Rates & Barrels - Injuries, Awards and Prospects

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

Eno and Welsh are talking Ohtani's injury, Snell's CY Young bid, streaming options Thur/Fri, prospects and more Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Welsh on Twitter: @isitthewelsh Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Subscribe to The Athletic for just $1/mo for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey there friends, welcome in. This is Rates and Barrels. I'm Chris Welsh. That is Eno Saris. We are glad to have you here as the season is coming to a close. And we are a little bit later, a little bit later in the week. We said we're getting you two episodes a week on this final stretch. But why? Why are we here on Wednesday? Well, that's because Eno was a traveling man. So, Eno, where were you headed? Where in the world was Eno Saris this week yeah i was uh it was a

tough uh couple days i am super super tired um i took a red eye uh sunday night to to miami and like i cannot sleep on red eyes like i don't know how people do those like i got i got like a total muscle strain and like didn't sleep at all what is special about a red eye i don't think i've ever taken a red eye like it's where you go... Just a late plane? Well, you leave to the east coast. You fly through the night. Yeah. So you leave for the east coast at, like, midnight, and you arrive at, like, 5, 6 a.m.

It sucks. Okay, I mean, planes in general... I'm a tall guy, so planes in general are not fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's part of it, too. I mean, I think you might even be taller than me, but at 6'2", like, I just... I, like, couldn't... I had an aisle seat and i was like oh um i'm six foot four so yeah it's a nightmare for me yeah i thought you were telling me so yeah then i don't know then i had this uh advertising shoot that i did and that i did get to uh uh marlins park for the first time so that's

22 for me how many how many parks you've been to i'm a loser i've been to like three or four i've been it's diamond i i just i have no travel in my world it's really actually depressing but it's if you counted like minor league parks oh minor league but well even then even minor league parks like going outside of arizona all arizona i've got locked down but yeah i mean i'm i'm was raised in northern california so a's giants been to the angels been to the diamondbacks and that is it that is not even dodger daughter's day uh not even dodgers never been to dodgers uh not even padres nope i know what a loser what a 22 for you so let's hear it. Well, Miami was interesting to me because it gave off real water park vibes. So first of all, it's Miami. So it's like hot and sticky.

Right. So that's kind of like water park. Right. Okay. Then because it's Miami, it's indoor. And so there's echoes. So when people are talking, there's echoes. And that's totally a water park thing.

Oh, yeah. That's like Great Wolf. Like, remember when you and I, like in the same week, we went to like the Great Wolf. Are there echoes? Yeah. I's totally a waterpark thing oh yeah that's like great wolf like remember when you and i like in the same yeah we went to like the great are there echoes yeah i think of a waterpark i think it echoes like just like people laughing and like weird echoes you know and then the the floor is that gray kind of um sticky tape uh floor that you know that like it's a little bit rough so that you have some grip when it's wet you know yep so uh and then the color scheme is gray and blue and white. I was just like, this is a water park.

Are you ready for them to give you a wristband that your credit card is attached to and that's how you're going to order your nachos? Yeah, I think if they ever need to repurpose that one when they get a new one or whatever, God forbid, but they could totally turn that into a water park otherwise i kind of like the vibes in terms of it had like a bit of an art deco white it's very like from the outside it's like white and soaring and arches and stuff because they had to put a place for like i think the roof might be retractable so like there's like all these like kind of soaring arches i thought it was kind of cool looking from the outside had an interesting vibe inside.

Some good food. I had a Venezuelan hot dog, which is like 14 inches and had fries on it. Like little crispy fries. Like little thin fries? Yeah. Okay. Crispy fries and mayo and relish and mustard and tomato.

I mean, it's like a fully loaded thing. What made it Venezuelan? That sounds very Midwestern. With fries and mayo. It sounds like a poutine hot dog. Yeah, I mean, it was ridiculous. There's a picture on my Twitter account. It's just really ridiculous.

I really wish I'd gotten... The Arepas just had too much cheese and I'm not doing cheese right now. And then they had some... Apparently they had a Venezuelan steak sandwich somewhere that I missed. I walked around that thing twice. I'm still missing what the Venezuelan is.

Okay, so what game did you catch? It was Edward Cabrera against Jose Budo. So are we good with Edward Cabrera moving forward? I don't know. I've always been good with him. He didn't walk anybody. I mean, he walked somebody, but it wasn't a bad command outing. I think he kept them down to one or two.

I think they lost in the ninth. Budo was pretty good, too. So it was a good pitching matchup. You know, turf stadiums that have a weird vibe to the weird look you know it's that that green shimmery green grass instead of like actual grass you know did you take any time to talk to any players while you're out there or did it was it purely uh just hang out as a fan the shoot the shoot went to like you know 15 minutes before the game so i just went straight over to the game but um didn't really talk to anybody it was fun i mean and maybe some attendance issues uh it's

kind of funny for a team that was playing a division rival i guess it was a tuesday night or monday night um but um anyway uh it was somewhere it wasn't as bad as oakland no way but um more people in san San Francisco and they're making a big deal in San Francisco about attendance you know you know a Tuesday night in San Francisco is probably like 25k uh and I would guess there was about 15k 18k at the uh in Marlin Stadium uh that night so but it got going a little bit once it was a monday night it was an early start so you know once near the end it was there were fans there last thing anything good on the drinks did we uh a miami pale ale there was a uh i think it's sorry if i get it wrong but i think it's

like biscayne bay brewing or something there's a there's a like a craft beer bar behind home plate brewing or something. There's a, there's a, like a craft beer bar behind home plate. Uh, that had a couple of things. Yeah. I had a couple of things there. Uh, uh, a lot of people drinking lagers out of boots, big, big frost. None of what you said has felt very Miami to me. You're like, there's a hot dog with mayo on it and people are drinking out of boots. I'm like, this sounds like, uh, there was some array fuzz oh and like uh like a fair amount of music i can think i think when i was in the bathroom peeing like instead of hearing the game being broadcast in the bathroom it was like salsa music oh and people were like dancing i guess that bathroom is probably a lot like a water park as well.

So then. All right. Well, good travels. That's why the show's a little bit later out in Miami, but you're back. Yeah. If you're on the YouTube,

you can see the setting in the background that, you know, is back at home, which is good. And I remind you guys, you can always check out the YouTube channel, youtube.com slash rates and barrels. You guys want to subscribe.

You can watch all the videos and you can go and pick up a subscription over at the athletic athletic.com slash rates and barrels. You guys want to subscribe. You can watch all the videos and you can go and pick up a subscription over at the athletic, athletic.com slash rates and barrels. So, you know, if Eno decides to write an article about Venezuelan hot dogs or, you know, Edward Cabrera,

whatever it is, you'll have access to it. That's the most important thing here. I've got a fun one coming up this Friday. My, I took four questions from my son. Oh. So my 11 year old gave me four questions and my son. Oh. So my 11-year-old gave me four questions, and I've been asking them in the clubhouse.

