High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Recapping The Phillies 2025 Draft With Assistant GM Brian Barber!

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Philadelphia Phillies assistant general manager Brian Barber joins the High Hopes podcast to recap the team's 2025 draft class and what he expects from Gage Wood and the rest of the young players. Presented by Miller Lite To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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High Hopes! On the Odyssey app and sports radio 94 WIP. The crowd was singing High Hopes! Smiling through a broken nose. Oh, High ho, high ho I feel a little less alone Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Who is another edition of the High Ops Podcast presented by Miller Lite, official partner of the Philadelphia Phillies,

Taste Like Miller Time Philadelphia. Celebrate responsibly and we got a special, special pod for you, it's our favorite pod we do every year. It's honestly a thrill that it's become an annual thing. I can't believe it from the time that Jack French mentioned the name Brian Barber to the high ups audience and no one in Philadelphia had heard the name and now he's assistant general manager in charge of scouting no big deal and it's his time here the draft our guy friend of

the podcast. Mr. Brian Barber Brian, how are you pal? Really good. And as appreciative as I am to be on this, I's no way in the world. I can do what you just did James So I'm Very excited to be on here Always always a fun time to talk about the draft itself. And then obviously the players that we were able to bring into the system Yeah Go ahead Jackie Jack's like, as always, Brian, I mean, before you don't take everyone inside baseball,

you know, when we do this, I have a list of like 40 draft questions about players and this, like every player you drafted Jack has a question about, and I have to edit him down and be like, we can't ask about every, we can't have Brian on the pod for two and a half hours, but Jack's really excited, so we're, we're always, always. Well,

I mean, before we even get into anything, I feel like we don't even know who you are anymore. I mean, six college arms to start a draft. I mean, who is Brian Barber? Just you peg down. I try to tell everybody throughout the past years where it was like we do like these guys It just didn't line up that way and this year it just happened to line up that way where I Thought going into this year there the idea that You know that we would take more pitching in general what was probably something that we were going to do

But you just never know how it actually lines up That's one of the things that that's so exciting going into it is all the preparation that you were going to do but you just never know how it actually lines up. That's one of the things that's so exciting going into it is all the preparation that you have going into it. You don't have necessarily plans but you prepare for whatever eventuality happens when it's your time to pick and this year just lined up to it was more college pitching on that side and pitching in general. So I think I told everybody going into this draft, one of the two big strengths of the draft was college pitching in general.

And so at least I didn't lie there. At least that was what I thought, that was what we thought and ended up turning out to be that way. So. Yeah, Brian, these days it's almost surprising when someone says something like pre draft pre trade This is that and then actually follows through with what they said

You almost have to like read the tea leaves and everything these days I want to I want to get into the specifics of the draft but quickly just just to catch up You know, we've been talking to you about how you been housing you're the new year in Philly? I mean, you're an assistant general manager now, no big deal. You know, um, how has it been, you know, uh, kind of getting more cemented in Philly, your, uh, was it fourth draft now? I believe since you've been here, is that right? Fourth or fifth, six, six. Holy cow.

I, I, the time moves so fast. I have a six year old and it was quick for me as well. So crazy, right. Right. There was. I, the time moves so fast. I have a six year old and it was quick for me as well. So how you feeling like now, now you know, you're, you've been here for a little while. You've been a part of this organization for a while. How have you kind of settled into Philadelphia thing and, and how you feel in just a part of the organization before we, we dive into this specifics and I let Jack go wild.

Yeah. I mean, love it. Love working here. And, and here. And it's been, I guess it was five years since we drafted Mick, but actual six drafts. So going back to 2020, the COVID year with Mick, and obviously Andy, and moving forward with Justin, Aidan, Dante last year, and then engaged this year just headlining the drafts. I love working here. I really do.

The organization is unbelievable. It's in a good spot. From ownership down to Dave, to Preston taking, leadership in the GM role now, it's tremendous people, it's a tremendous organization, and it's just led by the leaders that run this place. My job hasn't changed a whole lot with the addition of the assistant GM title. I'm involved in a little bit more,

but my day-to-day duties still revolve around the draft and all things draft considered. So it's been ramped up a little bit, but the job itself hasn't changed a whole lot though. And I love what I'm doing. So I don't really want it to change. Yeah, yeah, I know that game, man. I know that game. It's a pretty great job. It's a pretty great job.

