Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast - Effectively Wild Episode 607: The 2015 Minor League Free Agent Draft

Episode Date: February 3, 2015

Ben and Sam draft 20 minor league free agents who might see major league playing time in 2015.

Now you know it seems impossible Does it seem impossible to you now? Now you know it seems impossible, does it seem impossible to you now? Good morning and welcome to episode 607 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Perspectives. Brought to you by The Play Index at BaseballReference.com. I'm Sam Miller with Ben Lindberg of Grantland. Hi, Ben. Hi. How are you?

Okay. Great. Even as we speak or even as people listen, Barry Zito might be throwing for a select group of teams. Select? He... I don't know whether he selected them or whether they selected them themselves. All right. You know, I'm in California and our grocery store up in northern california is safeway have you heard of safeway is that we have that here okay so do you know the safeway house brand nope i don't know if it still is uh

because um it might not be but forever it was safeway select uh-huh, which is kind of like this. It's the generic brand, and they just put the word select on there as though it's exclusive. Yeah, it does sound like he handpicked the teams, and there just wasn't room to accommodate all of the teams that wanted to see Barry Zito throw. It's too bad he's not a minor league free agent. It is too bad.'s not a minor league free agent. It is too bad.

Would you take him? I might. We're doing a minor league free agent draft today. Some people will recall that we did this last year. It was such a success that we're doing it again. I enjoyed it. It was actually probably my favorite

of our contests That's right, it made you do one of your special Squeaky laughs, as I recall I enjoyed it also, just because it Made meaningless news meaningful Right During the season, at various points, someone we

Drafted would show up and get a few Plate appearances, and it was Unreasonably exciting, because we Had drafted them. So our teams last year, which we took great care, thinking that we were going to run this game, eight of yours didn't play, six of mine didn't play. The players you drafted last year you had high hopes for were

Yamaiko Navarro? Yeah, he was at the top of the list. Fernando Martinez. Reid Brinje. He paid off for me. 91 plate appearances. To refresh people's memories, the contest here is we are drafting

six-year minor league free agents, people who've been stuck in some organization or multiple organizations for several years and thus are free agents. And we are drafting players who we hope will play in the majors in 2015 and the person who has the players who get the most major league plate appearances or batters faced or plate appearances plus batters faced win this contest theoretically we should be marginally more accurate this time, if only because last time we recorded in November,

just when these free agents were announced, so most of them had not signed. We didn't know where they would sign or even if they would sign. Most of the guys that we'll be drafting today have homes already. Yeah, I don't remember where I stopped travis blackley alex liddy jonathan alab alba alba ladejo uh cory wade quinton berry bill bray mark rogers and very two plate appearances and mine were sean camp matt laporta aaron laffey ben franc Francisco, Ross Wolfe. I picked the wrong one. Wolfe.

Jonathan Sanchez, Ezekiel Carrera, Tommy Lane, Steve Tolleson. Also two batters faced. The best part of the game is that I got my second best Steve Tolleson was as good as your second best player. That's right. Because he faced as many batters as a pitcher as Quentin Barry got as a hitter. And Ed Easley.

Yeah, Steve Tolleson was a game changer. He was a gold mine for you. Almost 200 plate appearances plus a pitching appearance. Ed Easley, my worst pick. Literally true. That pun, I only went forward with it because it is true on both levels and that is the test of a good pun. Tied for fifth worst. Tied for sixth, yeah, tied for fifth worst. Easily tied. Yeah. All right. So we're going to do it again and um we've put in some real work into this ben forced me to record six hours late

today at the normal time not six hours early see the way this works is baseball america puts out a giant list of minor league free agents matt eddie does it at ba so he put out this giant list in november and there are hundreds of people on it. And Sam sends it to me and says, easy topic. Just pick the 10 guys that you want from this list. And there are hundreds of guys on this list. I've heard of maybe half of them. Half of them, I've literally heard their names before and remember hearing their names. Of those half, I actually know something about, I don't know,

a third of that half. So most of the players on this list I know absolutely nothing about. And the only information is what level they played at last year and what position they played. So nothing about stats, nothing about age, and most of these people are complete ciphers. And did you say there are like 400 of them? Yeah.

