Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - 2023 Preseason Mariners Prospect Rankings: Nos. 20-11

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

Ty and Colby continue their prospect re-rank with Nos. 20-11 in the Mariners' farm system, including a reliever they're incredibly high on and one they believe is widely overrated. Who might that be? Listen to find out!Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Join our Slack!FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Place your first FIVE DOLLAR bet to get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Free Bets – win or lose! Visit Fanduel.com/LockedOn today to get startedFANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's episode of Lockdown Mariners, prospect week continues with prospects 20 through 11 in the Mariners farm system. Colby, hit it. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. It is Wednesday, February 1st, 2023. This is Tadine Gazzalas and Colby Patnaud for the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Brought to you by Fandul, the official sports book of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

Make every moment more. visit fanduel.com slash locked on today to get started. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe, like, and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube, or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform. If you like what you hear. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon.

The link as well as our social accounts is in the description below. On the show today, we'll be continuing our re-rank of the Mariners Farm System with Prospects 20 through 11. We did 30 through 21 yesterday. So if you haven't checked that out yet, do it. Also, yes, our number 22 prospect, J.B. Bukowskus, was DFA'd yesterday. But we will wait to see if he sticks with the organization or not before amending our list. But yeah, that was the timing of that was.

Comical. Yeah, indeed. Quick reminder of how this list works. Colby and I both put together individual prospect rankings and combined the two lists using a point space. system to create the list you'll see today. You'll also see our individual rankings for each player we talk about. And again, this is all based on, you know, reading reports, watching video, et cetera, and crafting our opinion from that. We do not see these guys on a regular basis and we are not claiming to be experts. Well, maybe Colby is. But let's get into this list. Colby, I think we're starting here with maybe our most controversial ranking of this entire list because people really like Tyler Locklear. We're a bit lower on him, though. He comes in at number 20 on our list. The second round pick of this past draft for the Mariners had a really nice year,

but there's some bat speed concerns that we'll get into that I'm sure we'll get into. You had him ranked 21 in your individual list. I had him ranked 18. So, yeah, what are some of the concerns here with Tyler Locklear that drives him down our list? Right. Well, you mentioned, though. The big one is bat speed. It's a little tough to get an accurate.

answer on what his bat speed is. And while you can be a pretty productive major league hitter, which is kind of average bat speed like Thai France, for example, to be a big time power hitter, which is kind of Locklear's calling card, you usually need plus bat speed or at least above average bat speed. And we just can't get a straight answer on that. So I don't really know. He was also drafted out of a mid-major college. He's not facing elite competition in his college days. And then he goes, and he performs pretty well in A ball, but he's also 23, 24 years old. So we haven't seen him yet against, you know, major league quality stuff, at least not that often. And I have questions about the bat speed.

And in addition to that, because he's first base only, like there is no shot. He plays anywhere but first base or DH, he has to hit. And if that's your profile, your first base only, and I have questions about whether or not you can hit and hit for power, when power is your calling card, you're going to be down lower in my ranks than maybe some other people. If I had a good idea on the bat speed, if I saw him against some really good, you know, high quality prospects and just high quality pitching, then I would feel better about ranking him. But he's probably never going to touch my top 10 just because he's first base only. So he has to hit. And he has to hit pretty big to justify a rank as high as some people have them.

And I just I'm not sure if he's if he's that guy yet Yeah, it's going to be a big year for him I mean we're going to say this a lot for a lot of these guys Because I mean you put it pretty well when we're recording our Patreon show yesterday That a lot of these guys are kind of fighting for relevance And maybe locklear isn't necessarily doing that He's a second round pick of course So there's a bit more leash for for guys like him

But it's it's definitely going to be a big year in determining whether or not he's just kind of another, you know, first base DH type of dude or he's special. And so, and there's a lot of people out there that think that he is special. Now, um, you summed up my, my thoughts pretty well overall on Locklear and why he's, he's low on our list. But before we move off of him, quick little bit of trivia for you, Tyler Locklear shares the same alma mater as which person, which prominent figure in the Mariners organization, Colby? Well, he went to VCU, right? Is it a player or a coach? I feel like it's a coach.