So from the outside looking in, I think the first reaction to the overall draft was they drafted a lot of guys that could theoretically help them sooner rather than later. And you would think that 27, I think your whole 26, I think your whole philosophy has been more, well, let's drop the high school kid because of what they could turn out to be. But this year seemed like a bit of a change there. Was it more of a, was there an organizational push to, to get guys that might help the big league club a little bit quicker? No, not really, not at all. I think whenever you dive down the college,

specifically college pitching route, you're gonna come out with guys that have more nowness to the things that they do. So people automatically assume that, this guy could potentially be a quick mover. And I do think that's probably the case for a lot of these guys, that they have the potential and ability

to move through an organization quickly, but it was not at the expense of what their potential and upside could be and the fact that they could still be impactful major league, in this case, pitchers for us. So I think they sort of work in combination. Sometimes the upside, you know, sort of coincides with a little bit more speed up to the big leagues. But the goal is never an amateur scouting side. Who can get there

first? It's who's the best once they get there. Let's get to Gage Wood because kind of a unique thing I think I certainly as Phillies fans picking in the 20s, it's rare that that we get the guy that everyone's heard of the guy that had the big moment, you know, the guy that we played audio of him on our morning show before he was ever a Philly when he when he had the 19 strikeout game. So just the, the gauge would thing off the top and we'll get into specifics. But I know, Jack knows like there's one thing about this kid that I've been obsessed with since the 19 strikeout, no hitter thing. And I want your opinion on it too, because the audio we played was after he throws this no hitter 19 strikeouts in the college world series, a kid on the big stage, unbelievable. When he gets asked about it, his first response is I shouldn't hit the guy. And then when he's here the other day to sign his contract, he gets asked about, he's like, I think about hitting that guy every day. Like for me, like, I just love that mentality. I love the, you know, that kind of fire that he has. Can you talk about obviously, what you led you to gauge but also that specific part of him, the part of him that allowed him to have that outing in the first place, but that mentality of someone who comes out of that all-time great college performance and says I shouldn't hit the guy. Yeah, Gage is intense. I can tell you. Yeah, man. Yeah

But there's also like you get him away from from obviously from that type of You know arena where he needs to be intense to be able to pitch the way that he does And he's he's just a great human being as well to be able to pitch the way that he does. And he's just a great human being as well. He's from a very small town in Arkansas, Batesville, Arkansas, and all he wanted to do coming out of high school was pitch at the University of Arkansas.

And I joked about that with him where it's like every SEC weekend in Fayetteville is like third world series. It's just so big. And yeah, it was a cool thing to see. I, I immediately just cracked out laughing at it as well. Uh, but, but it's just, it sort of describes him to a T on who he is, where it's like the intense desire to be as good as he can be as, as a mate, you know, eventual major league pitcher is like that came through and spades where

it's just like, all right, you got a pretty good idea really quickly on who this kid is. Um, so I mean, besides some of the baseball stuff we might get into with him, uh, you know, the makeup portion of it that, you know, Tommy field, who is our scout there in the area started with him, uh, you know, almost a year ago now trying to dig into, obviously not just what they can do on the field, but who they are as people as well. Yeah, I think I said it on draft day. I think the fans of Philadelphia

are really gonna love this guy. I'm Kristen Press. And I'm Dovan Heath. We're World Cup winners, Olympians, and the hosts of the recap show. Every week we sit down with the icons, disruptors, and game changers on the field and beyond it to talk victories, heartbreaks, and everything in between. We've built a space where athletes, change makers, and people creating

the future of women's sports can show up and show off as their full unapologetic selves. Follow and listen to The Recap show wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, he's definitely a Philly guy. There is no doubt about it, man. Yeah, he's going to be awesome. And I'm curious, the first time you saw Gage Wood, were you surprised that he was still there at 26? I mean, was there a moment where you were like, man, if he's there, I don't know how I could pass up the opportunity to get him. You go into the day, and especially picking later in the draft, which we've done here,

and then in my previous job with the Yankees, I've been sort of used to picking later in the draft, so you really never know what's going to get there. So I'll give you a little bit of an insight. We went into that day, it was about five guys that were lined up on the board. It's, you know, one of these guys could end up being in that range. You try to take out the guys that for sure

are not gonna get there and try to get into the actual, actual nuts and bolts of who might get there. And obviously he sat really good on that list of five guys. So we knew going into the day, there a strong chance that if he was there, he was going to be our guy. But going into it, you just didn't know and talking to multiple clubs beforehand, there were multiple opportunities for him to not be sitting there at 26 when we pick. So I know he was in the mix for teams as high as the low teams in their mix. So

