[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: J.J. Cooper, Josh Norse, Facebook, America, Prospect, podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today is all about the Arizona fall leak.

[SPEAKER_00]: Arizona fall leak rosters have been released.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we're going to talk about the AFL, there was no one that I should talk to more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Josh Norse from our staff, Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I love the Rule Five draft, Josh loves the AFL, like I love the Rule Five draft.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I do love the Rule Five draft.

[SPEAKER_01]: All put it out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you're a Rule Five fan number one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm AFL fan number three.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tony Riggs B. Dern P. A. Nouncer and AFL Denizan and Bill Mitchell, long time B.

[SPEAKER_01]: A. Part-time full timer and has been to every Arizona fall lead.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I take a back seat to those two gentlemen, but soon enough, once I get this house sold, I don't think I mentioned this publicly before, but I am moving to Arizona and will, you know,

[SPEAKER_01]: If the real estate market goes the way I hope it goes, see all six weeks of the fall league next year and instructs and spring training and back, you know, everything that goes on in that state.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I will be a desert, I will go from ice bear to sun bear next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a desert demizen and...

[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of, I would say, kind of a foundational piece for you, which is you've been to, you go to the, I shouldn't say, every because there was a COVID year, but you go there, everyone's on a follow-up every year, you know, and love it out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's why, today, what we're going to do is dive into what you should know, even like if you're a fan who's thinking about going Joshua, give you some tips on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to start with,

[SPEAKER_00]: The preliminary roster, we all emphasize preliminary, because we can promise you some of these names will change before the games are played.

[SPEAKER_00]: But overall, this year's AFL roster, you would describe them as what?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they're average to solid average.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's there's some star power there, there's some sleeper guys, there's it's a little bit clustered on certain teams, which will discuss later, but this is pretty standard for the preliminary roster and you mentioned preliminary my concern is that a lot of the best prospects are currently in the minor league playoffs and sometimes that leads to them getting pulled before the league starts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I wouldn't surprise me, it doesn't, I don't blame teams for doing that, you know, adding six weeks on or some portion there of six weeks on is always, you know, big load for some of these guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, selfishly I'd like to keep them there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just, you know, I noted it, but I put out my,

[SPEAKER_01]: and you will youngest guys in the fall league piece from last year and on the preliminary rosters there were the three best prospects eaten salus, post-way de Paula and Sebastian Walcott all played a combined one game because salus got yanked early or get pulled off early.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Paula had an injury and then well-cut sustained an injury while he was down there and played all of one game.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these rosters are fluid.

[SPEAKER_01]: You'll get some surprises later.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes Nick Kurtz didn't show up until the fourth week of Fally a couple years ago and you'll get, you know, sometimes you get MLB rehab guys that jump in.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, it's always fluid and always changing and it really are no rules.

[SPEAKER_01]: around the folly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there are complications when it comes to putting under these rosters, which does kind of influence a little bit of how these are put together as well, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the rules that we used to have as far as levels of experience and all that, I would say are much less followed.

[SPEAKER_00]: However,

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't just say, hey, no one, none of the teams here going to this club need catchers, you know, to send a catchers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you've got to have enough pictures.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to have enough short stops.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to have enough outfielders.

[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, we say enough pictures.

[SPEAKER_00]: These rosters are the largest pitching rosters you'll ever see.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is some, in some cases, I was carrying 25 pictures on the roster, because they're not going to overwork anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: But,

[SPEAKER_00]: there is a little bit of a jigsaw puzzle that comes together to putting these together as well as or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can only send so many guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_01]: If your system is rich without the others, you can't just send three out of the others.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you did mention certain things have to send certain amount of players.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's not always true.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you look at the salt river

[SPEAKER_01]: you say she from the comes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the comes play on Mesa, um, the other, the only other catcher on that roster is Jaco Dow from the Rockies.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that meant the Yankees, Diamondbacks, Twins and Nationals didn't have a catcher to send.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they, so in order to get Jaco Dow from work every day for six weeks, they had to get a catcher from the comes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've seen games

[SPEAKER_01]: It was, my favorite was a Cleveland pitcher, Cleveland, hitter and Cleveland catcher somehow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two, three years ago, whatever your Jordan Walker was in the Fall League, Salt River's pitching was so bad that they just pulled a random guy off the backfields from the Padres, and not just for the day, for the rest of the Fall League, and just added him to the bullpen.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, these things happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was saying, this year we got, we got,

[SPEAKER_01]: a guy who's not even close to prospect eligible, Randy Rodriguez is pitching on the Scottsdale roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like that's a bonfire big leader who's going to be out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say with that, like there is a jigsaw puzzle and then there is the filling in because this is as you said, the rosters will change and at every point there is a certain point of we've got to make sure that we at these are all filled.