And the thing is too that you're going through, in my experience, you're going through and you see this name that you recognize and you sort of have some feeling about his skill set, his position. You remember him playing in the majors recently and you know his name well and you think, oh, that's a good one he could definitely catch on as a reed brignac this year and then you look him up and um let's say you're talking about mitch meyer who is an example of a guy who i

thought oh yeah he's a good one 20 32 years old double a last year at 2333, 303, 389. And you're like, is it really the case that Mitch Meyer has left my life that quickly? Because Mitch Meyer in 2012 played in the majors. I mean, Mitch Meyer made not less than $1.7 million in his career as recently as two years ago. So you're sort of shocked to see how quickly a Mitch Meyer dissolves. Mitch Meyer was on national television. His autograph sold on eBay. He was in a pack of baseball cards sandwiched between a Yoannis Cespedes rookie card and Andy Pettit. And now he's 32 and in AA.

They make like, well, he doesn't, but they make $800 a month in AA, man. Well, you've been on national television now and you're hosting a minor league free agent draft. I hate you so much. So that reminded me, by the way, I got a package in the mail today. You don't know this. I'm getting it right now. Okay. Do you know this?

You don't know anything. That you got a package? I got a package in the mail today. Is it your baseball prospectus annual? I got that too. I was going to bring it up. I didn't. I got a package from at Justin Jabs, who went to the Cubs convention.

I'll just read it. To Sam and Ben, I'm a little behind on listening and was playing episode 572 a few weeks back. Then I was at the Cubs convention and found this at the Cubs charity's garage sale. I thought you'd get a kick out of it. It is a Jeff Bellevue autographed postcard. This is now the official souvenir, the official merchandise, the official collector's item of Effectively Wild. A Jeff Bellevue. Bellevue? Bellevue? Bellevue.

Fresh from Japan He was mentioned On what one episode One episode Effectively Wild When we talked about the rosters For the Japan Exhibition Series Over the winter

So that's all it takes to make someone An Effectively Wild recurring character Now I guess that takes two episodes and now he's there. Yeah, he'll be referenced more than once going forward. All right. So I did get the annual today and as we pick these guys today, we'll pick 10 each. We'll do it quickly. We won't take a lot of time doing it.

And as we pick them, I will read the annual comment for them to see what we said. Is it possible that having recently edited the annual is part of why you think this is so easy? I don't think it's so easy. Ben is saying it. I thought it was easy because I spent six minutes preparing. Ben thought it was hard because he spent four hours preparing. But it is not because I thought it was easy because I spent six minutes preparing. Ben thought it was hard because he spent four hours preparing. But it is not because I thought it was easy. It is because I don't care. I like to put on a good show. You do. And it makes a big difference whether I

pick a well-researched minor league free agent or a free agent that I just looked at and never researched. People can tell. so how are we going to How are we going to determine this who goes first? Well you won last year all right That's not how draft picks work Random number generator, okay, all right the nerdy solution UB one I B two okay all right it's one okay all right with the first pick in the 2015 minor league free agent draft i take john axford of

course i he doesn't he doesn't fit the spirit of this at all. No. Like, why is John Axford a minor league free agent? Like, I've been doing this a while, and I have slowly picked up a fair amount of roster rules, you know? Mm-hmm. Rostering rules. And then something like this will come along, and I realize, like, how is John Axford a minor league free agent? John Axford's going to close for Colorado.

How is he and Mitch Meyer the same thing? How are he and a guy named Vladimir Franco, Vladimir? How would you pronounce the B in Vladimir? It's a B, Franco? Vladimir? How would you pronounce the B in Vladimir? It's a B, huh? I don't know. Probably. I'm calling it Vladimir. I'm just calling it Vladimir.

Okay. To me, they're all Vladimirs. All right. John Axford. Yeah. A recurring theme throughout this section sees the Pirates, led by Ray Searidge and Special Assistant Jim Benedict, aiding forlorn pitchers. This strategy is forced by necessity rather than organizational

choice. The Pirates can't afford pitchers with good stuff and results, so they gather worthy reclamation projects, those with talent who are anchored by fixable mechanical deficiencies, and help them fulfill their promise. I'm going to stop there because this is a long one. As for Axford,

look for him to frustrate again before getting shipped mid-year to another NL Central club, the Reds, let's say, and continuing his divisional tour. Fine with me. That would work out. He can frustrate all season as far as I'm concerned. As long as he keeps racking up batter's face.

I mean, that's a... His name leaped off the page. Oh my goodness, it's so ridiculous. It was like a beacon of ability shining in this Bush League list. I don't know if anyone can compare to him. He was such an obvious, that was like Bryce Harper or Steven Strasburg in their draft years. I was going to say it would be like if Mike Trout were available in your keeper league. Yeah. Right now.