Oh, to players? Yeah. Oh, that's a really fun one. What teams have been covered? Any name of players you can give us? I asked the A's, Padres, Giants, and Mariners the questions. Okay. Very, very nice.

Also that Corbin Carroll article up there. I was not, me and him as best friends were not cited in the article. So I was very disappointed, but it's a great article. People want to check that out. Oh, was I? I don't know if I, I read, I did some.

I thought it'd be weird to quote my podcast. It would be the whole thing. Someone was like, oh, why isn't Welsh and Corbin? I have this bit I do where I had that. I don't think you've seen it. I've taken I took a picture with Corbyn Carroll at that signing. I was a part of and we've had people Photoshop it of like me and Corbyn Carroll are best friends and we're in front of the Grand Canyon and we're in front of here. So people run with that bit. So they're like, how could Welsh and Carroll not be talked about in that? It would have been weird in general. I hope it's never acknowledged, by the way, because he would be like, what is this? He's the nicest guy on the planet. But Cormac Carol would be like, this is even weird for me. I used you guys on background.

That's a term of art in writing, which is details that you told me are in the piece. Yeah, I did see that. But they're not attributed to somebody. Yeah, it's fun. It's a fun read. You guys should go and check it out. Obviously, I did see that. But they're not attributed to somebody. Yeah, it's fun. It's a fun read. You guys should go and check it out. Obviously, I have my love for that. And this article coming up actually sounds really, really fun.

The questions from Kid Eno and going out there. And Felix actually got to ask Blake Snell his four questions in his video. Oh, my God. Is there really? That's awesome. Blake's actually really good with kids. So I bet that was like a real... Oh, he. Oh my God. Is there really? That's awesome.

Blake's actually really good with kids. So I bet that was like a- Oh, he was. He was. He was really funny. Yeah, I've seen him. He's very funny on the backfields with kids and stuff like that.

So that's very, okay. So they're all things you should be locked into. We're actually gonna be talking about Blake Snell here in just a second. I do, I only wanted to start with this just to kind of get it out of the way. It would have been a perfect transition had I just done that.

But I don't wanna come back to it on the Shohei Otani front. Shohei Otani, getting into the actual stuff, had elbow surgery. So we had been living in this little space of like, when's he going to do it? When's he going to leave? Since this time, I think from when you did the show with Al to us doing it here, Shohei Otani cleared out his locker, went over to Japan. We knew that. And then he officially yesterday had surgery on his elbow.

And the word out is that he expects to be ready for the start of the 2024 season, which you and I had kind of talked about, will not pitch, but will be ready in 2025 to pitch. So do you have any thoughts on the surgery just fully happening? It's good to go. He's probably going to do recovery up until whenever winter meetings or whatever it's going to be and how he's going to attack free agency. But, you know, is this is this falling along the lines of your expectations and how you're going to approach Otani going into next year? kind of i need to i need like this is a little mini rant his agent is super weird i just i have to get this out here because i don't know did you read the

announcement i i think i cliff noted it but i also read it like 24 hours ago so i don't know. Did you read the announcement? I think I cliff noted it, but I also read it like 24 hours ago, so I don't. I just remember it was like, he'll be ready to hit in 2024. So let's hear it. Nez Balelo is his agent. And your face.

It's so annoying. You're ramping up the information. Just give us the information. Just give us the information. He wrote, the final decision in type of procedure was made with a heavy emphasis on the big picture.

What procedure? Shohei wanted to make sure the direction taken gave him every opportunity hit and pitch for many years to come. Thank you. That's obvious.

What procedure? Said Nila Trache, MD, who performed the procedure, the ultimate plan after the liberation was to repair the issue at hand and to reinforce the healthy ligament in place while adding viable tissue for the longevity of the elbow. What procedure was it? Sounds like

a campaign manager for a politician, by the way. Or in hockey, the upper body injury. Yes, he had an elbow surgery yes you do know that we know that there are elbow surgeries arthroscopic full tj internal brace now we're reading between the lines now but this is what i i expected ahead of time because of the way he was talking about when he was going to have the surgery the fact he was still playing uh and and the and the things we'd heard about where the tear was, it was in a different spot.

And so my initial read was that it was going to be internal brace surgery. And Will Carroll is out here writing that that's his read on the situation, too. We're kind of reading between the lines with all the stuff they're saying. But internal brace, what's most interesting about internal brace um other than what what it is is instead of uh like replacing the ligament and like you know tommy john is like it's just like it's like a like a new ligament in there and and and reattaching and all that uh what you basically do is you put like a carbon fiber brace uh around, inside the body around the, the,

where the tear is. Uh, and then you spray a bunch of collagen on it, uh, to like keep it in place. Uh, and then you sew the guy up again and, uh,

they're in a, they're in a, like a sling for a while. And that brace hastens the recovery process. Now people who've done this have come back five to six months later to start throwing again. If you do the math, that's early season next year. Yeah.

They're saying he'll be able to hit without restrictions opening day 2024 and do both come 2025. But what I'm saying is there is a window for him to pitch in 2024 i'm not saying it's gonna be a lot but i think he's gonna be working on it he's gonna come back to hit and then at some point in the season you're gonna find out that he's throwing again most likely scenario to help a team too might just be to do it out of the bullpen like why not why not do short stints if you're gonna have a ton of yeah how much how many innings do you have i mean how much you know how much can you build up how much can you build up and stretch out while you're

still hitting and how much are they what would they want to stretch a guy out to three or four when you're kind of pushing a timetable but what if you can push 25 pitches max one inning help put them in a nine ninth inning role Then maybe a team that's also looking for some pseudo type of closer or not that that's going to play any role. At the end of the day, like I like to pretend and I'm probably being dumb about it. I like to pretend that there will be teams that are going to be kind of cautious in wanting to give money this is why i've brought up a couple times that like i don't think it's like insane to think that he might just like sign a it's a one year or some type of deal where he can get out after a year or two with the angels because of familiarity he does do that i think he definitely pitches next year yeah i and you know

bullpen roll but like or something because he's going to want to show people I can pitch, but most likely that's not the scenario with how everything has gone down. You would expect, but I guess I look and I go, is every team going to just be cool with the arm thing and the injury and just give him the exact amount that they expected? Or is everyone going to try to get a discount? Cause if there's a discount, that's where I've thought maybe you do this one. Now people come to the table and it becomes becomes not a discount but yeah we talked about this a little bit but i think that like if i'm thinking about this you know you're risk averse especially when you're giving someone millions of dollars and which is probably half of half a

billion dollars what the deal is yeah i think it might not get to that because of because of this because of this injury but see that would be the point. Like, wouldn't you want to, if that's the case, if your max now is 350 or even four, and you think you can get five. Well, I think the bidding starts at like 340 or 350. Because what you can say is, you know, he is at a decent age and decent athleticism and a good enough batter that, like,