[SPEAKER_00]: We won't get too much further into that though because more importantly, especially if you're listening to this, watching this on YouTube, you want to know, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So who are the big names who are coming?

[SPEAKER_00]: 11 top 100 prospects on the initial rosters here for the AFL.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are some of the stands-outs that if you are going to the AFL, you are absolutely going to want to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I would say that we've got 11 top 100 prospect, which is one more than last year, again, preliminary, but the big names are on Glendale right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two of our top 30 prospects at Word of Quintero of the Dodgers and Caleb Bonner of the White Sox, are both with the Desert Dogs, which makes sense, because that's the Calcutta Play at Camelback Ranch, which is the Dodgers and White Sox home.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they have one more prospect in Charles Davelong from the Dodgers, who is,

[SPEAKER_01]: might get time at second base out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's been listed as an infielder and an outfielder in iterations of this roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I think he's going to split time between both.

[SPEAKER_00]: OK, well, I'll explain that to people because most people here would be like, infielder, Charles D'Avelin?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, it's not that for.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he did play 30 something games there in his first year at Florida Gulf Coast.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the Dodgers have a log game of outfielder's.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hosewood, the Paul is in the base.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, second base.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, second base on the infield.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good catch, JJ.

[SPEAKER_01]: In any case, the Dodgers have a log jam about fillers and one way to break it up is to maybe see if devil on is more can go back to second base and play there and alleviate the log jam that was kind of broken up a little bit by trading desire, hope to the Dodg, the Tigers for Terrix

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, uh, I would say that broke the law, if I just, no, I'll say that that would like that remove one of the 11 logs that are jammed in this, you know, that in this river going out.

[SPEAKER_01]: It starts somewhere, even a good beaver can't remove all the logs at once.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that along would be another, if you could, if he could show that he can play second base, which by the way, I would also say with that, if he can, even if he can play that kind of part time, that improves his profiles, well, it's not.

[SPEAKER_01]: For sure, you can play on the dirt, you're more valuable.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then that gives you a couple more middle-end builders.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Neil Morales is not in the fall, but you've got some couple of the middle guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: It gives some versatility.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it also it reduces value and trade, which may happen in the off season.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, that's the three guys for,

[SPEAKER_01]: Glendale.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's another, the other team that has three is Scott's Dale, which accounts the formerly mentioned Zire Hope and Bryce Rainer of the Tigers to top Tigers Prospects Plus, number 53 overall catching Prospect Nathan Fluelling, who put together a fine year in the Rey's system now that the Rey's are rich with catching with him and Caden Baudin.

[SPEAKER_01]: That group has three salt river has three with some injury recoveries, Dmitriya Krasantes, Diamondbacks, Infielder, hitter extraordinaire, fireball, their harlan Susanna from the National, so I'll be very excited to see for the first time in a couple years.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Dax Killby, who's also a very exciting guy to see, you know, I was really

[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned before the season that I thought he would wind up overtaking George Lombard as the top prospect in the Yankee system.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's not going to work out that way since Lombard is days away from graduating from counting as a prospect at all and killed the most of the season with various injuries.

[SPEAKER_01]: But now he's in the battle for a number one spot in that system with the Austin Payneum.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, he'll get six more weeks out here to solidify his case for the number one spot in the system.

[SPEAKER_01]: then there's one more top 100 prospect and I'm sorry, Glendale has four, I say, yeah, it takes South as soon, I completely missed him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's on the Glendale roster as well, one of the youngest players, the Braves are sending a good portion of their prospect and their younger prospects.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also put out the 10 youngest prospects list and three of them are from the Braves.

[SPEAKER_01]: South as soon, it really good year,

[SPEAKER_01]: in the myelids got the AA and then got hurt but he'll make up some time out there but that gives the desert dogs four guys to watch.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned the last one was Arjuna Malah traded from the plujas to the angels in the Jose Toriano deal and he'll be he'll give the solar socks some star power as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the 11 top 100 prospects.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's, again, we said, that's kind of right in line, a little bit more in the last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of not the top we've seen in the 2020s, but also much higher than we've seen in some other years.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would say also a nice mix there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've had years.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are still two teams out there that don't have a top-hunter prospect right now, but we've seen years where there have been multiple more teams than that who have not had a top-hunter prospect.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, I think it into what teams, if you're gonna say you're all in a catcher gamer to what teams you most want to see, we'll do that right after it's quick break.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Josh, if I put you on the spot and you said, if I gave you the nightmare scenario and said, Josh, you can only see one game while you're out in the AFL.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you get to pick which day it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who's the team or who's the team that you want to make sure that you're sitting face off?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I kind of gave the game away with that segment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Glendale will be one of them since they have right now to top.