for him to fall, you know, whatever, how many more spots, obviously we were really excited that he was still there on the board. And you've obviously scouted a lot of pitchers with power fastballs. What kind of makes his fastball special? Because it looks like a special pitch from the naked eye. Yeah, it's really got the combination of things that you look for to have a swing and miss fastball. It's got low release height, it has extension, he has carry, he has velocity. It's really all the ingredients to have like an elite VAA foreseen fastball that creates swing and miss and that's the one thing that going into the year or going through the year where you look at it and that's the one thing that going going into the year are going through the year

where you look at it and it's like why do you like gauge would and it's a 44.6% with rate on his fastball and a twenty three two point two percent swinging strike rate on his fastball It's just a dominating pitch that we think is going to continue at that type of elite level Come on. Yeah, listen, you're breaking out VAA on us. Oh, buddy. What are the drafts come to? I just haven't, we haven't been able to draft those type of guys that I've been going into it with. I mean, these are things that, you know,

going back 10 years now that as we start learning what really makes a fast ball, you know, the difference between good, great and elite, He has the elite qualities that give it, that it ends up being what it really is. It's just, you know, he ends up with a 46% strikeout rate and a 4.7% walk rate and it's just like, alright, it's led by that. Not a play. Not a play. led by that week's basketball. Not a play. Not a play. Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe hehehe hehehe hehehe hehehe he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he he ended up having to come out of with the little shoulder stuff that he had. But it was the

couple innings that he pitched there, he struck out six guys in two innings and just completely dominated with it. And that was a guy that, you know, we were obviously we were hoping that he came back and came back healthy, which he did, and we're able to stay on top of it. But that game there was the one that really jumped out to us that this guy might be a top pick. When talking about gauge, and I think, you know, obviously it's something that we talked about pops off with the mentality and the intensity, but I'm so fascinated by makeup in general. I think it's one of those things. I think you see it in really all the major sports drafting. I think quarterback is a big thing. You see the NFL with if you're

not in the room with the guy and you can't talk to them and really understand who they are as a person, as a leader, how they go about their business, how they analyze things. You can't really know what they're gonna be as a player. And that's something that you get to see with these guys. You get that side of them that we don't. How much, and obviously Gage seems like,

a high-end example of it, but how much does makeup factor into your decision making process when you do this stuff? And how hard is it to judge makeup, especially on someone I know Gage is a college kid, but on these high school kids who are children, like they haven't lived life yet, it's so hard to judge who they're going to become. How do you analyze makeup? It's such a fascinating thing to me.

Yeah, well, twofold on that. So makeup is a huge part and almost everybody that we bring into the organization. It's something that that's just almost a prerequisite for our scouts to have done on a player for us to even think about drafting and as they've gone in, met the met the person and done work there. And we're led by at CC craft C.C. Kraft and Tracy Statler, who's our draft coordinator on the mental performance side.

If they lead, it's almost like we have specific questions that we're trying to ask along the way. We don't give them a quiz and think we're gonna try to come out and figure out what their psychological testing tells us. But it's the idea that we're trying to dig in and find out what makes this person tick and allows them to, what the successful major leaguers have and what the ones that end up not being what they don't possess and trying to figure out if these kids possess the good qualities. So it's a huge, huge factor in who we bring into the system. And

that's, you know, not even talking about who can potentially handle Philadelphia and who you know, who can handle a smaller market club, we get into the weeds on that as well. Yeah, let me matter. I mean, we've seen it, we see it every day in this city. It's it's it's an intense place and you do have to be able to handle it. It's a great point. No doubt. So last one on gauge before we get into the true sicko hours Jack's time to shine. Yes, that's exactly right.

Come on. So we've talked about on the pod, like when he got drafted, the idea of could, if they don't, whatever happens next week, the idea of him helping this team down the stretch run out of the bullpen, what is your overall thought on something like that? Well, I understand you don't wanna put pressure on him. We get it, we get it.