you'd want to sign him probably to more than the than the xander bogarts deal you know and uh and maybe as a hitter maybe less than the trey turner deal as a position player right so let's say you'd start at 310 maybe the bidding starts at 310 300 310 that's a bit where the bidding starts as him as a hitter. Right. And so then it's going to be up to every team to be like, how much more are we going to pay him as a pitcher? And we talked about like Jameson tie on, like, let's say you throw the Jameson tie on deal on top 360. I just can't imagine. I personally can't imagine. What do you throw the Robbie Ray deal on top? 400. I think if it's anything less than 400, whatever the

deal looks like, is capped at two years. However it is. If it's an opt-out after two years... Oh, it's like some sort of team opt-out or something? I think that team... I mean, listen to that agent who's out there. The market... Anything sub-500

million, I think, is going to have something along the lines where there's some type of an out and that's what i was kind of building to it's like that's cool if he's in relief that probably doesn't mean much for a team outside of how nice it'll be if you've got someone else in the back end of the bullpen from this year that they could they're signing they're signing people to bigger and bigger relief deals yeah so if you let's say you just want to put Edwin Diaz on top of Xander Bogart, it's like 350, 340. Yeah, I will. We'll see where it is. I also do think it could still not be with the Angels. It could be with there's a lot of rumors like the Red Sox.

And so it could be one of these teams for two years while he gives them a little bit of hitting, a little bit of pitching, and then you hit the market again. But we'll see where it goes either way. Like it is kind of stupid that we're sitting in a space where we're having to still speculate about what exactly was this surgery like can you give us more details they're not but we know he did have the surgery and as you mentioned with uh will carol and yourself here that like this lines up to that surgery that you mentioned where he will be ready for spring training and without restrictions in april So from a fantasy piece, I think I retweeted it or you can find it at the injury expert. There's a good piece he wrote about it on Substack

about what that type of surgery is, why he thinks he's getting it and what the kind of timeframe is. Yeah, he's like one of the best for that stuff. You have like early best balls. We talked about first pitch. There's like those early drafts and stuff in November. Just draft him as a hitter.

Knowing, well, that's all that I think you can. But knowing what you know now is he, I think best balls, he's going to be like a second or third round player. But knowing the type of offensive player that he is and that he might actually be without restrictions, where do you think he belongs in your lexicon? Because I think he could move up to the back end of the first one spring training is there and he's

actually healthy and everyone realizes oh this is a 40 20 guy but what would you do i'd be happy to take him in a second uh and uh the back end of the first uh actually has some question marks in it too so um i wouldn't i wouldn't mind taking him after i think the 10th pick or so i mean you're already looking at um like jordan alvarez is probably in the top 10 so him or soto yeah i think soto still runs he's gonna maybe maybe he's less i think i might take him over soto in non-ovVP league you take Alvarez over or no I'm sorry you said Tani as a hitter over Soto yeah I was thinking of Alvarez for a second um yeah I think he's in that space so you might get some early discounts if you're doing like

early early drafts but I think that's where you're heading if everything works out and then obviously there'll be that little push of wherever whatever team he ends up signing with and what happens there but that's the latest around Shohei Otani. Oh, we mentioned Blake Snell. So not only is he getting interviewed by, it's Felix, right? Felix interviewed. That's going to be awesome. I'm very excited to see you get to send me that.

I'm excited to see that. But I don't know if he asked him about the Cy Young race. I know he doesn't care about fantasy. Blake Snell does, but he might have just locked it up like that he went seven struck out 10 gave up no hits and it's if you've ever been around Blake Snell I have an affectionate kind of weird thing with him and the impression and some of the stuff but like he is a very unique individual and I just don't think you would get this from a lot of players. And I think this also speaks to him getting paid here.

But he kind of wanted to come out, you know, because he was near 100 pitches. And as far as having a no hitter, he said last night, he said, I understand a no hitter is an amazing accomplishment. It's so hard to do. I understand that. I also understand how much I value health, which I think a sub quote could be money. It's an individual accolade. It's cool for the team. We get a no hitter, but it's cool when the bullpen comes in and you can trust them. It's the most Blake Snell comment of all time.

But this is a guy that does also need to kind of think about himself for next season because he is in for what is going to be an insane payday. And I think he just locked up the Cy Young award, though. Obviously, Justin Steele's been good. Strider struck out 11 last night as well. The walks per nine are really weird with Snell. It's like still over five where none of these other guys have it. But he's got he's going to push 250 strikeouts on the year and has an almost two ERA. So any thoughts you want to add to Blake

Snell, the coming out of the no hitter, the free agency, the Cy Young, what do you got on Blake? Yeah, I got into, uh, a really long protracted, uh, unfun, um, uh, well, it was Friday. I forgot what day it was, uh, discussion when I mentioned that I mentioned that I thought that ERA was a flawed stat to, you know, base your Cy Young voting on partially because I think errors are the worst stat in baseball. errors and Nick Castellanos has zero. They're at the same position. If you use that to think that Fernando Tatis is a worst defender in right field than Nick Castellanos, then I am sorry, you're just wrong. It's just wrong. You know, like I can't, I can't say it any other way. So I think errors are really bad stat. They don't capture all of the times when a player doesn't even get to the ball you know what i mean and so you have these like people if you if you just sort by errors overall you get a ton of

short stops why because they get to a bunch of balls sometimes they make mistakes you know what i mean um but if you have it if you have a short stop without a lot of errors does not mean they're good it means maybe they're old and they don't have a good range you know so um i think that those two things the fact that the fact that uh these two there's two factors and they don't have a good range, you know? So, um, I think that those two things, the fact that the fact that, uh, these two, there's two factors that I don't like to use the RA one is, uh, errors are the worst stat in baseball. And the second one is every ball in play is a team out. Now I'm, I'm not, I'm not going so far as to say that pitchers have no control over balls in play. I want to be careful

that I'm not saying that completely. But I do want to say that every ball in play is a team out. There are a bunch of people who touch that ball, you know, and every team out is some portion of responsibility of the fielders, the first baseman, the pitcher. And so therefore, team outs need to be considered somewhat differently than pitcher outs like strikeouts for example so that's that's my argument that uh i'm not just going to look at era and call it a day the era race now uh is blake snell's anyway this was when we had this discussion justin steel and blake snell were like basically in a tie maybe even steel has better but still gave up six runs in between. The other thing I just wanted to say

real quick is that if you want to say, I only care about what happened, what happened on the field, you know, that's why I use ERA. Well, I would suggest to you use RA9 war. So RA9 war is just runs allowed for nine innings. And the reason that it's good that it's on the war thing is because you can do something where you can account for innings pitched, right? War is a counting stat. So RA9 war basically takes innings and runs allowed and makes a number out of it.

