Rates & Barrels - Project Prospect - Frelick Has Arrived and Double-A Surprises

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

DVR, Eno and Welsh look at Sal Frelick player comps. Is Alika Williams someone to buy? Tyler Black, Everson Pereira, Austin Wells and more. Rundown Alika Williams - 1:03 Nick Gonzales - 8:41 Sal Frelick - 13:20 Jackson Wolf - 21:49 Austin Wells - 25:03 Brandon Barriera - 29:20 Rockies Pitcher TJ's - 31:25 Eno's Kid Guest Stars - 36:03 Organization development - 36:52 Tyler Black - 42:53 Everson Periera - 45:53 Jorbit Vivas - 50:42 Johan Rojas - 53:41 Listener Questions - 54:29 Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Welsh on Twitter: @isitthewelsh Subscribe to The Athletic for just $2/mo for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Get 25% off your order when you go to jamesallen.com and use code: RATES Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Derek Van Ryper, Chris Wells, Gino Saris, all here with you on this episode. We discuss some recent prospect news and notes. Of course, it's Project Prospect, being that it's Tuesday. Interestingly enough, we talked about a player on the Monday show who got promoted. So we did that a day earlier than usual. Normally, that's a Tuesday tradition. Sorry if we stepped on your toes Tuesday, but sometimes things happen. We're doing some leaderboard surfing at AA, looking at some hitters that have performed very well, some guys that could be moved at the deadline, or maybe guys that could see some time before the end of this season,

given how well they've played at that level. We've got a few mailbag questions to get to as well, but we begin with the freshest news. Alika Williams, who we discussed yesterday, kind of in passing, we were talking about the Robert Stevenson trade that the Rays made. Alika Williams was the other side of that trade. He has been promoted by the Pirates, and as I mentioned yesterday, Williams went 37th overall in the 2020 draft. He's put together his best results in the minors so far after the trade,

working at AAA Indianapolis. A 35.8% hard hit rate. That's based on the fan graphs number. A 126 WRC plus. Controlled the strike zone really well. And he's pulling the ball more than usual, trying to get to some power, it appears. So that seems to be the adjustment so far.

Welsh, I'll throw it to you first. Alika Williams with the Pirates, joining a depth chart that is unsettled at a couple of spots, and he's one of probably three or four different guys where you look and you say, maybe, maybe he's a regular, maybe he's a bench guy,

and it's going to be an ongoing battle, really, for the rest of this season and probably into 2024 to determine who actually sticks as the bigger rest of this season and probably into 2024 to determine who actually sticks as the bigger parts of this core. Maybe, maybe with Alika Williams. You know, funny enough, he was at ASU. I saw him in college because he played with Torkelson. He played with Gage Workman. He actually pushed Gage Workman off of playing shortstop, moved to the third because he is so good defensively.

And that's kind of the big home. Offensively, he struggled in college. I think there was a lot bigger projectable thoughts that he was going to be able to create a bigger bat. That didn't happen in Tampa Bay. So far in his minor league career, it's been, I think, kind of so-so. You mentioned he is starting to pull the ball a little bit more he doesn't hit a lot of ground balls but his also his line drive rate is bad it's just like really bad in last year and or this year in double a 37 or I'm sorry that was his ground ball rate 12 percent line drive in triple a with Pittsburgh 17 percent he just doesn't have like a great knack for barreling. He also is not running a whole bunch. And I think that's a part of his game that he can definitely move.

So, you know, maybe like you said, I'm, I'm not big on a leak of Williams as I kind of moved off of gauge workman, that whole kind of ASU team fell apart. I think even if a leak, it does get the bat going and kind of revamps who he is offensively. I just still think it's going to be pretty low tier. I don't, if it got to double digit homers, I would be relatively surprised.