[SPEAKER_01]: four top 100 prospects, and I would like to match them up against either Scottsdale or Salt River.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you can give me a matchup of Harlan Susanna against Quintero Bonamer, South of Seen in Davelon, well I'm going to be there all day and I will have multiple bells on it, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty exciting little matchup to have, if that is how it shakes out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let me ask with this, what is your, that kind of leads me into this also.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get in a little bit of tips and tricks.

[SPEAKER_00]: You heard, I said, you said one of those, at Salt River, you know, that's obviously the nicest of the parks that the NFL plays in.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what is your favorite park of the parks that the NFL plays?

[SPEAKER_01]: I am partial to Scottsdale.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the older park, but I always get the front row seat there, front row, right side, first row, aisle.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I clamped my camera onto the little,

[SPEAKER_01]: railing behind the net and it's a pretty perfect spot, allows you to see the pictures really well.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to move much.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know what, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: If anybody touches my camera, I will see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of like inside baseball sort of reasons for that one, but I like that one the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: Salt rivers are a little trickier.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maces angles are not great.

[SPEAKER_01]: Surprises angles are not great.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, peoria is probably second on that list because there's another banister back there that I can monitor pretty well, but I'm partial to Scottsdale, especially because I use the stand on the east side, and it gives me a quicker drive back to the hotel.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's one thing, if you've never been out there, one of the things that's great about Phoenix is for this is, you can very easily, this is not something, like me or the Florida, if you go to Springtrain, Florida, and you think of it like, oh, I can go see this team, but that team's very, very, very far away.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can set up on the east side near the zone, you can set up on the west side, or you can set up in the middle, but wherever you are, even if you set up east side, you're like, oh, but there's no games, the games are in the games in surprise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, no big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're not gonna be like, I can't get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can absolutely, you can double up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is something where,

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this is within driving distance, all of in the Phoenix metropolitan area for this, for throughout the years on a folly.

[SPEAKER_01]: You asked me about the nightmare scenario whether there's just one game.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you're describing October 7th, and I'll be out there for the scheduling quirk.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's only one game, and that is Pioria at Scottsdale.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that is the nightmare scenario, JJ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I was going to say, because the other thing I'll point out with this is, is most of the time, like you're noting here, there's multiple games, so like if you want to make this a very baseball heavy trip, if you want to go out there or if you're in the Phoenix area, this is something where seeing

[SPEAKER_00]: for 14's a day is quite easy, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you really want to be frisky, October 3rd is opening day, and they have them staggered at 1233, 30 and 630.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know if you can get all the complete games, but you would have to go from, what is the 1233, 30?

[SPEAKER_00]: And let's go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Glendale, you'd start in Glendale and go to Scottsdale and go back to Pioria.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's twice across the valley.

[SPEAKER_01]: you can do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to miss, you're going to miss some because again, especially that 630 game, I can't imagine that you're just going to pop across at 6, 6, you know, hopefully the first game is over 6, which is not Arizona followings are very high scoring.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully it's over 6, hop in the car, you're not getting across that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not going to be like, oh, there's no traffic today at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, and then the next day it's

[SPEAKER_01]: start the day game is at 130 in the next two or at five o'clock so that's that's that's more normal that's doable

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but there are lots of days where you can do two a day and most days I do two a day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've done three sites in a day, but it wasn't advisable.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done it in spring training before, where I've done three in a day, but I've never done it for the fall league.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't get out of the fall league nearly as much.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the last time I was in the fall league because you and a couple of us enjoy it so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think I've been,

[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's been a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke weaver pitched out of bear to him a hea, I believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, guys, I don't know if that's where Mickey was in the fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another question I ask, we talked about the top 100 prospects, but we go much deeper than that here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what are some of the non-top under prospects?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll even say, don't even say, like at least a couple of these give, give us guys who aren't top 10 just off the fringe of the top 100 guys either.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are some lesser known prospects who are heading to the AFL that are well worth keeping an eye on?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I just wrote that article, too.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had these are in no particular order, but I started with Nadra Victor from the Angels, who was there last year and really caught my eye, and then kind of opened everybody else's eyes in the World Baseball Classic this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's been dinged up a little bit, but it's a pretty nasty pitch mix.