Guess who's number one? Blake Snow. And the National League by RA9 war, which is just what happened and no fancy, you know, playing around with the numbers, goes Blake Snell number one, Logan Webb number two,

Justin Steele number three, Zach Gallin number four, Zach Wheeler number five. I think if I had a vote right now, it would start there. There's some close ones like Webb and Steele and Gallen are all basically tied. So I might take those guys and start to look at FIP war, like who has more strikeouts and sort of sort them by that. But to me, I can comment on this because I do not have an NL Cy Young vote. I cannot

comment on the AL Cy Young. I would vote for Blake Snell if I had the NL Cy Young. Okay, that's interesting because like how you were talking, I was like, oh, you're making a Justin Steele argument as you kind of were going through it. And then it turned into solidifying that because Justin Steele could walk himself into 19 wins by the end of the year. He has a sub to walk per nine. His ERA is great. He doesn't have remotely close to the strikeouts the other guys do. So there's always debate around it. Snell has like 60 more strikeouts.

Yeah, it's a lot. I mean, Strider obviously has even more. An interesting stat, probably everyone's seen it, but Codify had it, that Blake Snell, when you talk about the per nines, and you talk aboutines and you talk about him going deep and you talk about the no hitter and him not going, he has accumulated nine total innings in the seventh inning or more this season, seventh inning or higher. He has accumulated. I thought that was career. No, nine innings this season or more in the say, you actually could probably fool somebody that it was a career one for Blake Snell. But yeah, it's good that you went there.

I mean, I think it's kind of locked it up, but you know what? Anything can happen. It's not a takeaway from any of the other guys. I actually think it's cool. It's a nice race. You know, I don't think a lot of the other award awards have races that are there to talk about. You know, I don't think there's a lot of parody across them.

There is parody on this one. I just think it pushed a little bit further, especially in one of your last three games, you're throwing a theoretical no-hitter, though you couldn't go beyond the seventh, but that's where... Yeah, he's finishing well. Yeah, taking on the Dodgers, choosing to take on the Dodgers instead of the A's.

There's some narrative there, too know, so there's a lot of, there's some narrative there too. Um, you know, also kind of fun. Uh, not too many people have won an AL and an LSI young. Um, so I don't have the list. I was about to say, who are they? Who are the people? I mean, I'm guessing Roger Clemens. Let me see if I can just, uh, yeah, I'd be, I'm not even sure if I could process immediately who those people are. Who has multiple ones? Verlander, Scherzer got one in Detroit. Ah, Scherzer.

Scherzer has two. Scherzer has in both leagues. Where? Detroit and? Detroit and Washington oh yeah yeah yeah I was trying to think of all the places he went I was like where did he get the other one Randy Johnson has Arizona

and Seattle so there's two Roger Clemens has Boston and I thought those would both be in AL if he had two yeah probably and then we're going to go back to Boston and... I thought those would both have been AL. Yeah, probably. And then we're going to go back to... Oh, David Cohen has one in Kansas City.

Okay, so there's three. So this is going to be... No, I don't know. I don't know if David Cohen has one. Did he have one in the Mets? I think Cohen only has one. So this is going to be a group of three people? Yeah, maybe three to five.

I mean, that's an elite group. Sandy Koufax with the Dodgers in the American League? I'm showing that I don't know something here. Sandy Koufax is listed on the American League side on MLB, so I don't know why that is. Unless the Dodgers were American League in 1963 in 1963 what i think this is just an error and that seems like an error oh one award for both leagues yeah so it could have only happened since 1970 so yeah there's not that many gay lord perry has one in both leagues um

so we've only found three other players since 1970 that have done it. So, so that's cool. That's, and I think he deserves it. The other thing that I think is really cool, and this is what, once my son was done interviewing,

uh, Blake, I got in a couple of hits real quick, which is, um, I noticed that, uh, Blake Snell did not have his good slider all year.

Uh, for the first two months of the season, his slider was dropping two to three inches less than it normally did. And I asked him about that. He's like, yeah, I just got my slider back. Like, I did not have it at the beginning of the season. And in a way, I think it led to both the high walk totals but also the good season in that he was forced to really work on his curve and change.

And that change was so critical. I just remember it was like Spohr and everybody. Everyone was very critical of like, stop throwing that change. Like Nick Pollock, stop throwing that change. And that change has been dominant this year. Because he can't command it. But he can't normally command it. But he said it wasn't command that changed for him this year.

He told me that I should look up how his changeup does under 88 or under 87 and over 88. So I'll write about that at some point. He told me that killing the velo on it was huge, more so even than the command. So yeah, he tweaked the changeup and he was curveball changeup fastball for a lot of this season. And then he finally got the slider back.

And that's kind of a cool thing about him. When you have a great season like this, there are stories where you're like, and then I had a great start. And then the second half, I got this other old pitch, you know, and all the people who'd see me in the first half were like,

damn, now he's a slider back, you know? So that's, that's kind of the anatomy of a, of a Cy Young season is, you know, things have to break, right. anatomy of a Cy Young season is you know things have to break right and then you also like make an adjustment that people don't expect and you

manage to be dominant all year do you think he's gonna have to take a haircut on the money because he's a pitcher that can't go be really beyond the six like do you think because I was about to ask you like man is he gonna get like all the money in the world he should break records but then at the same time like is he gonna to have to take a haircut? Because he's kind of a bullpen-dependent pitcher, as good as he is, right? Yeah, he's not efficient. He's out in the fifth a lot.

You can see it in his innings totals also, that there's been a lot of injury. The other Cy Young was at 180, and this year's going to be 180. And then every other season probably averages out to 120 or so. So he's going to give you, if you sign him for five years, he's probably going to give you 120s in four of those years and 180 in one of those years. That's the math on his career so far.

And so I don't think he's going to get uh the entire bag but i do think that uh he's coming off a better sort of platform than kevin gossman and robbie ray so i do think he's going to do better than the 110 and five that they got i don't know if somebody's going to give him six with his injury history um but maybe like 6-150. I don't think there's no way things are low, you think? I mean, I kind of thought you got a dual Cy Young winner. What about the DeGrom deal, 180? I was thinking like he's a $200 million pitcher, but maybe, I mean, with the market, like who else is out there?

Otani's not out there anymore. I mean, there's not that much. You're right. The market may push him further. I feel like like the giants would have been a team the the rangers that like somebody would load but you're not he's not going to get like a um a garrett cole deal because garrett cole was like healthy uh you know great track record uh like different age uh just impeccable impeccable results so like I don't think he's going to go as far as the Garrett Cole deal. Okay, well, we'll see what it is.

Interesting stuff. You'll have some more fun offseason stuff that people can take. Apparently not just read, but also listen to. I'm excited to see all that stuff. That's Blake Snell. Some injury stuff that's floating out there. Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Green is having surgery on his right elbow on Wednesday. He's out for the year.