I'll say this. He's a friend of the show. Jerry DePoto? Jerry DePoto went to VCU. He went to VCU. Okay. I thought he was a California guy. There you go.

Well, there you go. By the way, hold on it real fast. If you have Locklear like near your top 10, like fine, whatever. Sure. But you should probably also then have Perez around 10 because they're very similar players at this stage of their career. so why the special treatment for Locklear. Just saying.

I saw someone rank Tyler Locklear as high as four. That's ridiculous. And their 2023 rankings. To be polite, that's dumb. All right. Let's move on here in our list. We got a tie. The first of two ties today at number 18 on our list.

This is an interesting one. One that we talked a little bit about on our Patreon show. yesterday patreon.com forward slash control his own. A couple outfielders here that are fairly similar but they're far apart in terms of timeline. Cade Marlow who should be at least somewhat of a factor this year. And then Jonathan Clasey who is and I just realized

that I spelled his name as Jonathan on this graphic. That's that's my bad on me. There's no there's no H in the name there. So ignore that, folks. That's what we call in the industry a big oopsie. But yeah, Jonathan Clase, Cade Marlowe. You had Marlowe higher than Clase in your rankings. You had Marlowe 17 and Class A 18.

I had Marlowe 20 and Class A 19. This one can really go either way. And it really depends on how much stock you're putting into the strikeouts on Marlowe and how much stock you're putting into the fact that Claise has more time to figure. it out even though that he also has similar rewards in his game. Yeah. This is one that, you know, I went back and forth on this.

I don't feel like I'm a big Cade Marlow guy. Like I know there are some that are really high on him and I'm just, I don't feel like I am. But every time, you know, I look to move him down the ranks, I'm like, no, because he does this well and he still does this well. And so, yeah, really the only thing with Marlowe is the strikeouts. And it's a big thing. Don't get me wrong. if it wasn't, then he would be top 10, more or less. Because he does have some over-the-wall power.

He does have gap power. He can steal some bags for you. And, you know, you probably don't love him in centerfield, but he's more than capable of playing there. And he can play all three outfield spots. The numbers that he put up, minus the strikeouts, were, you know, hard to ignore. And Jerry Depoto himself is called Marlowe, a five-tool player.

So now GMs always pump up their own guy, but still, He's called quite a few guys A five tool player in the past Dillmore. But so, yeah, and honestly, if Marlowe's keeps striking out like this, his ceiling might be outfield Dill and more. By the way,

I love how we're doing a prospect list and Dillamore is still catching straight. Sure. Of course. Well, I didn't get to comp, I didn't get to comp Josh Hood to Dillan Moore, so I had to throw him in here somehow.

I thought you did that during our honorable mention part. Yeah, probably did, but whatever. Whatever. Anyways, yeah, if Marlowe doesn't figure out the strike, And he could be, you know, outfield Dillon Moore, essentially. Yeah.

Because it's kind of a similar profile. But, yeah, I just, I think Marlowe's closeness to the big leagues, the power that's already there. And I guess I'm, I'm just kind of counting on the strikeouts to go down a little bit. But it's, it's a coin flip, man, because Claese has got tremendous speed. He's actually got some pop. He's a good defender out in center. Like, here's a lot to like with Clai.

So, yeah, it really is a coin flip. I just, I don't know. I just feel like Marlowe's proximity to the big leagues and likelihood to be a contributor of some kind. It's just a little bit higher than Claissé's right now. It still is just like, and don't get me wrong, I know that I'm kind of contradicting myself here when I call Marlowe a question mark because there's no bigger question mark than someone like a Jonathan Clauzee, right? But the fact that he is 25 years old, how, how like is he just beating up?

on younger competition or is he actually is that bat actually going to be able to translate because that's really the big deal i think he's going to be able to contribute on the base pass and defensively for sure at the major league level it's really just about that bat playing up and i'm concerned that he's going to end up you know if he's striking out 30 percent of the time in double a that he's going to end up striking out 37 38 percent of the time in the major league level and that's just that's not playable that's just not playable whatsoever unless he's like also unless he's like also simultaneously walking like 15 percent of time then then maybe you can eat it but yeah I mean, Dylan Moore strikes out a lot and you still love to throw his WRC plus in my face.