No, yeah, yeah, yeah. Without, I mean, what we wanna do first and foremost is be smart and responsible. The one of the things that the later draft does is make it harder for the pitching to get going right away. So we have Gage Wood who ramped up before the season for his Arkansas season and ramped up, pitched through the end of February, got shut down with his shoulder for a few weeks, had to ramp back up to get back in mid April and then obviously pitched through the end of February, got shut down with his shoulder for a few weeks, had to ramp back up to get back in mid-April, and then obviously pitched through the end of the College World Series where he made significant jumps in his pitch counts along the way to throwing

119 pitches that last game, and now hasn't thrown in a game for a month again. So your first and foremost thinking that this is is a long term play is to do a smart and responsible build up and see where he's at. So we're going to do that. You know, how where that leads to, you know, some games in Clearwater possibly jumped at the end of their season, obviously their season in Jersey Shore ends the same week. Does he potentially jump up to Redding and see how that works? Not sure where that goes, but right now we're taking it one day at a time and just trying to be smart

with what we do while still having the idea that this guy's pretty good now, but the idea is for him to be really good for the next 10, 15 1520 years for us. But at the same time, I've had I mean, come on, that power fastball freaking out in front of a sold out CDP. Listen, we all have visions around you. I'm just I'm just kidding. All right. So like, can you just

tell me that Kate Obermuller is a shorter Andrew Miller, because he looks like he looks like a shorter Andrew Miller, we are we are such an Andrew Miller pod. Like I I've said to Jay, I think I think Tito and Andrew Miller in 2016 changed the way relievers are used. I think that was the beginning of the way baseball changed with the high leverage stuff and bringing Miller into the fifth inning and sixth inning of playoff games.

We are such big Andrew Miller fans. So before you answer, just know that is about as high a compliment as we can offer someone. I'll take your word on that. There are obviously some differences between, besides the, I don't know, what is seven or eight inches in I was like six seven I think Miller what he doesn't have in height he really makes up for an

athleticism and this is a guy that that at his height he can he can do you know dunks on the basketball court the athletic assessment testing that we were able to see and do with him is he's like 99 percent tile as far as like vertical jumps and broad jumps and so it just you know you get some of that athleticism. That's like a football player or something there you know. He's got the uniqueness to his delivery. He's got seven feet of extension even though he's only six feet tall. He's got the low release height. He does it easy. We've seen him up to 98

He's got the sweeper with up to like 20 inches of sweep that you've seen That I like I've seen it in person where he's got two legit swing and miss pitches He's come a long way in the last 12 to 18 months as far as strike throwing ability That was the one thing that probably he would have been drafted and a good spot last year. Obviously as a draft eligible sophomore, he put a higher price on his ability to go out last year. But he also proved two things where he had the ability to hold up as a starter throughout the year. And then the strike throwing just got a whole lot better with him. So like, there are a lot of things we really like about him and where eventuality of where that goes, I don't know. We don't know on a lot of these guys, what they necessarily end up being. We want to bring in quality people with quality stuff that their stuff could continue to get better and figure out later what they necessarily, is he a two

starter, a four starter, a closer, I'm just speaking in general. Sometimes those things are figured out in the big leagues. We've got two guys that are in the rotation now, Chris Sanchez and Ranger Suarez, and through their first couple years in the big leagues, people didn't know what they are. And now Chris Sanchez is one of the best pitchers

in all of baseball. Ranger Suarez is not too far behind him as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. And these guys were two or three years into their big leagues careers before we really figured out what they were. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there must be something going on with Iowa.

I mean, between Caitlin Clark, between, you know, Cooper DeGene. Cooper DeGene, yeah. yeah. Kate Obermuller. I hope he's the next in line with those guys. Yes, yes if he has some Cooper DeGene moments here we will be very very very happy. Yes. Yeah. Cody Balker I'm fascinated with. I mean because again by the naked eye it sort of looks like a it looks like a unicorn fastball I'm sure you have all the you want to break down the VA is again and all that you You can do that with him I mean one of the things that jumps out with Cody is that he's a super athletic guy as well that this is really his

First full year solely pitching he went to Georgetown out of high school and he was a shortstop slash pitcher So he didn't have the ability to work on those. Obviously this past year he transferred to Vanderbilt and was solely worked on pitching. So we think there's upside there as well as continuing down that path, but it is elite foreseen shape from his slot. It's just one of the most, it's really one

of the most unique VAA foreseamers in the entire draft. It really is. So the velocity isn't on the upper end, but it's still up to 95, 96 where I saw him at the SEC tournament. I happen to see him twice this year and he's up into the mid 90s at every start. Between the shape and eventuality of hoping to add on a tick or two in velocity, we think it's gonna continue to be an elite four, Seema. Yeah, it looks awesome.

Sean Youngerman also fascinated by, because it looks like it's untapped potential. Like it's close, but it's almost like a ball of clay that you could possibly turn into like a mid rotation type in Sean Huckerman. This is an elite competitor, extremely, extremely high end makeup kid and an elite strike thrower right now. I think it was under a 4% walk rate in college this year. We saw this guy right out of the gate.