This is out for the year season, you know. And it was a pretty good, like, there's a pretty good bounce in there. Like three months, two months of Riley Green. And man, we're turning it around. Like Spencer Torkelson has taken all of that. It's funny because I thought those guys were turning in the same direction. I think Riley Green in the offseason is going to be probably a decent amount less expensive

than Spencer Torkelson now, just because of the injuries and the counting stats didn't look like a monster. But he definitely on a full season looks like he could be one of those guys that's going to be a nice late value as far as outfielders go. Like Torkelson is probably going to push top 100 value.

Riley Green probably won't do that, but I don't know if you, I don't even know if you were a big Riley green guy this year. I did. I think I, uh, bold predict him in his 25 homers, which is too bad because he like with a full season,

maybe he could have done it. But, uh, I think next year I would try to buy him as a two 75, 2010 guy. Yep. Um, and, uh, that's not, that's not something, uh, try to buy him as a 275 2010 guy.

That's not something that I don't think that's something you can push too high. In a 12-teamer, that's maybe a bench pick. There's some value there. It definitely has upside

beyond if he's just healthy all season and another level clicks. There's the possibility that he makes a little bit more contact and makes a little bit more out of his barrels. But he hits the ball really hard and has shown pretty decent eye and is an athlete. So those are the types of players I like to pick up. You'd love to. You'd love to, I'd love to hear you reporting about like him doing the large new bar type of stuff, you know,

just like get like really get really like break in analytical about your approach with a big hard hit numbers, like learn to barrel those big hard hits even more and make bigger impact. But something to monitor with Riley green, another IL stint, which probably ends the year. Orioles plays right mountcastle on the 10 day retroactive to the 17 so i suppose we still could get back with it uh he had a left ac joint

inflammation and what that has done is open up an opportunity for rhino hearn who has actually been pretty good and heston kerstad who just hit his second homer the other day. And if you had to pick one of those guys to kind of ride out for this last like 10 days, are you going to go with the rookie as far? I mean, I think there's 10 to 11 potential games between like Thursday and next week that the Orioles can play. I don't know how much either one of them are going to like eat into each other, but Kerstad or Ryan O'Hearn with Mountcastle out. It's interesting because they're both lefties.

I'm going to just go with O'Hearn. He's having a really underrated season with a 22% strikeout rate, really solid all year. Definitely. I think if you had the choice as a manager, you know, between this 30 year old guyold guy who's reliably getting on base and having one of the best seasons of his career versus, depending on a rookie who's striking out a fair amount, I think you're going to go with O'Hearn. point out that I saw something post conversation with Al Melchior about Hester Kerstad's minor league barrel rates. Now, if anybody knows where I can get minor league barrel rates, please let me know, because I saw somebody on Twitter saying that he had elite

minor league barrel rates. I have always tried to approximate barrel rates by saying something like Heston Kersad has a 42% hard hit rate at AAA, a 113.5 max EV, and a 38% ground ball rate. I would assume that somebody like that has a good barrel rate. You know what I mean? Yep. Because they're hitting the ball hard and they're putting in the air. But I have never seen an actual barrel percentage number when it comes to a minor leaguer.

So that's something that I would be very interested in seeing. What we are seeing with Heston at the major league level is that he's only put eight balls in a play and three of them are barrels. And so he has an insane hard hit rate of 88% and a barrel rate of 38%. Were that to continue, he would be the best hitter in baseball. Of all time.

Ever. Yeah, right. The greatest hitter that's ever lived. But I'll still take O'Hearn in the short term. I find Heston fascinating. What we talked about, I'd love to get your input on how you see Heston because I mentioned Tom Trudeau's scouting the stat line said it doesn't like him because he only had a one 16 WRC plus as a 24 year old and triple

a other analysts have mentioned that it's not his fault. He's 24. It was myocarditis and some other stuff. And you know, that he's had better success at other levels. We, I thought liked Heston by the eye test at the Eiffel League. Yeah, I'm that's fine.

Whatever the numbers are going to say on that. But yeah, I'm I'm in lockstep with I saw some of this discourse and the arguments that were going on line, which is really made by the way, like there's a lot of fantasy baseball Twitter and prospect Twitter that is unbearable and people are becoming unbearable. And it's one of the better approaches sometimes is maybe just to find your people and don't get into the discourse and just get out of the negativity. And for some reason,

some of these guys bring it up and, and Kirsten is one of those players, but I'm in the camp of like, I've seen him a bunch and there's some serious, there was some serious medical stuff. His almost entire first season being drafted was taken out. And then there's, you know,

I talked with Royce Lewis about this was 2019 or whatever, how one month of injury set his entire season back where it was like, it was in spring training. He hurt his wrist. And then he was spending his first couple months of the season as kind of a spring training approach, but without the coaching. And then the confidence level came back. And it's like you deal with, I think it was two different medical things that Heston Kerstad was having. I think that's serious enough. And then getting him in the fall league, it was MVP. I mean,

he was barreling everything. He shows weird speed. You know, he had a inside the park, Homer in the AFL. He did it here this year. Again, he barrels up the ball. He shows weird speed. You know, he hit a inside the park homer in the AFL. He did it here this year again. He barrels up the ball. He's got a big front. It's actually kind of like Royce, the big front leg kick that generates this massive power. And there are some swing and miss in the game.

But Kershaw also does barrel up the ball and hits it incredibly hard and has a and you could see that in the AFL and it extended over to this year. So the argument, if people are kind of wondering becomes about more long-term because I think there's a lot of things that obviously you want to weigh it over multiple years. And if you were to only wait over this year, the argument for some of the people, some of, some of these people are that like, well, yeah, sure.

He'd be great if you did it this year, but if you look at all of it and it's like, well, I think this is one of those instances where you kind of have to take back the all of it a little bit, because, you know, that first season back was his first professional season off of a major injury and missed time. I think that has to be accounted for. And if you do wait what's happening right now, he was killer this year. I mean, he hit almost 300 at both levels at AA and AAA. I don't care about the age of strikeouts have cut down. The walk rates are up there. The hard hit numbers are there. And then he's hitting over 300 and only a couple of games in the major leagues. Like all of this to me is a very good push for Heston Kerstad.

Is he going to be elite? Probably not. Does he have 30 home run potential? Yep, he absolutely does. And he has a potential to hit for a high batting average as he's doing it in the majors, did it in the minors this year. So yeah, I mean, I'm not spouting off a whole lot of craziness that, you know, of projected numbers and stuff like that.