And like the second pick overall is like Kyle Schwarber. Yeah. So that tells you the caliber of this list. John Oxford is such a standout, but I am happy to have snagged him. And I look forward to 50 mediocre innings that could very well win this thing for me. All right. I will take Rodimus Lees. Rodimus Lees.

Okay. And I don't, the thing about him, who incidentally not in the annual, so we're going to skip that part of this one, but don't you feel like there was a lot more attention paid to him because he was the first free agent to sign or so this offseason? So everybody talked about him a lot more than if he had signed on December 31st. I don't really remember that phase of the winter. I must have missed that day on Twitter.

Oh, I heard a lot of talk about him. So sell me on him. Why is he worthy of talk? Because he's a starting pitcher on the Pirates. And did you just hear what I said about Ray Searidge and special assistant Jim Benedict? Yeah, I did. You know, they signed him. They intend to give him a shot at the rotation.

He's been in Korea for most of the last four years. And he's back. He's 32 years old, and he's been pitching pretty well for the last four years. And, you know, seems primed for some innings. I mean, the thing about this game is that you're not looking for 600 plate appearances or 200 innings. You're looking for, you'll take 30 plate appearances or nine innings. And it seems almost inconceivable to me that he won't get three or four starts. Yeah, that's good.

You definitely want to bank just a few games. a bank just a few games and there have been Carson Sistoli is has an unhealthy fixation on minor league free agents and he has written about them extensively and his research has revealed that it's really really rare to have a good minor league free agent a productive minor league free agent I think he found something like there are an average of three minor league free agent. I think he found something like they're an average of three minor league free agents per season who produce half a win above replacement player. Wow. So it's a really really thin group

and we're not even, we don't even care though. Like replacement level is fine. We're okay with replacement level as long as the replacement actually occurs. So, all right, for my next pick, I'll take Joe Savory. Joe Savory was on the A's.

He was, I don't know, maybe kind of a victim of the stockpile of AAA-type guys that the A's had last year. He pitched a few innings for them. He pitched a little bit in the three seasons before that with the Phillies. He pitched well in AAA last year, 43 games with a 2-8-4 ERA, struck out some guys. And he's a lefty, and the White Sox signed him, and that's enough for me. I think listeners from last year might be able to fill me in on this, but I think that at the end for my last pick, I think I voiced him as an alternate last pick for myself maybe.

I can't remember. I feel like I remember that, but he's also not in the book uh-huh well roto world says that he'll have a strong chance of cracking the white socks bullpen on opening day oh that's a good one that's a winner probably the strong chance of cracking a bullpen is according to an anonymous comment on a website all right i will take chris volstad ah i thought about it and uh do you want to know why well i was thinking about taking him because i had heard of him because he had played played in the majors for several seasons but then i looked at his stats from the last couple years they're the worst stats i can imagine and he also he also went to to korea last year and he had a 6.2 era with more walks than strikeouts he struck out 3.3 batters for nine in korea oh yeah you know why i took him no why ray searidge and special assistant he's another guy that pirates on oh wow all right chris volstad after a brief stint in korea to start 2014 chris volstad returned to sign a major league a minor league deal only to sprain his elbow one

month later back to forks for him. Oh, God, I love that comment. Me and Jason argued over this comment because it's not clear what the joke is. No. But so the joke, which really assumes that you're going to go along with me in this story, is that he went to Korea and spent the whole time learning how to use chopsticks and he finally figured it out and then he sprained his elbow

and now he can't use chopsticks. So he has to use... Wow. That requires a lot of legwork. Yeah, I think if we hadn't already gone to like the PDF stage, I think Jason would have killed it. I like that one.

Okay. In Korea, they use chopsticks in Korea too, so they're much more challenging to use than in a lot of other countries. So it is actually a very difficult thing to use Korean chopsticks. All right. I'm going to take Davidson Romero. Okie doke. Tell me about it. I'm going to take him because he was number one on Carson Sistuli's list of the top minor league free agents by the Steamer projection system in November.

Which doesn't mean a whole lot, but it maybe means something. Maybe a team is also looking at those predictions or reading Carson's work and thought maybe that gives him a leg up over some other minor league free agents. He projects to be an average major league player, which is unusual for a minor league free agent. And he was signed by the Pirates, another Pirates guy, although he's not a pitcher. He is a third baseman. And the Pirates have a third baseman. Josh Harrison is maybe a pretty good third baseman,

although Pedro Alvarez moved. So I don't know. They can find a place for Harrison if necessary. Yeah, right. He can move around. So, maybe Romero makes a hole for himself somewhere. He's got a 9.07 fielding percentage last year. That's Alvarez-esque.