It was the first weekend of the year. He's had a big tournament at Globe Life and he was in the bullpen then at the time and we identified him that weekend as a potential guy that we would want to move into the starting rotation and he went back and forth there at Oklahoma State. It was one game they moved him into the starting rotation and out of the bullpen decided to throw him 133 pitches. He absolutely dominated the game. But he's just some of the things that you see in college where you sort of scratch your head and things that we would never do on the pro side. But it was also good for us to see what the potential could end up being. It's a carry fastball with 20 inches of vert.

He uses it a ton. If he uses it over 70% of the time, it's up to 97 miles an hour. We really think it's an unoptimized arsenal with the other pitches as well. We see starter all the way with him. Yeah, mechanics seem really clean. I'm fascinated by him, definitely.

Gabe Craig might be 24, but I mean, it's a 70 grade slider. I mean, if there was, listen, we don't wanna put, but it reminds me a lot of when you drafted Orion Kirkgrin. There's no doubt. I mean, this was a guy that, he's had some shoulder injuries in previous years and was finally got healthy this year got to Baylor they got him in a really good spot in all

honesty yes he's older but he's a legit real prospect and he's still young in his pitching life and in all reality he might have had the most dominating year in all of college baseball as a pitcher 0.56 E ERA, 46% K-rate, 2.7% walk rate, and he might have the most elite pitch in all of college baseball in his slider. That's a resume right there, like that, right there, resume, bang, you know? It's the reality of it.

It looks elite, it has elite data to it, and it plays elite with like a 46% whiff rate on that pitch where it looks elite, it has elite data to it, and it plays elite with like a 46% whiff rate on that pitch where it's like, and he's up to 97 as well. So. No big deal. One of the guys that we had see him, it was actually in the big 12 tournament,

was Bryce Harmon, who was our area scout at the time when Kirk Green came out. Bryce is at a higher level now as one of our cross checkers, but he said he called me right away and it's like, Hey, I'm not putting this on him as well, but there are some similarities to Kirkering with, with the slider, with the fastball velocity and a lot of our guys see a path to both the four seam and two seam fastball that Kirkering is using now and having that two seam play off the slider that he's got, we see big potential. So Gabe is one of the guys that we're going to get obviously smart and responsible as

well because he hasn't thrown in a month and a half, but he is going to get out there and throw some innings hopefully for us this year. Yeah. I mean, I was already excited about Gabe Craig, but I'm going to be honest, I might be rated by Jersey. I might be rated by Jersey. That was, that was dying. Oh, that mean, I was already excited about game, Greg, but I'm going to be honest, I might be rated by a Jersey. I might be rated by a Jersey. That was dying. That got me excited. One step at a time with all these guys.

I mean, as excited as we get, obviously, and this is without even being said, the world of college baseball is so far and away from the big leagues. It's just, we're seeing guys that dominate AAA now come up to the big leagues and struggle. But these guys do a lot of the things that allow us to dream in that way as well.

So, the data backs up what we see visually, the performance lines up with what we see visually. It's like, what else are you looking for? Brian, I say this every time you come on. I think you have the hardest job on the planet, like trying to look at 18 and 21 year olds and knowing what they're going to grow into in their late twenties and the, you know, how their bodies are going to develop and how their arm movements are going to last in terms of injury and this and that, like there's

so much projection in what you have to do. So don't worry, we get it. It's definitely not, you know, we're not going to put too much pressure on these guys, but I, I, I've always, I've said it to you many times, like when you went on, I'm just, I've always thought of all the sports, like trying in baseball with the amount of kids you have to choose from and then the ages that you're picking at and what they have to ultimately become. I think is by far the hardest of the scouting director jobs. Yeah.

I try to tell people it's really the journey along the way that's, that's so fraught with risk. It's not necessarily like, did you pick the right guy, tools-wise or athletic-wise, but it's just from the starting point of whether that's getting into mini camp and getting into rookie ball and getting into low A and just knowing that the path is a multi-year path with risk along the way and whether they know whether they end up being good whether there's injury along The way there's just so many things that that are trying to prevent them from making it and and hopefully the right ones end up making it so so I got I

Got one that I will try to lump together before you fire out any question you want Jack I have one at the end. Maybe the most important one. That's just all I'll say. Well, I could spend the next, we'll get to him. We'll get to him. But Brian Walters signed yesterday. Good to see and James Talon. Brian Walters, if I'm right, he was dealing a little bit of injury stuff, but he also has been up to like 98 and obviously his brother had an unbelievable fastball when he was at Miami as well. What can you tell us about those two guys James Town and Brian Walters? Yeah, I'll start with Brian since you had him. The injuries were more in the past. He did have Tommy John

I think that was two two and a half years ago, and then he had his ulna nerve transposition last year while he was at Miami. He was totally healthy this year. transposition last year while he was at Miami. He was totally healthy this year. He flipped back and forth between that starting rotation and the bullpen. One of the most exciting things that we see about Brian Walters is just a completely unoptimized arsenal that he has.