He hasn't shown the app to steal a whole bunch. And I just don't know if we're going to ever get there. He's never stolen more than six bases at a level. So I'm not the biggest on Alika, though playing time is viable here. Great to see him start pulling the ball more, but we've got enough of those players that are really good. The Luis Matos's of the world that make a lot of contact

that aren't hitting and stealing. Could have argued Sal Freelick, who we're going to talk about, but he just crushed a bomb in his second or third game. Alika, I'm pretty mediocre about here, because I think this is a hardcore defensive first shortstop that if you get extra offense you're happy so better real life than a fantasy player i wonder what the difference is in terms of alika williams offensive ceiling versus someone like taylor walls in tampa bay

right we think of taylor walls as a glove first player who's versatile and i think even the scouting grades i've seen on williams tool, on Walls' hit tool, are better than Williams'. So that gives you a little more security. And I think we saw better level-to-level consistency from Taylor Walls in the minors going through the raise system than we've seen from Williams to this point. I'll broaden this up a little bit as I throw it to you. You know, as you look at guys like Nick Gonzalez, Alika Williams, Jared Triolo, Tukapita Marcano, and Leover Piguero, who just got brought back up recently as well. Who's good in that group? Who sticks? I guess you could count Jiwon Bae as part of this. He was up a little earlier, but I think there are plenty of questions about how much he's actually going to hit in the long run, even though he steals bases for us.

From a fantasy perspective, how many of those guys, if any, are part of the next great Pirates team? That's interesting what Chris was saying about the Alika Williams line driver or hit tool, I guess. You've got a 40 out of 50 on fan graphs, and yet you have this problem with line drives, and it also manifests in his batting average. I mean, you've got a guy here that strikes out less than 20% of the time and has shown some power at different stops,

and yet he keeps throwing up these 230s and 250s. Like, that speaks, I think, to less of a hit tool than you'd expect. I mean, yes, he doesn't strike out, but hit tool is not just not striking out. And so I'm interested to see how much Pittsburgh has unlocked with him because there are a fair amount of differences. It looks like Tampa was trying to get Alika Williams to hit the ball in the air.

Yeah. Like the bigger samples, the fly ball rate is going up. Like he had a – Alika Williams had a 39 in A ball and then a 46 in high A and then a 50% fly ball in double A. So it looks like they were trying to get him to lift the ball, and that wasn't working. And, in fact, Pittsburgh, it looks like they said –

I don't know what it is. Ground ball rates can come from mechanics, but mechanics are kind of hard to change quickly. So I would guess that Pittsburgh told him to target different pitches. They just said, like, you're a better low ball pitcher hitter, actually, or a better high ball pitcher hitter, actually, or whatever it is. And maybe they have unlocked something. it is you know um and maybe maybe they have unlocked something i i do find his combination just in triple a of uh age walk rate strikeout rate and power really intriguing so uh there's

something that i like about that but uh piguero he definitely for fantasy steals more bases uh and there's more of a stolen base threat. This year he already has 21 stolen bases. Last year he had 28. 28 in 2021 and 417 plate appearances. He steals bases, but he also strikes out more, whiffs more. The power is really inconsistent. I kind of see Poguero as an up and down guy. I'm not that into him. You know who I like the best out of all these guys?

And it's a bit of a feeling, but Jared Triolo. There's something that I like about his combination of strikeout rates and then just some possibly emerging power. He doesn't hit the ball on the ground all the time. He hasn't shown great power yet, but he doesn't hit the ball on the ground all the time.

I don't know if that's damning or not. Would you rather have a guy who hits the ball on the ground all the time but hits it hard and you could try and lift it or a guy who already hits the ball in the air some but doesn't hit it that hard? That's Alika Williams versus Triolo, by the way. Yeah, okay.

I don't know why I like Triolo. There's something I like about Triolo. He just, you know, comparing to Alika Williams, he's had similar strikeout rates and much better batting averages. So, like, I do believe in his hit tool. They both have 40-50, Triolo and Alika Williams, in terms of hit tool. But I believe in Triolo's hit tool. Yeah, a little more consistency with the hard contact for Triolo.

So I think that would probably be something that I would look at and say that's better. I don't know if any of these guys are on the next great Pirates team, at least in meaningful roles. I mean, I think Nick Gonzalez was the player people were the most excited about at the time these players all entered the org. And some of the struggles we've seen from Nick Gonzalez, I think, can be reasonably attributed to injury, right?