So clearly it doesn't matter. The listeners, the comments section, Colby, not me, obviously, obviously. Right, you would never do that. I would never stoop to the level of just using WRC plus to make my argument. Never. I would never do that. Yeah, good news here. We kind of wrap up this debate is we're going to get to see Marlowe a lot.

in spring, you know, to Oscar's off to the WBC, and so is Julio, and we imagine that team's going to make a pretty deep run at this thing. So you're probably going to get to see Marlowe, you know, play a lot for 10 to 15 days there. So, yeah,

we'll see what Marlowe has. And Closé will also be in camp as a member of the 40 man. So I don't imagine he'll stick around as long as Marlowe, but we should get to see at least Marlowe in pretty serious or significant number of bat bats, Not that it's worth all that much. But you'll get to put eyes on them, which will be nice. Indeed.

All right. So we got quite a few more prospects to go over here in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Fandul. This year, the only app you need at your Super Bowl party is Fandul, America's number one sportsbook. We're really excited about our new sports betting partner for Lockdown because they're the number one sports book in America. and if you're new to Fandul, that's even better. They have so many great features that make betting on sports fun and easy. Download Fandual now so you can bet on Super Bowl 57 with a no sweat first bet.

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Make every moment more with Fandul, the official sportsbook partner of the NFL. You're listening to the Lockdown Mariners podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Let's get back into these prospects with number 17 on our list, right-handed pitcher Michael Morales. You had him at number 19, Colby. I had him right here at number 17. So tell me a little bit about Morales, why you were a little lower on him than I was. Yeah, third round pick a couple years back was a Vanderbilt commit.

Vanderbilt probably the premier college baseball program in the country. So Seattle had to go a little bit over slot. there's a lot of projectability here he's kind of a tall thin kid right now but there is a lot of a lot of polish here for you know a 1920 year old it's not typical what we see typically you see a high school kid getting drafted it's all about you know what he could be and and morales certainly has some upside i'm not saying he doesn't but morales has his ability to throw strikes he's 92 93ish with the fastball he's got some pretty acceptable breaking pitches for off speed pitches for his age.

And it's just kind of a matter of, can we get more out of the fastball and turn this guy into a mid-rotation starter? Because I think his floor, obviously, he never touches the big leagues, but like assuming he makes it to the big leagues, I would say his floor is probably as a number five starter, right? I mean, he throws enough strikes. He has enough command. the change up has a chance to be really good, I think.

And so I think there's a chance that he's, you know, there's a chance that he's 93 to 95 with a good change up and, you know, a workable breaking ball or two. That's a number five because he's going to throw strikes. But until I see the velocity jump, he's just kind of a number five starter who's a few years away from the big leagues. And that's not going to carry him that far up on these ranks. I like, I like him. I think that he's exactly the type of guy the Mariners should take. shots on and I'm glad they did. But he's a couple years away and right now until I see something with the fastball, he's just a number five slash middle relief type to me. Totally get it. Totally

understand. I'm projecting a bit here, putting him at number 17. I think that the fastball is going to tick up a little bit because he's still so young and he still has to develop a little bit. I think there's a real shot here at four legitimate pitches in his arsenal. So if he can get there, and that's the big F, right? That's the big F with all of these guys at the end of the day. But if he can get there, especially with the fastball, if he can get value out of the fastball, I'm really excited about Morales' future. So I'm still going to put him here pretty firmly in the top 20,

but he's one guy that I'm going to be keeping a close eye on for sure this year. All right, moving on to number 16. Perlander Barrowa and you and I were both in agreement here, number 16 in both of our lists. So he lands at number 16 in the master list. This is a guy that he has really exciting stuff that he got him for virtually nothing for a couple of months of Donovan Walton essentially from the from the Giants. And chills. Yeah, depoto. Play it.