This guy has an elite four-scene fastball and sweeper and they made him, he threw two-seam short bullet slider this year in college and it's like from our meeting at the combine, we talked about what, we were trying to find out from him where that led to. It was not a him type of thing. He's all on board with some of the things that we see and that's what he wants to do. I saw on today is Saturday, those guys were down Thursday playing catch on

the field in Clearwater. He's playing it with a four seam grip and we're going to try to let that get going. So where that leads to, like we see the possibility of him, you know, Ali's being developed as a starter and see where that leads to as well. Because yeah, he's been up to 98, he throws strikes, we want to bring back the type of arsenal that we think is going to play a little bit better We were super excited about being able to get him where we did and James Talon was one It was one of the things that we do is we're leading up almost into our meetings as I

I'll start sending out little projects to our scouts and it's like hey, who would your dream pick be in the second round? Who would your dream pick be in, you know, an early day to type of guy. And in that situation, James Talon was almost like on a leaderboard for all of our scouts is like a dream pick early day to ish type guy to get. He's six five. He's left handed. He's got a very good fastball. It's unique, unique slot with Kerry to it.

He kept getting better and better as the year went on. I think it was like a low 32% whiff rate on the fastball. And we think there's both physical projection along with deception, uniqueness, and the ability for his arsenal to get better as well. So, yeah, two guys that we were super excited to walk away with and that's obviously the sixth and then the eighth round. So inside my life, last week-

We wanna go there, that's a dangerous place to be. So during the draft, I was, we were on vacation. I was driving, we were all driving to up in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. And, you know, I pull off to the side of the road or stop for a second check my notifications And I see in the seventh round you drafted Matthew Fisher And you want to talk about I'm not saying I was speeding the rest of the way I was on I was on cloud nine. I can't tell you how many Matthew Fisher texts

I've gotten since then including that night Brian like I am the name Matthew Fisher has popped up in my text from Jack Many times since then I mean to me he he's like obviously a top two round pick But like it's it's it's so untapped because he looks so athletic on the mound He's up to what? 94 already. I mean, Matthew Fisher, I see it seems like a home run pick. What can you tell us about Matthew? Yeah, obviously, it's a guy that we identified last summer, last fall or before he went on to the football field.

Matthew is elite athleticism. I believe it is all state quarterback. If I remember right, it was 44 touchdowns and one interception as a quarterback. As a quarterback. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And yeah. That's even more impressive than the 46% pay rate

to the 47% walk rate he gave us before. Wow. So, and again, high quality makeup with that one. We've seen it up to 96 already and early season outings, especially he's got a natural feel to throw a baseball and spin a baseball in general. So it's a unique fastball profile right now with both cut and ride. Like I said, we've seen it up to 96. Um, he's got,

he can really spin both a power curve ball and a cutter, uh, really high level strike throwing ability for a high school kid. It's athleticism and it oozes with projection and he does it really easy, both delivery wise, arm action wise. There's hints of now stuff, like hints of now really good stuff

and the projection for those to all be get really really good obviously it was It was you never know what happened It's going to happen in a draft and how how things fall and why guys fall I can tell you that without going too deep into the woods here Matthew Fisher is exactly where he wants to be and in he's with the team that really wanted him the most. So I think it was something that in the end, you know, for both of us were extremely happy it ended up the way that it did. Yeah, yeah, he's, he's, he's, I'm pretty geeked up.

I'm pretty geeked up at Matthew Fisher. It's gonna be, it's gonna be awesome. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. Does your belly grumble like it's holding a grudge? Atrontile targets the root cause of bloating and discomfort, those icky, methane-producing bacteria in your small intestine. Autrontil brings together natural ingredients and smart science to help soothe your symptoms. Say goodbye to bloating and gut rebellion. Say hello to digestive harmony and make peace with your gut. Autrontil. Naturally powerful. Clinically proven.

