hit, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, this year they're 254-391-474.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have a 50 point better slugging percentage than any other team in that league.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have more homers than any team in that league.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have more triples than any team in that league.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have way more steals than any team in that league.

[SPEAKER_03]: They have more doubles than any team in the league.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm again, I am, it is a small slice, but T, I will tell you right now,

[SPEAKER_03]: Even as, you know, we saw James Wood coming up and we had, you know, Harlin Susana fun with fun to watch pitch and and all that.

[SPEAKER_03]: the nationals have not had a team in the minor leagues who I check every day to see what they're doing, like you have with these low-18s.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, even now with Wilmington too, they haven't had anything like this in quite a while.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's kind of notable.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, again, it's early, but at the same time, I do want to, you know, I do think that that it's kind of worse kind of making a note of this that

[SPEAKER_03]: credit to Mike to Bartlow because when you're mentioning, you know, like some of these players, like some of these were offseason trades, but also it was that draft, there were moves last year as well where, you know, there is a part of this that was, it's not hard if you're a caretaker if you're kind of the interim, hey, I'm running this place to be the guy who actually makes moves, but they make some good moves it looks like, too.

[SPEAKER_03]: So it's very intriguing.

[SPEAKER_03]: So what else are you like again?

[SPEAKER_03]: We're getting closer now, but with the Nats, like I do think the one thing about it is is, and this is the bad news about this for the rebuild.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's much more situated in the lower levels of the miners right now still.

[SPEAKER_03]: Percolating up to AA a little bit, but this is a rebuild that is to probably still two plus years away, is it not?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think it's I think it's going to take a little bit of time, but that

[SPEAKER_04]: I think in some ways, almost like plays into their favor.

[SPEAKER_04]: Just in terms of, there's more high draft picks to come.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's more bonus pool money to have access to and play with and kind of continue in what they did a little bit in this offseason, which was they traded a lot of horses for ponies.

[SPEAKER_04]: They're trading away.

[SPEAKER_04]: Some of them were prospects like a Jake Bennett maybe a little bit closer.

[SPEAKER_04]: Um, at their previous stop, you know, these are guys that we had heard that Gavin Femey had heard rumored with the red fox, um, in the draft last year.

[SPEAKER_04]: Now, I'm not shocked based on some of the things in their philosophies that Devon Fitzgerald was a guy that they targeted.

[SPEAKER_04]: Um,

[SPEAKER_04]: Just kind of continuing to do a good job of identifying and bringing more talent into the system, players that kind of fit their player development mentality.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's all the stuff that's going to happen over the next couple of years.

[SPEAKER_04]: But it's also an exciting build-up.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I think we saw that a little bit, you know, not too many miles away.

[SPEAKER_04]: the same area in Baltimore as they kind of started to build up.

[SPEAKER_04]: They got some of these initial players that started to hit.

[SPEAKER_04]: Then you had those young prospects in the lower levels.

[SPEAKER_04]: Those guys started to develop a little bit.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you had top draft picks to kind of supplement on top of that, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's kind of the cherry on top.

[SPEAKER_04]: It'll be interesting to see how this all comes together and they're also in a position now where the guys who are in the big leagues They have a lot of guys that they can like kind of put up there let them develop and then when this next crop is ready Make decisions on our right we still have two or three years control on x player or y player We can now trade those guys up for you know a prospect or potentially pitching for the major leagues whatever it is that they feel they need to do

[SPEAKER_04]: But so far so good and I think they're in a really good spot.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's just the matter of do they acquire the right players?

[SPEAKER_04]: How does this crop of players develop as they reach, you know, higher levels, more advanced competition?

[SPEAKER_03]: The one thing I've said with that is the other great development for the National so far is what CJ Abrams is doing at the big league level.

[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, like they, if CJ Abrams and James would can give them a pair of cornerstone players at the big leagues now,

[SPEAKER_03]: you hold on, do you say, okay, the rebuild is still several years away, there's discussions to be had there.

[SPEAKER_03]: But you would much rather have this discussion, it's like, look, our choices are we either extends CJ Abrams because he's a franchise, cornerstone player, or

[SPEAKER_03]: we trade him for a mint of prospects because he's a cornerstone type player.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's a much better decision to be making than what do we do with CJ Abrams.

[SPEAKER_03]: So that's a positive development also at the big league level.

[SPEAKER_03]: There are a bit of view though the pitching does seem like it still needs

[SPEAKER_03]: could be to work there at the Big League level.

[SPEAKER_03]: But that is the Baseball America Prospect podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: That is Jeff Ponce, I am JJ Cooper.

[SPEAKER_03]: We thank you for the download.

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[SPEAKER_03]: We love to respond, we appreciate those.

[SPEAKER_03]: For Jeff, I'm JJ, it's a longer body.