I play it. I'm too lazy to edit. Especially after. You can put that in the video clip thing. We could just play it whenever. Oh, yeah, we should. We should do that. Yeah, but re-stream is so weird about that stuff.

It always lags. Like, we'll click it, and then it'll wait for two seconds, and then there's the awkward. Yeah, it's not quick like that. If anyone out there is interested in producing our show for us for very little amount of money. Coming directly from Ty's pocket, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let us know. Anyway, Perlater Baroa, again, a lot of exciting stuff here, but he's just one of those guys that can't find the strike zone.

I'm looking at him exclusively as a reliever now, especially now that he's been added to the 40-man roster. That's his clearest path to making the big leagues in Seattle. And I think that he could make an impact out of the bullpen. But again, is he Gerson-Bautista? Is he Diago Vieira? Because he can throw really hard, but he can't find the strike zone. So what do you think?

Yeah, that's the whole ball game right there. We're talking about two plus pitches, the fastball and the slider are both. excellent swing and miss pitches, but they don't really do anything if you're behind three on three and one on every single batter. Right. And now you've got a groove of a fastball. You got to put something in the middle of the plate or walk the guy. Like it's not that valuable. So I have legitimate questions about whether or not Perlander Barrow's stuff even matters until we see at least 45 control, not even command. The guy just, he works a lot of count, a lot of deep counts. That's why I don't think he has really any shot of being a starter. he doesn't really have a third pitch, although the change-up has flashed at times.

And that's fine if you're a reliever. It's just I prefer my relievers to throw strikes, right? And I don't, like, we're not even at the point yet where I feel like it's Matt Brash, where Brash struggles to throw strikes, but he throws enough strikes that you still trust him. I'm not there yet with Baroa. I mean, he's got to throw more strikes, plain and simple.

And until he does, I don't really care what the basketball and slider look like, because until you can control the strikes zone even a little bit, you're not a major league pitcher. So what's the point? So we'll see what he can do this year. I do think that he probably comes up at some point and pitches out of the bullpen. And if he is even just like,

if he can just get to map rash levels of control and command, that's a potential high leverage arm. I mean, we are talking about potentially two legitimate like 70 grade pitches in the fastball and slider. So there's plenty of upside here, even out of the bullpen. But until I see, you know, any ability to throw

any ability to throw strikes and throw them where you want it. I feel like this is as high as I can go. I really think Barrow is probably the most overrated prospect. I saw some ranks that have them as high as five. And I'm like, no. Yeah, you and I to historically have been kind of anti-reliever when it comes to prospect ranks.

Like we rank them as pretty much as low as you justifiably can. Yeah. You know, and we've always been like that because I think maybe part of it is being scarred from the Jack Z era that leaked over into the depoto the first few years of the depoto era. Five of the top ten were all relievers only. Seth Ellage was like number six in the Mariners Farm system. So maybe it's part of that. But yeah. Dark days.

So yeah, you know, we're probably a lot lower on Broa than most people. But again, it's just can you find the strike zone consistently? That's the big thing because. it. Yeah, because again, like, if you can't, then he's Johann Ramirez. And that's, you know, RIP. Don't you dare. Johan forever. Yohan forever. Absolutely. All right. Moving on here. Number 15, another guy that we were in total agreement here, both had him at 15. So he lands up 15 on the master list. Isaiah Campbell, who is healthy now. He dominated this past year in the minors. And we've said multiple times, on the show we think is going to make an impact out of the bullpen in 2023 for the

Major League Club here. So tell me why you like Campbell so much and why he's at number 15 on our list. Yeah, Campbell's a guy I liked when they drafted him back out of Arkansas. I remember watching a pitch in the College World Series and he dominated, I believe it was TCU. And back then he was you know, 55 control, 50 command, fastball, really good split change. Slider was kind of, you know, And then unfortunately injuries in the shutdown year kind of derailed his ability to start. And now he's an older guy. But last year they put him in the bullpen full time. And he was just lights out.