Learn more at autranteel.ca. All right. Hold on. I do have one more thing on him and this is no factor in us taking him. He also happens to be from the same hometown as our general manager Preston Mattingly in Evansville. No way! How about that? So Preston is, Prest Preston is this is one of the kids obviously not too many kids come from the Evansville Indiana area Preston has been asking about Matthew since last fall when we first started getting some of our follower reports in autumn so I think it was one that he was excited although he doesn't see very many amateurs He was told me Brian. It's funny. I saw him at the game the other day and I was like, yeah

Jack's you were excited about Matthew Fisher. He's like, yeah, he's like he's like I trust Brian on that He's like I haven't watched it on he's like that's Brian He was like you were right like he doesn't he's like that's Brian's on it Which is cool like that. He just gives you this autonomy too to go and do your job I think in any job that's so important so Preston we we love Preston Mattingly here oh I know he's a yeah he's our guy don't worry I won't I won't have you rank the two of us on here for your favorite on the pod well again it's like children you know like you can't say which child you love the most I mean come on and I mean he's big-time for this nitty-gritty stuff. You kidding me?

I mean you think we're breaking down Matthew Fisher the seventh round. I mean he doesn't have that in the arsenal anymore Person but I think he knows enough of what we think He might not have seen them in person, but I think he knows enough of what we think and thought of him and watched everything. So that is what you mentioned. That's what's so great, both about Preston Day. Really all of our front office is, you know, completely involved in it as well while giving autonomy to the scouting department to at least recommend what the right moves are to make and go through that.

So those guys are deeply involved in our process throughout the year, but allow us to go and do our jobs as well. I'm just trolling them. All right. So the see, you drafted two prep short stops, both kind of local, Matthew Ferrara, and then Logan Dawson, like seems like a pretty huge Fills fan. Was that kind of cool getting to draft a local kid that also ends up being a really big fan of the team? Yeah, really cool. Obviously not a reason necessarily why we like them, especially talking with Logan. I mean, Matthew was more North Jersey and I don't want to blow his cover, but I was probably more of a Yankee fan before a few days ago.

Especially today, this weekend. I mean, we got a game coming up against him, right? Yeah, a tough one for him last night, huh? Yeah, take that, New York. I think at this point now that he's a Philly, I think he's probably happy that we won the game. Yeah, I'd say so too. But Logan specifically, yeah, he's right over the bridge.

I mean, I think he told me it takes him about 20 minutes to get to the ballpark. But a lot of things there to liken him and the athleticism high school quarterback that had the opportunity to go play college football if he wanted to do that, he was that enough level of quarterback to be able to do that.

But we think there's projection in the body. It's really good makeup. Yes, he's a huge Phillies fan, but not why we like them. Might have had a part of why we were able to end up bringing him and making him a Philly part of that, but we like them because there's high upside to his athleticism and what he can do on the baseball field. And what about, what about Ferrara? Yes. This one, this is one that we identified going back to last year where Logan was, he baseball field. And what about what about Ferrari? Hopefully you spoke up. Yes, Ferrari.

This one, this is one that we identified going back to last year where Logan was more this past spring. Matthew Ferrari, we were able to identify last year. We thought we think the guy can hit. I mean, that's the reality of it. We think he can hit and he's a really good baseball player and he's a plus runner. So we think he's going to be able to grow into some power

along with the bat. We had both of those guys at a workout at Citizens Bank Park shortly before the draft. Matthew showed what some of the now power is and what we think it can be in the future. They both have an ability, they're both gonna be developed as shortstop, but both of them have the ability to play

all over the field. If necessary, both plusis runners, both athletes. Matthew's Ferraro is probably a little bit more advanced with the bat, and hence why he went where he did in the draft. So I'm curious about Landon Schaeffer, because he took his name, I don't think he, he might have took his name. I don't think he might look at him out of the draft. Like what was the thought process behind just? Taking him in the 20th round Landon's a guy that we've always we've liked for a long time and this is

Both Tommy field and Brad Holland who's our regional supervisor there in that area identified him early on as a guy that we really like Just like I said before, you never know exactly what's going to happen and why the draft is going on. He got to a point where he felt that Arkansas made a strong run to keep him going to college. He didn't officially take his name, although he might've put that out on Twitter or X or whatever it's called now.

There was nothing official. Twitter it's Twitter. I always refer to it as that as well. Yeah. Yeah. He did. So he didn't officially take his name out of the draft through Major League Baseball. So we still have the opportunity to draft him. And the reason you do something like that is you never know what happens along the way and signing players. So there could be somebody that ends up that you think you have an agreement to that ends up backing out of a deal and all of a sudden you have extra money. There might be something that comes through in somebody's medical where all of a sudden he's signing for a different number that you originally agreed to and all of a sudden you have extra money that's there.