I could see where projections might not like him, but I do believe if you were to get some of those minor league numbers, which are hard to get, sometimes you would see a high barrel percentage. You probably see a 15 to 20% barrel percentage. You know, the hard hit numbers are there and he's a pretty hard worker and he's in an organization that's doing a pretty good job with a lot of these hitters. So those are some like slight caveats to me that are like, yeah, I think think this is a this kind of an exciting guy i don't see any and i i'm sorry i'm going on about this but i also don't see like a value in trading

him right now i don't think his value is up enough where you'd be like oh you get get out from under him now i actually think a full off season off of the majors could be one of the best things for him going into next year and i think he can build off that's true you have to think also like what it means to say sell high like you know is heston kerstad like you know showing up anywhere as a top five prospect on any list no so you're not gonna you're not gonna like capitalize on you know a bunch of people being over their skis on heston kerstad what you can maybe what you can capitalize on lucky and one guy in your league loves him maybe a little bit more than they should. Now, what you can capitalize on is if there's... I guess he is a little bit older.

Yeah, if there's a bunch of... I just think the age is... A bunch of sleeper articles about him or something? I think the age is just kind of irrelevant a little bit here, but you could also argue that it's like, well, none of these things are ever irrelevant when you build this into math, and that's totally fine. One thing you can take advantage of

is if there's a whole bunch of people like me that are believers and then someone listens and they're like oh okay well seven of these analysts that i like really believe in him okay then you can start to take advantage yeah okay yeah i i picked them up i have this like thing in my 12 team league where you can pick up players and if they don't make it to their rookie uh rookie number like 150 at bats or whatever, uh, play appearances, then, uh, you can keep them as prospects. So I just picked up Ester Kristad and made him a prospect, uh, in this league. And so I I'm sure that some people will come calling.

And, and so there probably is a price where I'd say yes, but, um, on the other hand, yeah, I, I'll listen. But the other thing, uh, just, uh, to finish, finish just to finish this up is that from the eye test, which I don't really rely on too much, but one thing that I thought was really impressive, and I think this does show in the numbers, is not only could he barrel for power, but he hit the other way too. So we saw him hit a couple of doubles the other way. So I see that's why the strikeout rate's a little bit lower. And that combination is something I really value because that's the type of person

that can hit for batting average and hit for power. And there's not that many of that in the game. So that's the real tantalizing aspect is the possibility of 325 or 330 from 300 slash 25, 300 slash 30 from Heston. But yeah, yeah. Here in the short run,

I'll probably take O'Hearn over him and redrafts. I totally agree. Redraft. I would do the same thing. I think there's, he might be nice sleeper value next year. I mean, you also got to love,

like he's lowered his ground ball rate pretty much like at every single level of the, of his minor league stance. But I would also say the last thing on this is in defense of everybody on both sides of the Heston Kershaw debate, it probably is somewhere in the middle as usually most debates are. There's extremes on both sides of, you know,

he's nothing. This is what this says, or I've seen him and this is what this says. It's probably somewhere in the middle. And that's where you can end up lying. Is he completely overrated? Is he completely the real deal? Just find that middle ground

and that's probably the happy place. Yeah, it could be 280, 30 or 320, 25 or something. Yeah, he probably has wider variance, if we're being honest. He probably has the variance of like, he could be a 230 hitter up to being a 270 hitter, you know, somewhere in there. And those high variance guys are a little bit riskier

if you are a shaker and a mover, if you're a buyer and a seller. I think Kirstein might be one of those guys you could sit on for a little bit riskier if you are a shaker and a mover, if you're a buyer and a seller. I think Kirstein might be one of those guys you could sit on for a little bit more time. I brought up Royce Lewis, by the way. I know, dude. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I wanted to mention this. Royce Lewis has been the most exciting player over the last month.

He's scheduled to undergo an MRI on his left hamstring. That is happening tomorrow. So you're probably not going to know anything until Friday. So he's going to miss the next couple of days. This is also on top of them losing Carlos Correa. But this is the type of thing that could end Royce's season a little bit early. I think Royce has solidified himself to probably being... He needs to come back for the playoffs.

They need him in that lineup, man. Yeah, and he might be back for it. I really think Royce is going to open our eyes when we see his value his adp next season i think he is going to be a massively high play like what do you think off the top of your head it might be a trap i might i'm kind of leading he came back and hit a bunch of grand slams and everyone's like oh my god i totally forgot about the two acls like just just a complete guess. What do you think? Where do you think? Overvalued. No, no, no.

But like give me like a number, like a range, a number range. Who was like an oft injured guy that got some, I would say like probably like 150 or something. Oh, I think he's going to be, I think he might be top 75. I think he might be. I think you'll see drafts, especially if you're talking, because what sets the market in FPC, those early drafts, and what are those plays usually about, the highest upside?

There's a safety factor in there, but there's high upside. I think Royce, he misses the stolen bases. Especially because early season ones are like best balls and drafting holes. Yeah. And you do actually care a little bit more, because you could take Royce Lewis as your MI, and then you could take somebody like JP Crawford. Maybe he goes up too,

but like somebody like JP Crawford, just a vanilla everyday guy as your third shortstop that can step in when Royce Lewis is hurt. You know, I, that's what I think you're going to see. And I think, I think you're going to have inside the top.

Those are going to float Royce up higher because of those use cases. And then people who get into main event type stuff may not want that risk. And so it'll come back down again. And the question will be, is this injury going to buy back some of the value of the overpay you're going to have to do next year? Or does he recover from this MRI, come back, hit some more grand slams, and now he's going top 75? So you're right. It could be a great, great postseason. Yeah, crazy postseason.

But that's a bummer for people that are trying to vie for the playoffs. Speaking of which, I did want to talk. It's funny. We were talking. You're like, we're not really like a streamer show. You're right. But people are in their playoffs. You've got 10 days or so left.

And you and I will probably do this on Friday. So we don't need to tackle the weekend. I just wanted to throw a couple names out. Your opinion holds some of the biggest weight in the industry, especially on the pitching side, two pitchers I think that are really fascinating. And then if you've got any other pictures you want to throw out, that might be Thursday,

Friday streamers for people, but Sir Gibson long 18% Yahoo percentage, 5% ESPN. What probably picked up in a lot of, I think, CBS leagues, he's at least like 25%. He went out this past week and he struck out 11. He has got a really nice matchup against the Oakland A's. And if you were looking at a streamer that really might be sitting out there, I'm not sure there's a better one over the next four days, but there's risk. There is absolute

risk to it. So I'd love to get your take on Sir Gibson Long for his what now it was Thursday. It looks like he's been pushed to Friday up against the A's and your trust in streaming him. I would. That's, I think, my of the, of the next two days of Thursday and Friday. Um, he just blew the doors off the hinges when it came to, uh, you know, stuff plus, uh, he's had such a fantastic, um, minor league season. And I know I just, I feel bad that, season and I know I just I feel bad that uh you know I haven't uh you know come out here and and and highlighted him before um but uh one of the things that's kind of annoying is uh when somebody like um you know comes through at a certain times like uh his triple a times were uh I guess just through at a certain times like uh his triple a times were uh i guess just after i'd just done updates in the triple a data you know um and so you know he just kind of you know that happens

sometimes with prospects too whether like they go they get on fire between you know after the halfway mark and before the end of the season and so they don't get put on those updated lists at the halfway mark or whatever. So, you know, he just sort of fell between the cracks. And I would just say that Stuff Plus loves all his pitches. And just the fact that it loves its fastballs is good enough for me because he threw more than 20 of each of those. And that's a decent sample for Stuff Plus. So really standout fastballs and a really great matchup. 21% swinging strike rate in his first 10 innings.