[SPEAKER_01]: If he can command it and control a little bit better, he'll be a big leader.

[SPEAKER_01]: The giants are sending down some very interesting arms as well, especially lower-level arms.

[SPEAKER_01]: Alexander Fuentez is a right-hander who was on the cusp of their top 30 before they invigorated it through the draft and trades and the 30 once or 40 range right now, but he's a complex league arm actually in San Jose right now, but he had a shoulder dang earlier this year, but he throws hard and has a nasty braking ball and he'll be out of their bullpen, but he's not even the

[SPEAKER_01]: Most under the radar name in their group.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've got Drake George, who missed all of this year, and hasn't even pitched in bridge league After having Tommy John surgery, he's been live BPs, but he does a big time fastball and a big time Breaking ball and it just so happens that I have actually seen him pitch before When I saw Jacob Brezhneham for the first time two spring trainings ago

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the guy who pitched in back of him, and we do have some pretty decent video of him, showing a pretty lively saker and a couple of good braking balls.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who also, for an at least, Johnny Severino for the Pirates, hard to go under the radar when you're hitting 31 HOTM runs as a, we've 21 year old infielder, but he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: This day, this, this year you can, because there's, you're one of 25 guys who've done that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not that age, but like there's a lot more 30 home run guys, this year than most.

[SPEAKER_01]: I also added Miles Bailey to that list if you're a draft nick, you know Miles Bailey was a big time slugger for Florida State before getting her and now he's with the cubs and I'm sure he's going to put on a bit of a power show this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so I had on that list.

[SPEAKER_01]: Brace in Goi Des, who was one of the youngest players in the Cali this year and got to Lansing and got a nice little good day for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good days, Prosper, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: Vantonica, the resurgent Vantonica, who's made some tweaks to his mechanics and has reap the benefits.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just saw him this week at some balls to, I was in Richmond.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he hit them back to Chesapeake with the Chesapeake based socks, very interesting player.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll see if he goes, like, hey, it was gained on stick.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pull you off and put the list away.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to reason the list.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk about the players.

[SPEAKER_00]: You kind of got a good one to talk about here.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a chance that this is real, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That this is not just a fluky into the season.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got to see him recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a perfect example of a guy who what we see in the AFL is going to be really useful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because

[SPEAKER_00]: We had this first half of the season bands had a cut, which I would describe as what we've seen before in the in Pro Ball, which is way too many strikeouts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything else is great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Centerfield defense great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Arm great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Power great.

[SPEAKER_00]: Running great.

[SPEAKER_00]: That hitting tool, hit tool was a blow.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not kind enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: With with.

[SPEAKER_01]: Frederick, he was at a 42% strikeout rate.

[SPEAKER_01]: With Chesapeake, it's 25, something.

[SPEAKER_01]: So 25 is still high, but cutting it by 17% is pretty crazy in a smaller sample.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he has cleaned up his swing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has cleaned up his setup.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's more direct.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's less noise kind of getting ready as he's waiting for the pitch.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to be a fun stuff to kind of bear down on.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is that he doesn't have to be a 50 hitter to be a useful big leaker.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he could get to 40, he could be pretty solid.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he could get to 30, he'll play in the big leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: He'll be very interesting if he can do that and he's going to get a variety of pitchers You're going to get some prospects and he's going to get some suspects He's going to get I noted one guy on the roster.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe is technically a millennial Which is not something you'd expect to see in the years of a colleague at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we have a guy who I ranked in the handbook before John Manuel left baseball in America, which was a decade ago So it's been a while for some of these guys

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is where, and that's what I want to get into kind of, you know, we're going to take one more break, but we get back from that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk a little bit more about kind of the structure of the FL, but also if you think about going Josh goes every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a good idea of what you should look for.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll do that right after this break.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a variety of reasons, is a very offensive leak.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, last year, Pioria led the league with a 486 ERA.

[SPEAKER_00]: Runs allowed for them was really well above five.

[SPEAKER_00]: Surprise was at 493.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you had three team Salt River Mesa and Glendale.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of whom had ERAs above 6.7.

[SPEAKER_00]: Glendale was 69.9.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you throw in the underruns in there as well, you're over seven runs per game.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an offensive league.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're a variety of reasons for that, or they're not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the desert is generally more conducive to home runs.