And that situation was explained to Landon right away. He was happy to end up being drafted, obviously not where he was, and all likelihood he's gonna end up going to University of Arkansas now, and we wish nothing but the best, but those are the type of situations. You get a player that you really like,

that you have an inkling that wants the sign, but just the money's not lining up right there, and all of a sudden you have a guy that you have as a backup option in case something does happen. So, Brian, last one from us and thank you so much for being so generous with your time. I get and humoring Jack. We really appreciate it. It really did. I was going to say make his week, make his month, make his year, whatever.

I told you this guys before, like I love talking about these guys. And especially now that the guys that you, that you were able to bring into the system, and that's official now, all these, these 19 hours. Yeah, it's exciting. After Logan officially signed yesterday afternoon, he'll be heading down to Clearwater here within the next, I think 24 hours and get started on his journey

to hopefully being a major league baseball player. I love talking this stuff. I really do. This is I do this every day with somebody at least on the phone or in person. So why not you guys today? Well, we love that man. It really does mean a lot and I know our listeners love it.

Last one and I said before, I think it's most important when I stand by that. I am not a scout. I don't have those abilities. I've watched a lot of baseball in my life and in the building, as they say, for many baseball games. I just wanted to get the official Philly scouting department opinion, take, statement, whatever, on I was witness to a absolute dominant pitching performance at the

Plymouth White Marsh High School one Jack Fritz no hitting Joe to camera eight straight outs five of them strikeouts a little high heat to close it out you know I know he's 31 I know he might be a little past his prime. I know he's only pumped in there like 72 or 73. But the official scouting department Brian Barber statement on the the impressive dominant all time great outing, especially with the pressure on from one Jack. Knowing knowing I'm a little held back because I was not there in person and didn't get a first person view. I did see some of this. I will tell you to the, to I'll keep this as my opinion

and keep it away. I like that. That's probably a good idea. Maybe we avoid the official statement thing. I get it. I get it. Yeah. Jack is doing exactly what he should be doing right now. So quick follow up.

Quick follow up arm didn't recover for at least a week and a half. That's probably a negative as well. And you just you just weren't in throwing shade yet. You see, you didn't do the smart and responsible buildup like we're trying to do with some of see. I just like get him up there. Why is it getting to the majors yet? What's going on? Why isn't there yet?

And I did both me engage would our walkout songs are rooster. So another another thing that we did ask about that he was there for the for the Wheeler start last week and it did notice that he came out to a different song last week. I don't know when that changed. It was four starts ago. I knew last one wasn't the first one but I didn't know how long ago it was but I think he was a little excited at the opportunity that that song might be available as well because he does like it. It's the best. It's the best walkout song and it like CBP before a playoff game and Rooster comes on. I'd say it's chill inducing Brian. It's chill inducing. Well, Brian, seriously, man, I know you love talking about,

but we love talking to you about it even more And I know our audience loves it and we look forward to having you back Obviously friend of the pod. This is an annual thing now and and hopefully they give us another reason to have you on and all that But I'm just I know for me. It means a lot. I can't even put into words how much it means Jack Thank you, my friend. We really appreciate it. Like I said I love doing this you guys are great guys anytime you guys want me on please don't hesitate to ask Jack, James thank you very much for everything. Dangerous thing to say with Jack Fritz on the way. I'd say yes every time. Say the drafts in Philly next year. That's right. We are already trying to figure out what all is going on between the All-Star game, what's

taken up by Major League Baseball, what's still available to us in the stadium. I think there's a pretty big soccer tournament going on. Oh yeah, there is. Oh my goodness. Wow. Yeah. And just the country celebrating 250 in the city and all that's going to be so much going on.

There's a few different things going on there that we're already trying to plan for all those things. Well, we'll be all over it for sure. Yeah. Well, definitely leave early wherever you have to go because there's going to be a lot of traffic. Yeah. Maybe we'll get an escort or something if needed. All right. Again, Brian, thank you especially given us all this time.

Can't tell you much. We appreciate it. We'll have them on again soon. So for Philly's amateur scouting director and assistant general manager, Brian Barber for Jack Fritz, I'm James Seltzer. Thanks for listening to another edition of the Hi Host Podcast. He's Fritz and Seltzer.

We'll talk to you guys later.