I mean, we're talking, let me see, my notes here, 98 miles an hour with the fastball. Plus a really good slider. The slider appears to maybe have leapfrog the change up a little bit. But there still is the change up there. So there are three legit pitches. We'll see how much he throws it. He didn't throw the change up much last year at all. but there are three legitimate pitches.

The control is still there. The command is still there. So this is a guy who, you know, has a starter's like arsenal, but is pitching out of the bullpen. He can go a couple innings here and there. Here's a fun note that I read in friend of the show, Joe Doyle's prospect rankings. Campbell's fastball generated a 48% whiff rate.

Yeah, I saw that. one out of every two fastballs that were swung at were missed. That's insane. That's insane. That is absolutely insane. So there's more than just velocity. I really think that this guy, I think obviously he's a mid-reliever at least, at the very at least, but I really do think that there's high leverage upside here.

And because I'm looking at Perlander Baroa as just a reliever and Campbell is just a reliever, I think Campbell's a better reliever right now because he has a higher floor, he has higher floor certainly than Baroa and honestly I think the ceilings kind of similar so I don't get the wide discreferencey between Baroa and in Campbell that I've seen in other ranks yeah I think Campbell can at least be Penn Murphy this year I think that's his floor yeah like I think there's a pretty high ceiling here for for Campbell as a reliever right away right out of the gate I'm really excited about whenever he gets the opportunity to to make his major league debut because I don't think that he's ever leaving the major leagues after he gets there.

There's some really nice stuff there with Campbell. But again, you know, we can only rank him at 15 because of just how we are with he's a reliever. With relievers. Now there's one more guy here that we're going to be talking about in just a second. That is that has more of a reliever profile that I ranked higher. We'll get into that here. I don't know if that's now or in a bit.

No, it is now. All right. So tied at number 13. us. This is another interesting debate that we had on our Patreon show yesterday. Taylor Dullard versus A.J. Izzy, who was recently drafted by the Mariners this past year out of the prep circuit. So you had Dollared at 13. I had him at 14. You had Izzy at 14. I have busy at 13. So let's start here

with Dollared because thinking back on it because I'm just going to be honest about it I didn't consciously like put Izzy over Dollared you know in that respect like you know having them kind of square off 1 v1 essentially but looking back on it I just

Dollar to me is like if he hits his ceiling I still think that he's only a number four and I think the most likely outcome here because he's not getting a ton of value out of the fastball is that he's a mid-leverage reliever. But I want to hear your argument here on Dollar. Yeah. So Dollar's a guy who right now has, I would say, one plus pitch, one above average pitch. And it's the slider and it's a pretty good one.

And the rest of the stuff is pretty average to mediocre somewhere in that range. But he gets away with it because his control and command is is plus he throws a ton of strikes he knows how to pitch he's kind of a cerebral pitcher who can work through a lineup multiple times and it's not like the fastball is 84 miles an hour right it's 91 92 um but there's just not a lot to it uh and he's really just you know getting by on on the slider and and a lot of control and command and kind of working through the lineup in his head so um he's a very cerebral pitcher i think he has a very high floor as a result i i think he's the number five and at worst.

And I, if you want to ask, well, can his, can his stuff play up in a middle relief role, then it's worth having the conversation about putting them in the bullpen because the difference of value between a number five starter and like a seventh inning type of arm. Yeah. But because I feel really confident that Dollar can start and get big league hitters out and he can go five, six, seven innings, give you quality starts with the way the stuff is right now.