Just absolute filth from him. And then, you know, what you're looking at when you're looking at Thursday and Friday is a fair amount of TBDs. Got this Baltimore-Cleveland situation that's a TBD. Some places have Ryan Peppio going on Thursday for the Dodgers, but he obviously isn't because he went last night. You're going to have stuff like Randy Vasquez. He's a guy I like for the New York Yankees. He might go three, and then Johnny Brito comes in

and steals his win from him again. So I don't know that I can recommend Randy Vasquez, even though I like him. You know, you've got another TBD between the Giants and the Dodgers, and that's just an awful, awful TBD because that could be 13 pitchers in that one game. TBD is going to be very popular over the next week. Yeah. And like, I can't recommend, and then there's some that I just can't recommend, like Dakota Hudson and Patrick Corbin. You could give it a shot at Oviedo, but Oviedo is just really disastrous or great. It seems like there's nothing in between. The command is either there or it's not, so I can't recommend that. And so I can't recommend that.

The one name that looks like there's two names for me that look somewhat safe, don't have a ton of upside, but, you know, should be available and somewhat safe and are very boring. Oh, look at this. Kyle Hendricks is listed as a starter on Thursday and Friday. Yeah, I think it was originally. It's interesting because he was originally Friday up against Colorado, but then maybe there's talk of moving him up to, he would go against Pittsburgh. I don't think either one matters for me. I think I'm fine with the,

I think he's a decent ratio guy. That's not going to get strikeouts and stuff, but if you want to hug your ratios and maybe go for a win, does he still scare you against either one of those teams? Okay. Those are good matchups. Uh, the two that I like slightly better than him are wade miley at uh at st louis um

wade miley to me is what you're talking about when you say kyle hendricks i think of wade miley like boring not going to strike out a bunch of guys but probably not going to do the one like the johan oviedo could give you three innings and six runs. You know what I mean? Yeah. I don't think Wade Miley will do that. And then the other one was the other one that I kind of like. EBD? France.

Or JP France again. Well, okay. So against the Royals, I just think it's a good matchup. He's at home. So let me turn this because this is the one I wanted to ask you about. The percentage is not going to probably be available out there. But I feel like this has been a really important one for people is Cole Reagans. And I kind of did this earlier in the week.

I actually was talking to Nick Pollock and Nick is fine with it. The only reason I'm bringing this up is because if you want to look at where has he gotten hit a little bit, you know, Cole Reagans have been awesome. It was against Houston. It was Houston in his last start. He gave up five over six, walked a couple. He had not given up five earned runs over.

Actually, he had given up five earned runs if you combine his previous five starts. So Houston got to him a little bit. My only thing I'm bringing up here is if you are, I, this is the point of the year where it's tight. Like, you know, your playoff run can be contingent on a pitcher getting blown up. Most people are, are you comfortable with Cole Reagan's going against Houston after everything he's done? Obviously strikeouts are in play, but let's say you are just bracing for some of those ratios and a six earned run start is really going to hurt you.

Is there any trepidation about Cole Reagans on Friday? I don't. Yes, a little bit. Obviously, you can hear my voice, but I do think that, you know, there's some variability in his approach in terms of what Cole Reagans can do. He's a five-pitch pitcher now, so he can come back against Houston. He's thrown the cutter more than he did in that one. He's thrown the curve more than he did in that one. He's thrown the changeup more than he did in that one. Uh, you know, he's, uh, he's thrown the, uh, the change up more than he did in that one. So maybe he could come back and, and, and throw more change ups or throw more curves. You know, he's not such a, uh, he's not a two pitch pitcher. So it's not like

he can't come back and, and, you know, do something different against Houston. And the one of the reasons that I like him in terms of his arsenal is that I think that those are all viable pitches. And so I think he can come back. I'm trying to come up with the game page for that one just to see that last start, just to see how hard they hit the ball. When's that start again? It was the 16th. that last start just to see how hard they hit the ball. But what do you have? When's that start again?

It was the 16th. So I should have probably pulled that up. That would have been nice where he went six. And by the way, he has gone six. Like he still went six. Strikeouts and walks weren't bad on that one. No, they were.

It was just earned. My only point to all of this, and it's not to create fear about Cole Reagans. It's just on a Friday, there is a little bit more of a concern if you have a really close ratio thing and this is just a tougher matchup this is like someone's asking like hey zach wheeler versus the braves it's like you know you have a really good pitcher versus the braves you get a little bit dicey this is later in the week everything about cole reagan screams positivity the strikeouts are always there five of the last six he has gone. There's quality starts in there.

It's just his team doesn't pick up a lot of wins. And this is a team that just hit him. So that's why I think it's just worth conversing. Because I think there's going to be some people that are going to have some concerns about it. Like, would they be better? Would you be better streaming Gibson Long against the A's or putting out Cole Reagans versus the Astros?

I mean, you're probably not not getting I don't even know if you would get five out of Gibson Long ah that's my concern about him is like maybe you're maybe you can get the good ratios but are you going to get a win out of out of yeah Cole Regan these are all the these are all the questions

to ask that I think it doesn't feel like those are close but I think they might be. I think you can get five out of Gibson Long, and I think you can get the win. So I would have just if there was no keeper concerns or what you're going to do the next week or do I want to have Reagan's for his next start? If there's no concern like that, just purely Thursday and Friday, I'm going to have Gibson Long over Cole Reagan's because of matchup mostly. Yeah. like that uh just purely thursday and friday i'm gonna have gibson long over cole reagan's because of matchup mostly yeah uh last thing i just wanted i just want to throw a couple of

these out real quick we don't have to get into discussions but a little mini little baby uh project prospect just to mention a couple things ricky teedeman has been moved up to triple a not a ton of innings this year i know that that gets exciting. I will say, I think of all years, levels just don't matter. Levels matter so much less to me than ever before because of amount of at-bats. I mean, maybe I'm overstating it. I'll look in the offseason even more, but the amount, I think it's positive when players can dominate the levels, but you see guys getting moved up and I think people get all like, whoa, they're moving up.

It's just more innings. Ricky Tiedemann also is rumored to be confirmed for the AFL. So rumored confirmed. I've heard essentially he is going unless something crazy happens, which he'll be one of the best pitchers we've seen. Well, something crazy could happen. If he's an injury replacement on the roster for the Major League team, I believe he can still be eligible for the postseason.