[SPEAKER_01]: The ball parks are, you know, if you don't have to center, they're pretty conducive to home runs.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the pitching is really bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times, I don't know how a nice way to say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Teams don't send by and large, they're best, and they're brightest, and sometimes they don't even

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of these guys are going to be really scan it's really that simple and good hitters feast on that and the infield play is the defense is not always great.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Arizona sky is real like I've seen multiple guys drop balls that landed 40 feet beyond them because they just cannot pick them up in the desert sky.

[SPEAKER_01]: and those technically are hits.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's, they also don't throw a lot of stripes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You mentioned a lot of runs and earn runs.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think the blocks per nine last year was like six something which there were only three pit qualified pitchers in the minor leagues who had block grades worse than that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So depending on when you go, you weren't going to see a lot of frustrating pitching, which is a great advertisement for the following, but it's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I do want to note this other point too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just going to read off very quickly the top 10 in batting average last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know you may say batting average, but again, in the miners batting average is much more useful than it is at the major league level.

[SPEAKER_00]: Max Anderson number one, Rani El Rodriguez to Parts Harbor 3, O&Ares 4, Samachonachy 5, Esmeralyn Baudez 6, Kevin McGonagal 7, Nick Morbito 8, Caden Conner 9, Seaver King 10.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I don't think you can correct you there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think you can correct you there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Routy Rodriguez.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's Routy, that's not Rani El.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, sorry, thank you on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Big correction.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I would note with that, that

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, this is where Owen Ayers kind of started the Owen Ayers prospect question mark kind of surge started here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sam Antonachi, who went from here to a useful and valuable part of the White Sox Big League outfield.

[SPEAKER_00]: Esperl and Valdez gave a little sneak peek.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been solid for the pirates.

[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously Kevin McGonagal is Kevin McGonagal.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would even say like you could throw like,

[SPEAKER_00]: turnaround.

[SPEAKER_00]: Max Anderson, you know, who's now kind of like on the knocking on the door of the big leagues was not at this time going to the FL last year.

[SPEAKER_00]: So while the pitching can be pretty skimpy.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are hitters who use this as a springboard to something for 27 and beyond.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that not kind of something like that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think there's a way to determine which hitters are truly good and which ones are just feasting.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think the term we use is scouting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of, you'll see a lot of scouts out there during,

[SPEAKER_01]: The the whole folly might be a little thinner in the early days just because there's so many teams in the playoffs and they're scouts are out advancing to say nothing of cuts to scouting departments but those talented men and women are trying to figure out which ones are hitting and which ones can hit and there's a pretty distinctive difference there The only thing I would push back on with Sam Antanachi was coming out of that the reports on him were like

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, nice little backup piece.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think his transformation started in the offseason.

[SPEAKER_01]: He got a lot stronger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like in the fall, he was okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he was the comments were like gamer baseball rat, things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then in the offseason, he got bigger.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think his breakout was a world baseball classic.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that be serious?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a non-crossed big, bigger.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, okay, so we know it's a very offensive thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would also add to that, like we said, like the desert and all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The infields are hard, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing they can do about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like when we talk about it, like the infields are faster than they're going to be, say in Florida, or other places, because the sun just bakes the dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like I mean, it's a, it's an error environment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are playing in the actual desert.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's another aspect of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: As someone who goes this every year, the other part that I would say about this, that is very useful for people to know, is obviously, if you, I would say that the Arizona fall league now and again, I wanted to completely on the fact that I don't go every year and thought that, but when I've gone, one of the things I would describe it as is like kind of is one of those hidden gems from the standpoint of like,

[SPEAKER_00]: Spring training used to be I'm old enough to remember when spring training was kind of like a hidden gem and I'm not saying that you were there with three other people or anything like that But it used to be that spring training was a very relaxed environment where you kind of felt like you were getting to see something that not everyone got to see and then spring training has become a much bigger commercial environment there's a lot of sellouts now and you know high prices in spring training games at all

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want a bang for the buck bargain out there as far as as a baseball fan, I can't think of many things other than spring training backfields that check that box better than the Arizona fall league because these games are not overflowing crowds by any stretch of imagination with very, very few exceptions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And on top of that,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's, again, this is, these are not, you know, jacked up prices or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're going as a fan, there was a lot to really enjoy about the AFLs or not.

[SPEAKER_01]: But sure, I mean, you're going your a prospect account.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's really, or you're a family member, or you're a scout, or you're me, or you're a person with a kid who wants to get baseball because the other, the other thing I like to call the fall league is the Arizona ball league.