I think that gives them the edge over Izzy, who hasn't picked him. pitched yet. It's a little tough to see what that stuff is. Izzy certainly has a higher upside. But Izzy also has a floor of nothing, whereas Dollard's floor is major leaguer. Sure. So, yeah, that's the reason I went Dollared over Izzy. I like Izzy, but he hasn't pitched. I have nothing to go off of yet. And Dollard is going to make the big leagues at some point this year. And then probably get big league hitters out with, I mean, even the worst pitchers get big league hitters out with the regular. But, you know, he's going to be, I have no doubt that he's going to be Chris Flex and Marco Gonzalez for the next, you know, seven to 10 years. I just also kind of wonder if he ends up being Matt Whistler, you know.

It's possible, but you know what Matt Whistler is, that AJ Izzy isn't, a professional pitcher. That's true. We haven't seen Izzy pitch. That's true. I mean, look, I have a, I clearly have a type here, right? I like the projectability guys. I like that stuff.

He's 6.3. He's a buck 75 and he's already touching mid-90s. I mean, this is why I almost put Kendall Mesa in my top 30 here, you know? Because like I just, I love that stuff. I love the ball of clay, right? That you can just mold and see what you have here because I think this is a guy that could end up pushing, you know, upper 90s consistently in a high leverage bullpen roll with that splitter. well. It's exciting, man. That's exciting. But again, it's a lot like it's a lot of projection.

It's all projection at this point because he's only pitched at prep levels. So that's splitter, man. That's that's a tough pitch to master. It really is. And so if that's your best secondary pitch, I'm a little like, like not that you can't do it. Obviously there are a lot of big leaguers who have a good splitter and they make that work. But a lot is like five to seven percent of major league baseball. Is he one of those guys? I don't know. But he does have a really whippy arm. And he like you said, he's 6.3, 175. He's got room to put on 20, 30, 40 pounds and still maintain his athleticism. And the fastball is obviously plus. But I just don't know about the secondary stuff. And again, I haven't seen a pitch. So until we start seeing that, I don't really

know what to do with Izzy. I'm kind of going off of his draft profile, which was very nice. And so yeah is he's a guy who can make a huge jump and i mean i guess not huge because he's already what 14 for me so i guess not a huge jump but he can make a jump into the top 10 even with all the talent flooding into the system but he's probably going to spend most of the year at the complex league yeah i think part of that too if he can make a jump it's going to be if he's actually more than a reliever if they actually want to give it a shot for him as a as a starter so we'll see uh i think he's going to yeah i think he's going to quickly end up in the bullpen though,

um, because the, depending on how loud the stuff gets or how quickly the, how quickly and loud the, the stuff gets. So we'll, uh, we'll see.

Um, all right. Number 12 on our list. Another guy that we were, uh, in agreement with both, uh, both had him number 12 on a respective list.

So he's number 12 here. Juan Pinto. Left hand pitcher who hasn't, you know, pitched above, uh, the Dominican summer league. Uh,

you are the, the face of, the Juan Pinto fan club here. So I'm just, I'm going to give you the floor, Colby, because I mean, I don't think I don't think I've ever seen anyone as high on Juan Pinto as you. And you sold me on him. So I want you to give our listener here that same sales pitch, essentially. For the record, I believe Jason Churchill baseball things still has Pinto ranked higher than I do.

Oh, there you know. Jason hasn't released his ranks yet. So I don't know. But he's actually a big fan here. Joe's not a huge fan by the way. Joe had a 24 in his list. Yeah, I know it's weird. But Pinto 6-3, he's already put on quite a bit of weight, which is good because when he signed it was 6-3, like 165.

Lefty, fastball is 91 to 93. And the curveball, it's a big, big bender. And it just kind of reminds me a little bit of Barry Zito. And so did I happen to love watching Barry? Barry Zito pitch when I was younger? Yes. Did that factor into this ranking? Yeah.

See, that's where you pulled on my heartstrings a little bit here on the sales pitch. I heard the name Barry Zito and I was like, oh, now I'm interested. Now you have my attention as you take that big swig of water. Yeah. So,

all right. So, yeah. So Pinto is essentially Barry Zito. That's exactly what you just said. Okay. But yeah, why else do you like them?