But the other part of the story was playing really high altitude, lower level competition in college that probably juiced up the offensive numbers beyond a point where we could really get a good sense of his true talent. Yeah, and I think also like an attempt to lift the ball maybe mechanically in a way that opened up a real hole on the top of the zone. that opened up a real hole on the top of the zone because as much as you can blame the bad competition, he didn't strike out this much. He really just exploded with the strikeouts after he was drafted. And I have to think that this is something

that he sort of mechanically opened up. Sort of what I gather about him. I completely agree because in the, this past day, if I've seen him, he did two stints in the AFL and I watched him in college and just seen different things. One of the,

the first things that stands out about Nick Gonzalez is the bat speed, like explosive bat speed seemed to kind of slow down a little bit in the majors. And the most apparent thing of anything this past year was that he had the big old massive hole at the top of the zone he was chasing high fastballs left and right and couldn't make contact with it and you kind of assume a guy with big bat speed was maybe cheating on maybe what he felt uncomfortable with breaking pitches lower in the zone and feeling he could just catch back up and guys were just attacking him left and right if he could get that fix i think he has he represents the best tools of all

these players they're just kind of falling apart you know we kind of glossed past him but just laver paguero just with the stolen bases if you want to talk about a player that fits the best fantasy mold it's him of anybody um in 2022 he gets the full shot. Yeah. If he gets a full shot, but 28 stolen bases in double a 10 homers, he's a double digit power guy with 20, 30 plus stolen bases. I mean, if you really believe in a leak of Williams,

okay, that's cool that he could maybe hit 15 homers, but the guy has never stolen double digits. His best year at Arizona state, by the way, he hit three 33 with four homers and nine stolen bases. And it has always been the same thing so baguero actually represents i think the best set of fantasy tools nick gonzalez the best

overall tools to build off of and triolo might actually be you know the most moldable piece of clay with that hard hit and that just leaves maybe me being more negative on alika than i should but you know it's just defensive first. And like you said, maybe none of these guys are the next great Pirates team. But if I was making a bet, it'd be Nick Gonzalez and Laiver Paguero. Those would be the two guys I would look at,

even if they were moved on to another team. Those would be the two fantasy guys I'm betting on. Yes, it's a group that is intriguing, but has plenty of questions around each and every one of them, at least at this point. Like in a 12-team dynasty, even if you have minors and stuff, I don't know. Probably not any of these guys. Closest is Nick if they just continue giving him time

and we see the bat maybe progress at the end of the year. I'd want to see a better max EV by the end of the season. I'd want to see more barrels by the end of the season, I think. I'm not sure any of these guys are. The auto new league that Welsh and I are playing in new this year is a really good litmus test for a 12-team keeper league because those rosters are huge and players are very affordable when they're just popping up like this.

I didn't even think about bidding on any of them. Not one second. Not even. They are a roster now. No, they're not. None of them. think about bidding on any of them. Not one second. Not even. They are rostered now. No, they're not. None of them. I think every single one of them.

Gonzalez could be. There's no chance. Piguero is. Alika is not. Nick Gonzalez is the only one that might be rostered in the Otno League. No. And just for the sake of comparison,

I just picked up Michael Bush. Like to me, Michael Bush is a little more interesting in terms of his ceiling, even though he's 25 already. And I think timing in a lot of keeper leagues is about being ahead of the trade deadline. That's a big part of why we're going to talk about some double-A guys a little bit later on in the show, because Michael Bush might be an extra guy for the Dodgers. If the Dodgers are going to go out and upgrade the rotation

or find veterans to upgrade other spots in the roster, Michael Bush is the kind of player that a non-contending team wants back because they can just play him. Play him every day. Maybe Michael Bush is the next great pirate. We never know. He might be the next great pirate. For Kelly. Nick Gonzalez is owned in both

of my honor leagues. Interesting. But none of the other guys. Roster percentage is 59%. You've always wanted to be part of something bigger than yourself. You live for experience and lead by example. You want the most out of life and realize what you're looking for is already in you. This is for you.