That's right. He did hit pretty well, right? Oh, he hit very well, yeah. Yeah, which is why he projects so well. I guess he was at triple a rochester at a 770 ops he hit even better in 2013 he's been been a pretty good hitter he's 28 he he's day of vincent romero he's on my team yeah Yeah, not in the book. Oh, huge oversight. Recall it.

Going to see if he's ever been in the book. Put out an online supplement. And spell the name for the people, Ben. D-E-I-B-I-N-S-O-N, Romero. Yeah. All right. Good one. Book comments.

2009, Davidson Romero is a toolsy prospect with the arm for third and a quick bat at the plate, but trouble staying healthy has hampered his development. Never appeared in the book again. He's going to put the tools together in 2015. All right. My turn. I will go with Raphael Betancourt. Okay.

Don't feel like it needs much of an explanation. Raphael Betancourt, he's the best. Re-signed by the Rockies? Is that true? That's, I believe, the case. I think I saw that. Yeah, I think that happened like three days ago or something like that. Raphael Betancourt, one of the oldest players to ever undergo Tommy John surgery.

Raphael Betancourt pitched in Rookie League just nine months after the operation. Finished with striking out hitters half his age, he'll look to come back with the Rockies in 2015. I'm going to do a quick play index if I can. Oh, please. Because I believe that Raphael Bettencourt, this is one of, I believe this is one of my favorite things about Raphael Bettencourt. I'm going to go since... I've done manyancourt. I'm going to go since 1980. I'm going to go with career. I'm looking at pitchers' careers, and I'm going to say minimum,

I'll do 100 innings. And I believe that Raphael Betancourt has the highest ratio of intentional walks to walks of any player. So I'm setting it up. I'm going to say intentional walks. Just don't forget a factoid like that. You might, though, have slightly mangled it. You might end up, it might be number three or something like that.

So I'm going to say intentional walks are 20% of walks. Let's see if that turns anybody up. That turns up... Okay, so 20%. Yes, there are something like 150 players that are at 20, including Lee Smith. So now I'm going to go to 30%. Can he possibly? He's not on this list.

Okay, this fact sucks. All right. There are 19 pitchers who are at 30%, including Seth Maness and Dan Quisenberry and Kent DeCovey, but not Raphael Betancourt. You probably like something about Raphael Betancourt. Dan Quisenberry and Seth Manis, by the way, Manis, by the way, are at 40%. They're the only two at 40%.

This is only capturing the end of Quisenberry's career. So Manis might actually be the all-time champ if I extended this. I'm not going to do that right now. You've waited long enough. Yeah. All right. My next pick, I'm going to take Jonathan Herrera. Okay. It's just a safe pick. I mean, to the extent that any of these picks is safe, he has played in five straight seasons with actually fairly substantial playing time. He's gotten over 100 plate appearances in each of those seasons, over 200 in four of the five, and has hit poorly, but has played many positions. And he was signed by the Cubs.

I don't know that the Cubs infield is probably crowded, but maybe some of those guys will slump and need more seasoning, and then Jonathan Herrera will ride to the rescue. Could happen. Jonathan Herrera. What is there to say about Jonathan Herrera that wasn't already said about Aaron Miles seven or eight years ago? He's a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, run-of-the-mill utility infielder who lost his job in Boston to Brock Holt's hair.

That's not promising. No, but Brock Holt's hair can only play in one city at a time. All right. I will take Nick Noonan. And Nick Noonan had a terrible year last year with the Giants in AAA. And you could argue that he's not a very good pick. But I'm going to take him

because this was my one strategy that I had time to execute in six minutes. In November or so, Kylie McDaniel wrote a great piece at Fangraphs about minor league free agents and about the Yankees, how they were using that as a place to flex their financial muscle. They were signing minor league free agents for more than the unwritten rules would dictate that you would. They were kind of, I don't know, they were kind of breaking the collusion or whatever. Not Kylie's words, mine.

But they were getting the best minor league free agents. And so that's how they got, help me out with the name, the guy that fell, they went and sent to San Diego. Yeah. Alex Rodriguez. No, not Alex name. The guy, the fellow they sent to San Diego. Yeah. Alex Rodriguez. No. The other guy. No.