This one, it really is all about projection right now because in the summer league, he really struggled with walks. But he's so athletic that I really don't think that's a long-term thing for him. So we're talking about a guy who at 16, 17 years old, two plus pitches, give or take, and a pretty good athlete. So I just, I'm projecting here. You know, I've liked Pinto for a while here. There's just something about, you know, curveball, left-handed curveball, and 92 to 93 up in the zone that I just think plays really well. So it's a lot of projection, a lot of athleticism, but I still think he has room to get even stronger. And I think he's going to figure out his control because he's a pretty good athlete for too good of an athlete to be a guy who's walking almost one batter per inning like he did this last year.

Yeah. number 11 our last prospect for the day and then we'll begin into our top 10 on uh friday rather uh number 11 here lazara montes las montes who uh crush it down in the dsl but also struck out a lot we'll get into that a little bit obviously the comps on him yorda alvarez etc let's let's calm down here folks let's see him state side first before we start talking about that. But this is a really interesting profile, right? Because we've talked about the guys that are essentially first base D.H types. They've tried it with him in the outfield.

I believe Joe mentioned in his prospect ranks that they initially said that he could play center field. Then he didn't play center field at all last year. And he ended up playing exclusively right field. when he wasn't D-Hing. I think he ends up being a first base slash D-H-type. I have them here listed

as a first base-slash outfielder for now. But there isn't really much that you're getting defensively. It all comes down to the bat. And while it's a loud stick that he's carrying there, there's a quite hole in it as well. So what do you think about Las Montas? He's interesting.

Obviously, we haven't ranked 11, but he struck out 33% of the time last year as a bat first prospect in the DSL. That's not great. That's not great. So I think he's probably pretty likely to repeat that level, which is not a good sign. It's not a bad sign, but it's not great for a guy who you were expecting to kind of move on an accelerated timeline. But the raw power is certainly there and even the in game power we saw in pieces. But like you said, he's no longer an up-the-middle guy.

he probably never was, but now he's probably not even an outfield. Guy, he's probably first base DH. And like we said with Locklear, that means you have to hit. There is no, oh, well, if he's an average bat, that no, it doesn't play at first base. You can't be an average bat and play first base. That's why, for example, no matter how good defense Evan White gives you a first base, he's got to be at least above average bat. So with that lack of versatility, we're starting to get to a point where we have a very narrow path to the big leagues.

which is a problem with me or for me when I do these ranks. I want guys who have multiple avenues to get to the big leagues. And Montez, he has to hit. Now, thankfully, he's so young and he's so talented that I don't think anybody should be worried yet. There's no reason to panic or anything like that. But he's got to start to make more consistent contact. And he's got to take advantage of that hit tool that he has. And it's got to start this year.

You know, like I said, he's still so young that even if this year's kind of mid-middling, I wouldn't panic. But last year was enough that I don't consider him one of the Mariners elite prospects. And I think last year, a lot of people assumed he would be when he signed. Yeah, he's really interesting. And obviously was the prize of not this past international signing period, but the one before that. Right. So there's, you know, quite a lot writing on him, quite a lot of expectations writing on him here. You know, didn't you get like a three and a half million dollar signing bonus, something like that?

2.7, I think. 2.7, yeah, which is still pretty hefty, not three and a half hefty, but still pretty hefty. Pretty sure that was the largest payment Seattle made until they signed Celestin. Really? Yeah, because I think Julio got like 2.5 and Noel, we got like, 2.5. or something like that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure

before this last international class, Montes was the guy the Mariners threw the most money at. Crazy. Well, all right. That's all the time we have for today's episode, but thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast for Colby Pat Node.

I'm Tadang Gonzalez. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at L0 underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-L-Z and Colby at C-Pat-11. That's C-P-A-T-1-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. And thank you again for making us your first listen. Now make your second list in Lockdown MLB Prospects.

Host Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia, and he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day, and we'll see you on Friday. Peace.