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Well, this actually works out really well. Sal Freelick is also a more exciting prospect, I think, than all of these guys so far. 82% rostered on. I think Freelick has his fans, and

he's got his detractors, like many prospects. He's a little small, and I think there are questions about how much power he's going to get to consistently in games. He just hit his first big league homer on Monday night. It was kind of an important one. It tied a game against the Reds. The Brewers eventually won, made a couple nice catches in the debut.

He had a.095 ISO in AAA this year. Yeah, and he had a couple injuries at AAA this year too, so that complicates it even more where the power he was showing at high A, AA, and AAA last year split across the three levels. That's probably a better snapshot

of what he can do, but that was 11 home runs combined. Those are also kind of below average. Yeah, I think it's going to come down to whether or not he keeps the K rate nice and low and how much he runs. He's been a pretty good base stealer in the minors, but not like a 40 plus steal guy so far. Who does he remind you of when you look at the current and recent pool of big league players? current and recent pool of big league players i was actually surprised to see freelick as high on some prospect lists as he has been upon arriving in the big like throw this to you like where where do you think uh like where was he sitting that surprised you and where do you

think he should be he was inside he's inside of james anderson's top 50 i i just thought based on the it is because of promotions and graduations I thought he was more of like a 75 to 100 range guy so this is where I had him this is picking some nits well actually I'm actually the middle I think I had him 50 to 75 I want to say I had him on the low right outside the top 75 and I moved him back in

into like the 60 range because you know at the top of my head I haven't grabbed that question of what you said like who's the major league comp. But I think this is going back to maybe being similar to Luis Matos. Another in the minors, high contact guy, low strikeouts, which has been really good. Solid walk rates, who put up big numbers. He had 10 homers with 15 stolen bases while hitting over 300 at both AA and AAA.

Much better track record. But now in 33 games in the majors still representing a great strikeout rate but he's hitting 260 with one homer and three stolen bases these are just both guys that have um a really good plate discipline plate presence that just don't put up monster stats and i think they're both good points leagues guys. I think Freelick is a great points league guy. We saw what that power can be.

But I just don't know if he's a 15-15 guy. I mean, you know, the stolen bases, to your point, in 2022, the guy ended up stealing, I'm trying to do the math, like 24, 25 stolen, yeah, 24 stolen bases. So if he's a 10-20 guy long-term, I think you're going to be really happy with that with really good contact skills. But I don't think there's going to be huge developed power.

And I don't think this is going to be another Corbin Carroll. I think that might be something people are like, hey, smaller stature guy, makes lots of contact, doesn't strike out even less. Hey, he just hit a homer in three games. No, I don't think so. I think this is just low-end power with some stolen bases if he's hitting at the top of the lineup.

It's actually cool that he was hitting four. I think that was really telling. Putting him at the four spot opens up a world of possibilities. If he keeps doing that, he's exponentially more valuable than Matos right now just because, you know, he's hitting for high contact. He's going to have more RBI opportunities. But I just, I think this is another one of those players we're looking at with like waning power potential, but more speed than a guy like Alika, like we talked about. I can't believe the state of that lineup right now is such that Frigolik has hit cleanup

in back-to-back games within his first three games in the league. We've seen that a ton though with rookies this year, where they got kind of just thrown into the fray. I think, you know, Ellie got thrown into the fray. There were a ton of guys that were like 3-4 leadoff in the first 10 games to really test them. Sometimes I wonder if it's also about maybe the pitch selection that they might see in that point of the order.

Or, you know, to your point, it might just be like, this roster is so decimated, we just want a guy that's going to make some really good contact if we've got guys on in front of him so we can drive in some runs. Yeah, and if you watch him, you'll see his two-strike approach. He shortens up. He shortens up, just puts the ball in play, and good things can happen sometimes when you do that.