It was Jan Jervis Solarte. Yeah. Too many names in my head right now. All right. So Nick Noonan was one of their first signings or one of their signings this offseason. So I'm just going to gamble on him being one of their first signings or one of their signings this offseason. So I'm just going to gamble on him being one of those. I don't have any evidence that they spend a lot on him or anything like that, but I'm just going to gamble that they did.

And, you know, he's an extra infielder in a team that needs extra infielders, right? I mean, that's a depth chart that could find room for, you know, a bad middle infielder, it seems to me. Sure. So I'm taking Nick Noonan. Very, very poor last year, I will admit. All right, so Nick Noonan's comment in the annual, outrighted on August 3rd, Nick Noonan will remain in extra infielder conversations thanks mainly To his left handedness It's funny as part of My hours of research earlier

I texted Kylie McDaniel Oh my gosh you are Looking for hot tips On expensive minor league free agents And he had Zero for me nothing Says he hasn't paid attention incredible ben so my hours of research yielded nothing this reminds me of that thing russell

wrote when he wrote about whether left fielders and right fielders should switch positions based on the handedness of the batter you know he said if there's one thing americans can't abide it's a guy who looks like he's trying too hard. Well, sorry, everyone. My turn? Go for it. All right. Well, I can't let you have all the pirates pitching reclamation projects,

so I'm taking one too. Clayton Richard. Oh, I thought about him. Man, how bad was he though? He was worse than Volstad last year. He didn't pitch last year, did he? I don't think he pitched. There you go.

That's my point exactly. The year before. Yeah, Clayton Richard was hurt. Yeah, right. So in 2013, he had a 7.01 ERA in 52 and two-thirds major league innings. I'll take it. Yeah, probably the ballparks to blame. Where was he?

He was in Petco, but maybe he pitched a lot on the road. I don't know. And then he did pitch last year. Oh, you're right. He pitched for the Diamondbacks, and he didn't pitch well. Not at all. Eight strikeouts in 21 innings. Yeah.

Huh. Well, he'll be better this year. Can't pitch well. Not at all. Eight strikeouts in 21 innings. Yeah. Huh. Well, he'll be better this year. Can't be worse. Why are we taking all the pirates? We're the people who don't believe in genius pitching coaches who can fix any problems. Why are we buying into this in our minor league free agent draft? Well, I don't believe in genius.

Because we're that desperate. No, no, no. I don't believe in genius. Because we're that desperate. No, no, no. I don't believe in genius pitching coaches. I believe in genius special assistant Jim Benedict. See? It's a special assistant. It's different. I see.

Clayton Richard not in the book. Justifiably so. Probably the best advertisement I can give for the book. We will not pollute your mind with Clayton Richard. More Clayton Richard numbers. All right. My pick? Yeah.

I'm going to take Caleb Gindel. Thought about it. It's like 25, which is very unusual for this group of players that we're drafting. And very recently was pretty good. You know, he was the big breakout second half thing in 2013, which was only a year earlier. And has that gritty mentality that you just think there's probably guys all around the league

who want to have Caleb Gindel around and has a skill. He has a sort of a platoonable skill. He's the kind of guy who seems like he would fit with another guy and be useful in what you might call a platoon or something like that. So, Caleb Gindel. Scouts once thought Caleb Gindel would righty-mash his way to a permanent role in the big leagues, but he didn't even get a token September promotion after a lousy AAA campaign, and now he's in Canada. Oof.

Yeah, that's the comment. It's italicized. It is italicized. But the fact that it was notable that he didn't get a September call-up suggests that he will get a September call-up this year. Maybe. That's all I need. All right.

My pick is kind of for similar reasons as your Nick Noonan pick is Jonathan Galvez. Okay. Also signed by the Yankees. Don't know what the terms were. Seriously, you took my one strategy. Yeah, and he's also an infielder. And also he plays some other things. Played some left, played some third Played some first

He's done it all in the minors He's played short in second And he is also quite young He's 24 Jonathan Galva is 24 years old And had an 803 OPS Last season in AAA El Paso in the PCL

But still Has hit decently well And he's young And he's going to A place where maybe there Will be an opening somewhere In the lineup so Jonathan Galvez Okay

Not in the book Alright well on the On the theory that the best strategy Is always whatever strategy you anticipate will disrupt your opponent's strategy, I'm going to assume that you're going to draft Pat Venditte. And I am therefore going to jump the queue and take Pat Venditte. Seems like it probably won't pay off, but does seem like the kind of guy who, if he pitches, will probably get 45 innings. Yeah, maybe.