[SPEAKER_01]: because if you are a child, you can get a fellow ball at this game, and probably a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen kids with like 15, they can do their PE by running back and forth across the compound courts all day long.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not, I don't think they sell individual seats.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all general admission.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only times I've ever seen it even close to like full was Tim Tibo.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now, other than that, it's usually pick your seat and you can do whatever you want.

[SPEAKER_01]: make no bones about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: These players will be in the big leagues next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Period.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not all of them, obviously.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there will be plenty of guys in the big leagues next year from this league, you know, Kevin McConnell, obviously, was not so surprised he was in the big leagues on opening day, but he was here last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: post-way the poll was on the roster last year didn't show up, but he's in the big leagues right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's plenty of other guys who go immediately and become stars the next year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, if you want to see these guys before they become big names, this is the place to do it without a whole lot of competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, just a couple of other examples of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're 2022, well, God, tied for the batting tramp.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess Edward, Eddie Julian edged him out, but TJ Rumpfield, who took a little while, but look within this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're 2023 batting tramp.

[SPEAKER_00]: Liam Hicks, you know, you're home, 2024 was Hoseway, Bersanio, obviously, you know, had some injuries this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're 2025, as we said, it was Max Anderson.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, for Hoseway, Bersanio hit the triple crown.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Liam Hicks on six hits in a game.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our point being is that you're not just seeing guys who was like, oh, they're sending out, no, you are seeing like Josh said, you are seeing big leagueers.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are seeing guys that you're seeing a mixture of top prospects, a mixture of intriguing prospects, some who takes it forward in the NFL.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then a mixture of kind of more role players and guys who teams are trying to figure out what they have.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is also a rule five audition.

[SPEAKER_01]: Make no bones about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: JJ will have a piece later in the week about which guys are up for rule five consideration.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is their last chance to dance to audition in front of usually, usually each team's player development group or part of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get out to the following in a certain time of the year.

[SPEAKER_01]: see their priority guys and make one last call before roster protection have to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is a great place to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there will be small trades too that happened during this week.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last year, the championship game was started by a guy who was with the Logan Martin, who was with the Royals the entire time, and then got traded to the Giants.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he was with the Giants on surprise starting in the championship game.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, because you do not change your AFL team necessarily just because you certainly not on the last day.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you do if it's in the regular season, that's happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's, again, the rules are a little fluid.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you only had enough catchers and you, you would not probably like, all right, you know, there's, it depends on the situation, I think, a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes coaches change, coaches get hired by different orgs and change their stripes, mids, mids, cycle.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a, again, it is a fascinating league.

[SPEAKER_00]: First games, you had the calendar on October 3rd.

[SPEAKER_00]: I knew you probably had the new head, October 3rd.

[SPEAKER_00]: And basically what you're talking about is this is effectively a month of baseball out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: More than six weeks, six weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: And...

[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, a lot of that does coincide with the MLB playoffs, which makes sense from a standpoint of like this is the time to do it because the minor league season's wrapping up.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want pictures ramping back up after ramping down.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, that's the only unfortunate thing is is that it's going on while obviously a lot of the attention and let's be honest, the attention would even if not, the FL is a niche event.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love the niche.

[SPEAKER_00]: But.

[SPEAKER_01]: a great event, a great schedule and I'll be programming note, I'll be in the desert starting essentially the 27th, 2627th for instruction, the tail end of instructional league and then two weeks of fall league.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, they're going to kind of overlap a little bit instructionally as a little sparse or then it has been recent years, but there's enough games where I can you can get back fields and then big field.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's going to be a lot of coverage for me starting in a few days.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you really want a programming note on Thursday, I'm going to be in Richmond again for Jackson Flores on official AA debut.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that should be fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nice little.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the one perk of living here that I will miss in the desert.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's all four levels are drivable here, low-A, high-A, AAA, et cetera.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the desert, it's spring training, a lot of back fields falling.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can go to the Cal League and probably Texas League and Yadiyada, but it's not as convenient.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that'll be a change for me as we'll lack of humidity.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's my programming note, but I'm, you know, we're talking,

[SPEAKER_01]: 18 days away for the following.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, well, I hope these rosters are mostly intact by that.

[SPEAKER_00]: There again, there will be changes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll have updates of that at baseballamerican.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do check out.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed this, there's a lot of coverage, breakdowns of all the rosters, top 100 prospects in the AFL, intriguing players to watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't really get into it, but some kind of interesting position, switches that players are going to try and additional things like that all that over at baseballamerican.com.