So I'm trying to figure out. I've got some comps. I think the lazy comps that I i make well yeah here's my lazy one first all right my floor for a guy like this is always like steven kwan like super low k rate runs a little bit of power but i think he's got more power than steven kwan it's just like yeah i'd agree with a little bit more whiff right probably a little more whiff probably a little more power that's why it's like it's it's an imperfect comp but that's just where i start like in terms of weird roto players that we've had that have come in recently,

I would start there. But I think you have to start adjusting the dials. So, yeah, I'm trying to do that. I'm looking at 12% to 16% strikeout rate for my comps. I think, let me see, what has he done? He's a 10% plus walk guy almost at every single level. I know, but I mean in terms of what are the strikeouts because I'm looking at my comp list now, not him.

He's projected for 14. Yeah, he's under 15 by all the projection systems, which is pretty nice to see for a guy debuting. So I'm looking for under 16% strikeout rate with actual walks and then I'm looking for a sub you know

108 109 uh max ev um and uh a highest ground ball rate but not like a 60 or not a fit not over 50 um and the names that come up are um nico horner um you know that would be i think on the top end for his speed as horner has 22 stolen bases already uh mariso dubon is one um that gives me pause because i you know marisa dubon has a 1068 max ev and uh freelix so far has uh has shown us 1065 as his best using even AAA values. So of my comps, he has the worst max EV. And so Dubon might be one of the best comps for him. However, Dubon also only walks 3% of the time. So it's not a great comp for his approach.

Andrew Benatendi is on this list. Yeah, I think that's an easy veteran one to do yeah that that works for me actually andrew ben attendee works for me um and brendan donovan but uh donovan doesn't really have this the speed uh here's the one of the nicest ones bryson stott bryson stott walks 6% of the time, strikes out 15.7% of the time, has a 130 ISO, has a 108 max,

47% ground ball rate, 9 homers and 19 stolen bases. What is Stott's average EV? Do you have that? Yeah. I just feel like Stott hits the ball a lot harder consistently. I mean, if he was Bryson Stott, I feel like we would be pretty happy.

I mean, Nico Horner as well. Bryson Stott has a 34% hard hit with an average 88. I don't know. If he could pretty consistently hit 88.1 last year. I think he could be Bryson Stott. Now, Bryson Stott hit 234 last year and 301 this year. So there's, you know, whatever Bryson Stott's true talent is, you have to figure that out.

Right. But let's say Bryson Stott's true talent is a 275 hitter with, you know, 12 to 14 homers and 25 stolen bases. I think that actually sounds okay for Frehlich. Yeah. I'll buy that. The good version of Bryson Stott sort of lines up with the expectations that I have for a free lick. Yeah, I'll buy that. The good version of Bryce and Stott sort of lines up with the expectations

that I have for a free lick. The brewer comp I was thinking about as I was making breakfast this morning, because that's all I ever think about, was Nori Aoki. Oh, I hope he runs better routes. Well, I was focusing only on the offensive production. Nori Aoki kept his K rate under 10%

in each of his first five big league seasons, crept up over 10 for that last one, but kind of a fun player for a brief time. And he entered the big leagues at age 30, so we probably got him post-peak too. Yeah, totally, totally. I saw him in Japan. He was a star.

All right, let's move on to a few other topics here. I was wondering if the debut of jackson wolf may have been a little bit overlooked i don't know if he's going to be a good starting pitcher because he doesn't throw particularly hard but he's six seven i bet the ball looks like it's just jumping out of his hand even if it's 88 89 for the fastball i think the model liked him a little bit you know so what So what do you think Jackson Wolf ends up being? Just a multi-inning reliever? Yeah, I mean, it's five innings that's pushing it for the model even,

but it said 107 stuff plus on the fastball, 120 on the slider, 130 on the change. I think the number I believe the least, and it makes sense because of how the model works, is the changeup. But 107 fastballball 120 slider would be a good foundation and i i i see enough where i'm like this could work because what he is is um a really tall sinker baller and it's called a four seam but that doesn't matter if it's for the model doesn't matter if it's a four seam or sinker whatever it is it's still a fast, it doesn't matter if it's a four-seamer sinker or whatever it is. It's still a fastball. It doesn't really matter.