I'm not sure about that, but that's a loophole that's been used before. Yeah, and that is a possibility, so that could take him out of there. But they don't seem as desperate anymore for a starting pitcher. And Tiedemann has struggled with getting deep into games, so I think that's why you go to the AFL. He had that arm issue that was going on so just get him ready for next year yeah he's been moved up what's up with the results I mean the the strikeouts are amazing the walks are not great I mean he there's a little bit of like uh there's a Blake Snellian in in him if you're looking at that I love Ricky I'm trying to pull up his numbers and everything is not working for me

right now at double a this year uh 39.7 strikeout reach primo strikeout in fact if you look uh across uh his work in the minors uh you're talking about uh like a 40 plus percent strikeout rate and that i mean he he's like every outing it's three innings eight strikeouts he just blows stuff by hitters. I mean, he is. 13.7% walk rate this year, the highest of his minor league career. And I couldn't be more excited. I don't know if it's.

Yeah, I don't know that it's so worrisome yet because, you know, for the minor leagues in terms of walks, he has 25, 29, 30, 50 walks in 38, 40, 51, 88, 119 innings. 50 walks in 119 innings. That's not great. But that's 3.8. 3.8 for nine. Yeah, and I think that's why you also make sure you send out to the AFL, and that's why we're most likely going to see him.

So that'll be a great, you know, like I said. I mean, they're sending him to the AFL to push the innings. Well, also, yeah, I guess also, yeah. Probably to work on some stuff. It'll probably be the biggest name pitcher since Forrest Whitley, which hopefully it doesn't go that direction. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Aaron Nate Pearson.

Say that again. The other quick one's Wyatt Langford. Across all four tiers. I'm taking this from a, I think this was a thing on Pipeline. Across all four tiers of the minors, Langford has a 374 slash 480 OBP, 27 extra base hits, 29 RBIs. I'm a Dillon Cruz guy, but I can't deny Wyatt Langford has literally moved across the entire spectrum.

He was here on complex like two months ago and he looks like the best hitter in the minor leagues right now. He's the number one first year player. And even though I love Dylan Cruz, I think Dylan Cruz can be a monster. It's hard to deny the hard hit levels, the, how he's barreling the impact that he's making Langford and Cruz next year

in redraft. Yeah. They're going to be in the, they're going to year in redraft leagues. Yeah. It's crazy. They're going to be in the major leagues next year. Yeah. What is Texas going to do? What do you mean? Who are they going to move off from? Trade Adolis or... Well, I mean, they have like...

Trade Leotis? Yeah, they got Leotis out there. Your outfield can be Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, and Adolis, and everything else can just taveras is the fourth outfielder yeah he's a fourth a great fourth outfielder maybe maybe langford is more of a dh if they you know they can mess around with the dh spot uh i don't i don't worry about it free agent um you just play more catcher i mean you got high yeah i mean that might be the dh but i i't think, I guess my point is,

I don't think Leone Tavares is the reason that you move back from Langford. The aggressive move is insane. And he is the number one first-year player. And he's, I think my buddy Eric Cross put him at number one overall on his prospect list. Yeah, it's crazy. Does he have more walks than strikeouts?

I want to say that that's true he does yeah he's he's insane just barely yeah so first year players you live in the rich life if you got that uh the only other two i saw this note jack centurio is the first teenager to have a 2040 season 20 homers 40 stolen bases in the minor since Ronald Acuna in 2017. And funny enough, I was talking with Chris Blessing on my prospect show, Prospect One, and Blessing had said something about a month ago of like, oh, it's the best prospect I've seen since Ronald Acuna hitting. And statistically, he's doing that, not playing in the AFL.

And then finally, a guy that is also rumored to play in the AFL, kind of focusing on some AAA players or others we could have. Kyle Manzardo, four homers in his last seven games, really picking it back up as he's missed a ton of time and going to be one of those guys that is probably going to get dinged a lot off of what happened this year. But he's having a really good weekend. Have you heard about him for AFL?

Yes, I've heard that he has a every reason to go, except he has a very personal thing going on in his family. That's right. With a medical issue, that would be the reason I think he doesn't go. Every other reason says he should and would. More plate appearances, finishing

school, get ready for next season. Those are the reasons that he would be there. Exactly, and he'd need more bats, having a hot start. So are the reasons that he would be there. Exactly. And he's at Needmore Bats having a hot start. So a couple things I'll be on the lookout for. Next week we'll probably be able to speak on the Arizona Fall League rosters because I believe they're going to be posted on Friday. So you

and I can maybe take a little peek at some of the prospects and a mini project prospect some of the players will be seeing out in the Arizona Fall League next week and a whole lot more. Al and Eno are coming up on friday you guys will be talking about the weekend stuff all the latest news we'll be back final push i believe it's a final countdown i do that all the time i think it's only two more next week and then i think there's a little break if i remember correctly.

Um, so yeah, we just always found it really awkward to do rates and barrels through the beginning of the playoffs. Um, at least once the playoffs get going, we can kind of talk about, you know, what the,

if anything, the playoffs mean for next year or what to avoid thinking about and that sort of stuff. But, um, and also sometimes our schedules, our schedules get kind of crazy. You know, with my schedule in particular, it's writing for the playoffs, previews and reviews and this and that.

So we just wanted to bake in maybe a couple weeks off. And then, you know, the Arizona Fall League is a really great time to get it going again because there's a lot of people there that are getting it going. There's going to be some early drafts we can talk about. We're going to do a podcast from the Arizona Fall League. So that makes sense to get the listenership back online again before we do that because that's a really fun one. I usually come and heckle other people's podcasts uh at the arizona fall league

and so i've already gotten the promise from a couple people that they will come and return favor uh so that's always a fun reason to listen live uh to our podcast down there. It'd be interesting to see if, uh, Nick Pollock or, uh, any of the people I have, I have heckled, we'll come back and bite me in the ass. Probably as long as it's not like a midnight recording, because they've got some late night recordings on the podcast front,

but, uh, DVR is going to be there. Those are the ones where I ended up heckling. Yeah. Well, a little bit late in the night. We were all relaxing.

There's a little bit of heckling going on. Uh, I can tell you guys for everybody that dearly misses dvr which we all do but you know sometimes i might he's gonna be at the folly yeah he's gonna be at first bit i might make people miss dvr sometimes he'll be back in a couple weeks um i don't know my state of everything but then yeah he will be out at the fall league and it will be uh you guys there i'll probably end up doing something with you guys in some capacity. So be on the lookout for all those things, just kind of prepping you for things. You're going to do the podcast.

Okay, well, good. Then there you go. We'll have the podcast. It'll be great. Hopefully everybody will be out there. We can talk about more of that when it gets there.

Make sure you go to the athletic.com slash rates and barrels. Get yourself a subscription. So I'm so excited about the Blake Snell article. So I hope you guys are as well. You can do that. Really also a late promotion for it is you want all the off season content that's going to be coming. So make sure you're locked into that.

Make sure you're subscribed to this podcast and you know, and I'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Thank you guys for hanging out with us right here on rates and barrels.