I thought about taking him. I wasn't going to just because it's so predictable that you predicted it. And also because I'm already rooting for him, so I don't need another reason to root for him. I won't be any more excited, really, if he does get the call-up because he is on my minor league free agent team, whereas all these other guys I have no other reason to root for. Yeah. I learned one thing during the reliever league last year, and it is this. If a guy was a reliever in AAA, he will be in the majors this year. was a reliever in AAA, he will be in the majors this year.

They all are. And he was. He pitched virtually an entire year at AAA. And 56 innings there. You know, his usual pretty good things. So it seems likely to me. He was a reliever in AAA in 2012 also. Didn't work out. Not for a full season.

Not for a full season. Only 13 innings. So what would you say? Are the odds better or worse than 50% that he makes? Are the chances better or worse than 50% that he makes the majors this year finally? Worse. Really? I mean, if I thought there was a

Better than even chance he would make the majors He'd be a top pick In this tournament He'd be off the board early Okay Alright Pat Venditte Pat Venditte is Emmett Borkowski

In baseball's Bricksburg His numbers in Scranton were good, not great, but the A's snapped him up quickly and gave him an invitation to spring training. Cross your fingers. Yeah, okay. Okay, this next pick, I'm going off the board. I think, legitimately, I think this is a minor league free agent

who is not on this list of minor league free agents, but you can fact check me here. Cord Phelps. Cord Phelps was in the majors briefly last year, spent most of the season in the minors, has played six minor league seasons. He played for the Orioles briefly last year. He was with the Indians for a few seasons before that. And he signed recently with the Phillies. And I just kind of figure it can't be a bad thing if you're signing with the Phillies. Probably projected to be the worst team in baseball. They've traded some guys. They've traded a shortstop. They might have some infield openings. He is a second baseman primarily. So maybe Utley gets hurt,

and suddenly there's an opening for Cord Phelps. Yeah, okay. Phelps. Has hit pretty well. He hit, I don't know, 748 OPS in Norfolk last year. He's been hit a little better than that in 2013 in AAA. He's a career 820 OPS hitter in AAA, and he is 28, just turned 28. What do you have on him? Anything?

Nope, nothing. Okay. Man does not exist in my world. All right, I'm going to steal your Phillies idea, and I'm going to, I'll steal your Phillies idea, and I'm going to take Rene Garcia. Ah? You said ah? Yes.

This is an ah of appreciation. All right. So Rene Garcia. This one's a tough one to get behind because he was in AA last year, and he was terrible. He's a catcher. He was with the Astros minor league system.

And he was in double A last year, and he hit.244,.279,.352. If we weren't in the seventh round of a minor league free agent staff, I probably wouldn't take him. So in other formats, don't take him. take him. So in other formats, don't take him. But the reason I took him is because we have new framing data. Harry and Dan Brooks and Jonathan Judge have been working on this triumph of a piece about a, I don't know, I don't think I'm giving away anything, but about if you can match them in the next day and a half before this runs, by all means, go ahead. But that was a pretty good head start. So anyway, new framing methodology, very impressive,

very exciting. Yes, I've read it. I can't wait. And one of the revelations of this is that Rene Garcia was one of the best framers in the game last year, in the minors. And there's a lot of backup catchers, and they were all on my list. Everybody who might conceivably be a backup catcher was on my list. And Rene Garcia seemed as good as any other. So did you request, did you do research?

Did you request framing information on Rene Garcia? Nope. Saw his name on there, recognized it. Okay. All right. I'm going to take Scott Sizemore, who's been hanging around. Who was on my list. Yeah. I'm going to take Scott Sizemore, who's been hanging around. Who was on my list.

Yeah, he got into six games for the Yankees last year. He went five for 16. Not bad. He played in the minors and hit pretty well there, too. 300 plate appearances in Scranton, 762 OPS. He generally hits well. He has had some injury issues, but doesn't have any right now that I'm aware of. He was signed by the Marlins not long ago.

Maybe Dee Gordon will wash out, and Scott Sizemore will be summoned to the major leagues. Yeah, I mean, by far the most likely person on this list other than John Axford to play in an All-Star game this year. Yeah. Not very likely, but more likely than most of the guys we're talking about. Because he is good. Yeah, he's a career 95 OPS plus for an infielder.

I like him a lot. He's the kind of guy that I would probably... Not the kind of guy you'd draft in the first seven rounds of a minor league free agent draft, but maybe in one of your final few picks. I was afraid you were going to take Rene Garcia. Alright.