What he's got is that two-plane pitch. It's got the same amount of horizontal movement as it does ride. That's something that people are looking for. Now, a lot of times they're looking for bigger numbers in both directions. Wolf doesn't have a tremendous amount of ride, but he does have a two-plane fastball that would look really strange, I think, coming from where he is, given his height.

And so I'm not sure it's something that'll last forever. And, you know, a 76-mile-an-hour breaking ball is not ideal, but it is something that might work in short stints, and I'm definitely intrigued to see more, you know? I kind of thought it was like Alex Young Welsh, like the former Diamondback, current red. I kind of thought that was what we were looking at in terms of core skills.

Pretty big K rates for Jackson Wolf. Or Chris Young, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I was curious about how many sub 90 fastballs register in at like plus stuff plus on the fastball. But that's my that's the kind of where I'm alluding to.

Like how many times do we see stuff plus over 101 over with a sub 90s fastball? It does. It's weird that it did that because it's like pretty low spin rate. I think it was 2100 on the on the fastball. So I guess if it's a sinker that plays a little bit,

if it's registered more as a sinker, that would be better. But that's a low spin rate fastball, really low VLO on it in general. Good variance between the pitches, but I think he's a multi-inning reliever. They've done this with, again, not to like big pitchers, but like Michelle Baez, another big guy that they put in the bullpen. I think he could be a spot starter and throws a lot harder. I think this would be a good situational lefty long-term. Maybe he'll be wrong about it.

I don't have firm belief that this is a starter or someone that's heavy fantasy relevant. I just don't know how the stuff is going to play up over a long period of time. And, you know, like you said, the plus numbers, I don't know how, if you would say, how sticky they're going to be long-term with the stuff that he's putting out there i just thought he was a little odd because of the statistical results and even the the brief uh look at the model i had and he's an outlier of sorts because he's six seven with all that sync a couple other news items to get to austin wells bumped up to triple a in the yankees organization welsh i think this is more just because jose Trevino is out for the season.

I think they brought up Ben Roartveit to be their backup on the big league club. Needed to go ahead and move Wells up a level. I don't know if we've talked about Wells with you specifically in the past. I'm curious where you're at on his bat and his chances of sticking defensively at catcher, even part-time, as he continues his ascent toward the Bronx. Yeah, I think about, I interviewed him, I guess it was two AFLs ago, and I remember asking him,

it was one of the weirder interviews. He had actually just won player of the week, and I was just like, oh, this is cool. I'm like, did you get anything? And he was like super pissed. He got nothing. He's like, I got a piece of paper, and he was like salty about it.

Because, you know, sometimes I'll have these big necklaces and stuff and he's like nope didn't get anything and one of the first questions i asked him at the gate was was did the yankees at all ask him to play anywhere else while he was there and he said we've never had one conversation about me playing another position well shoot to now and the thing that's going on is they're saying that his bat is ready for the majors right now, but defensively he is not. And they're still not toying around with him coming off of that position. So, you know, I think the bat is great.

He's explosive, 11 homers in AA this year, but the average has stunk, and that's something we're going to have to monitor continuously. And defensively he's behind so if the question is is he an option this year just don't think so because there have been no positive talks about him defensively and really the down tick in his batting average is something they've got to be worrying about because i don't think this was like him altering to try to hit for more power i think this might be coming back to we've talked about it with where you have a catcher like i've said this a million times carson we've talked about it with where you have a catcher.

Like I've said this a million times, Carson Kelly talked about how he was a hit first catcher when he came up and then they spent two years working on him defensively and all that work made him come off of his offense. And he struggled offensively because of the defensive focus. I wonder if that same thing could be happening and it would take Wells might take a little bit more time to fully push if they're going to continuously do the catching stuff so i'm not insane on austin wells i'm not like a huge big push i do think he's got crazy big raw power and he's got a great bat it just seems to be lagging behind with this defensive drag so i don't know when this is going to be like a a positive push but it's probably not this year. He just turned 24 about two weeks ago, so more age appropriate to be at AAA for the

end of this season. The numbers haven't been bad at AA. I mean, you kind of pace it out. It's high 20s home run power. It's non-zero speed. What are you guys talking about? I've been looking at bad fastballs. Austin Wells.