The next time you tell your kid that he has to eat his broccoli before he can go play Pokemon, and he tells you life isn't fair, you walk him over to the computer show him scott sizemore's career numbers and choke back a sob you didn't even know was there okay yeah uh all right i will take Brandon Allen. Okay. And this is a tough one. I mean, I feel like Brandon Allen is always going to be around AAA mashing. And it doesn't take much for that guy to get, you know,

120 plate appearance hot streak going in the majors or something like that to do the old Russell Branion, as it were. But there's also really only one position for him to play, and it's hard to get into a game when you're only playing that one position, especially because the Mets, who are the team that he is with, the last I checked, have a guy who plays that position. So it's not a great pick, but I feel like there's a decent chance that he'll get released in spring training,

latch on with the Rays, and get into some games. I still like Brandon Allen. I still feel like he could out-hit. It's not useful. This is not a useful skill because he can't do any of the other things. But I still feel like there are on any given moment 400 active

hitters in the majors. Active position players. And I feel like at any given moment he could out-hit 150 of them. Okay. Maybe more. It's just a feeling. He is the 250th greatest hitter in the world.

Yeah. All right. Not quite, but pretty good. Yeah. Okay. So what do I have? Two picks. Two picks.

What do I want to do with those two picks? right i'll take mike baxter okay i'm not really enthusiastic about mike baxter i don't really know why mike baxter keeps getting major league plate appearances but he has for five straight seasons maybe that run is at an end maybe i'm'm buying high on Mike Baxter. He is recently turned 30 years old. Not a whole lot of positional flexibility as a corner outfielder, pinch hitter type, but he was recently signed by the Cubs. Maybe, I don't know, maybe the Cubs like Mike Baxter. If he's good enough for the Cubs, he's good enough for me. Maybe they'll have a couple of their young guys struggle and they'll need to plug in a known veteran who always OPSs 800-something in AAA.

That's Mike Baxter. Good stuff. Mike Baxter is in here. Mike Baxter was the only Dodgers position player to go hitless in 2014. He made the Australia trip and was quickly sent to AAA, but he is an RBI baseball 14. Okay. I'll take it.

Okay. I am real quick going to double check and make sure that this guy hasn't had Tommy John surgery in the last 40 minutes. I will... He probably has. Has he retired? Suspense is killing you. Unless he is retired, I'm going to take...

Oh, he's throwing a bullpen. Throwing a bullpen. Monday. For select teams? For interested teams. Oh, he'll just take anyone. Better adjective. I'm going to take David Ardsmuth.

Oh, okay. Alright. I don't really have anything else to say. I'll allow it. You else to say. Yeah, you're... I'll allow it. You win this one. All right.

Any comment about David Artsman? No. Okay. You know what I love, Ben? So I'm reading this tweet, Ken Rosenthal tweeted from David Artsman's agent, Jamie Murphy, and the replies i love replies to guys who are breaking news because the replies there are always at least

half of them are tell can you tell me more you know like like you're like as though they've held something back and they will tell you if you ask so So this one is, you know, when is James Shield signing? This is a tweet about David Artsma. Do you think Ken Rosenthal is sitting on the James Shields news while he tweets about David Artsma? Yeah. Probably a useful reminder. Oh, right. I should.

James Shields agent is like calling him up to try to give him the scoop. I should probably check on the most important free agent remaining. Good tip, Twitter guy. Sometimes it'll be like, sometimes a guy will be traded for a player to be named later. And the replies are all, who's the player? The amazing thing about Ken Rosenthal is that he answers so many tweets like that. Does he? Yeah, you'd think he would be way too busy to be answering at tweets,

but he does it all the time. Read the article. Is that what he replies? Read the article really angrily? Not really. Very courteous. That is a joke that you don't get. Yeah, I do.

I think I do. You're subtweeting. Yeah, okay. Okay. Man, my last pick. So many ways I could go with this. But I'll go with this, but I'll go with Buck Britton. I like the name, Buck Britton.

It's even better if you read his full name, Buchanan Britton. It's, I think, the second best name on the list after Jose Jose, who's on the list. Yeah, that is a good one. Yeah, that's Brad Ingram's favorite. That was always his favorite name. Yeah, Buck Britton is the second best projected minor league free agent, according to Carson Sestoli.

He is 28. He is an infielder, plays mostly third, and he hits pretty well. You can check out the numbers and you'll see he hits fairly well. He was in Norfolk last year for most of last year at a 744 OPS. That's pretty exciting by the time you get down to the 10th pick in a minor league for agent draft. He was signed by the Dodgers. I don't know if the Dodgers will have an opening for a third baseman. Maybe

maybe Rebay will suddenly get old or something. Maybe he is a Andrew Friedman genius value pick. I don't know. I'm picking Buck Britton. All right. And for my last pick i will take i don't know sam demo

no enthusiasm no i'll take uh I'm really going to take. Okay. Why? And I think assuming this is the player that I Ah! Doggone it. Another pirate. I don't know. Alright.

Fine. Probably no worse than any other pick we've made uh chris valega was an option for me there tommy hansen was an option for me there yeah steve steve johnson long time fan of steve johnson was an option there i have at one point i just wrote Tigers relievers. There's a lot of them. Yeah. I thought about taking Guillermo Quiroz. Yeah. He's generally good for a two spot, two plate appearances. He's had two plate appearances in three seasons, including two of the last three. It's good to get those two on the board.

Thought about Chase Darnot. I thought about Chase Darnot too. It's hard to type though. Philly's infielder. Philly's infielder rationale. Thought about Irving Falou. Did you think about Blake Bevan? Yeah, I had actually Blake Bevan is on my list

in 21-point font because he got pasted in much larger than all the other names for some reason. And he's a Diamondbacks pitcher. Yeah, so Sebastian Valle, young catcher, that's why with the skills. At 24, Sebastian Valle is hardly done. He has a good body and has demonstrated some raw power, but his prospect status has shown a strong negative correlation to the size of his high minors samples.

Thought about Dean Anna, another systole favorite who's signed by the Cardinals. Thought about Jared Geddert. Thought about a lot of things. Blake Lawley? Did you think about Blake Lawley? I didn't think about Blake Lawley. I have like four names left on my list. You've heard them all, but Blake Lawley is one of them.

Okay. Okay. So that concludes our minor league free agent draft. And hopefully our official statistician, John Chenier, will keep track of these guys again as he did last year, post them in the Google Doc, which you can find linked from the Facebook group.

And you can track these guys as we go throughout the season to see whether any of them actually get played appearances. I'm feeling really good about the Jonathan Galvez pick because after I picked him I noticed that a blog called Pinstripe Pundits listed him as the 66th best Yankees prospect.

And we know how deep the Yankees system goes, so number 66 in the Yankees system. That's like number 215 in the Cubs system. How deep does that prospect list go? 100. Wow.

Who is number 100? Giovanni Gallegos. Giovanni spelled like Soto or with an I? Spelled G-I-O-V-A-N-N-Y. Ah, yes. Okay. Wow. Does not... Does not...

His baseball reference page doesn't show up when you Google it. So he must be... He must not be stateside yet. Give me number 99. He's a pre-hype sleeper. He... Number 99. Jerry Seitz. S-E-I-T-Z? Yes.

He has a baseball reference page. He does. Jerry Seitz. Catch-E-I-T-Z? Yes. He has a baseball reference page. He does. Jerry Seitz, catcher. 5'10", 180 from Venezuela. Wow. He's also not stateside, but good year. Good year last year. Jeez Louise.

Jerry Seitz. He's only 99? Yeah. He's a catcher. He had a 972 OPS in a league that doesn't necessarily actually exist, but still. You'd think that would be better than number 99 in the Yankee system. Threw out 40% of base runners, apparently. Jerry Seitz, common name in Venezuela.

Gets hit by a lot of pitches. Give me 98. By the way, Jerry Seitz. Yeah, you're right. That's not what I was expecting. I saw that he was born in Santa Barbara, and I'm like, yep. And then it said Venezuela.

We still got a couple shows left before we start our team preview series. Are you sure you want to burn all these top 99 Yankees prospects now? Give me 98. I want to see what a 98 best prospect looks like in the States. David Palladino.

Okay. Played for the Staten Island Yankees. Staten Island, yeah. 21 years old, New York Penn League, 3.80 RA. That's boring. Fifth rounder. Deep cuts. Oh, 6'8".

6'8". I would think that a guy a pitcher who's six eight could not possibly this this list is not a good list sites i know this system pretty well sites should be around 45 and balladino somewhere between 35 and 60 yeah jonathan gate is absurd you give me a 68 right hander and there's no way he's 98 in any system What if he throws 82 Doesn't matter downhill plane Chris Young

How hard Chris Young throw Ben Not very hard Okay alright That's enough for today As I mentioned we will be returning To five shows a week starting next Monday But we'll be back with your emails tomorrow. So send us some at podcast at baseball prospectus.com rate review,

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