But he's hitting under 240, though. You don't like this. I mean, to your point, he's got like a 200-'s hitting under 240 though you don't like this I mean to your point he's got like a 200 plus iso and a double digit walk percentage but you know the contact numbers have been um have been really really bad but I guess he is getting the ball in the air really low ground ball rates which work in his favor because he can't hit the ball really hard come up after the Trevino injury different He's behind defensively. They literally said two weeks ago, they said, his bat is ready now. His

ability to call games is not. They don't feel good. I don't know why. I mean, it's been two years of this. I mean, that was literally his push in the AFL. It has been two years of this, so why is it taking so long? Could they literally just give the manager the pitch come? Yeah, but it might also be framing.

It might be all this. Because I agree with this. I think with rookie pitchers nowadays, when you get the pitch com, let the pitchers just decide. Especially a veteran pitcher with a rookie catcher, just let him get in there. And most of that staff is pretty veteran. Yeah.

Exactly. So it's got to be more about framing. Clark Schmidt is almost a veteran. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you could let Garrett Cole and Carlos carlos rodan and luis severino just call their own wouldn't really be that big of a deal it seems like something more teams would start to do at some point now and this is a yankees team that needs offense but to welsh's point i think you need to see a little more consistency with that i wonder if he's gone too

far too extreme with the fly balls because a 26.5 percent ground ball rate is really really low means a lot of weekly hit fly balls that are just turning into pretty easy outs despite his ability to do some damage. Best Western made booking our family beach vacation a breeze and it felt a little like Come on kids, back to the hotel room. Good night kids. Good night mama. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. One other news related item to get to. Brandon

Berria. Berriera? Oh man, that's a tough one to get if you can't roll the R's, and I can't roll the R's this morning. I cannot either. He is healthy again at single A, a prospect in the Blue Jays organization. He's had shoulder and elbow injuries that have kept him to just 18 and a third

innings in game action so far. He's one of those guys, though, if he's healthy, especially for these final two months, maybe the Fall League's possibility. More importantly, he'd be on a lot of potential breakout lists for 2024. How do you spell that last name? B-A-R-R-I. Yeah.

Yeah, go ahead. I-E-R-A. Barrera? Oh, there it is. Barrera? I can't roll, so I can't do it. I've taken enough Spanish. Let's see. Wait, try it.

Try it one more time. Try it. Barriera? Barri... Oh, I see. I didn't do a German. I did the German R's and I started doing the...

Yeah, I'm getting a little... Barriera. Barriera. Yeah. Barriera. Electric stuff, if you can stay healthy, but more just a wait-and-see

sort of guy. Maybe someone that's been a little bit forgotten about because of all the lost time this year. I totally agree with what you're saying. I will say I worry about guys like that early on with the injury. It is electric stuff, but also there are a lot of really good pitchers in the post-100 to 150 range.

I'm not saying to not target him. Yeah, and he's 19. There's a long way to go, but mean you want to like when you get out to the top 150 of prospect list there are the jackson jobes coming back jackson ferris with the cubs or is kicking back up human lynn with the diamond backs has been really good marco right i mean i'm just i'm just throwing out that i maybe i'll miss the boat a little bit but if you're in a league that has maybe like free agents or prospects that are posts like 150, there are just so many good pitchers, which makes me not invest sometimes heavy in pitching because of what you can do in the off season. He would be one, but if it's over

the, you know, I don't know, like I said, the Marco Rias or the human lens, I probably don't do to injuries, but he could be a big breakout if healthy, if he gets some action at the back half of this year and starts moving, but there's still a long way to go. And I also think about, I don't know, I don't think you had this on your list, but like, did you guys see what the Rockies did? And they announced two days ago or yesterday, three of their top five pitching prospects, all having Tommy John surgery. It was all announced together. Gabrielle Hughes, who's probably their best pitching prospect

after they just drafted Chase DeLonder, Jackson Cox, and I think it's Johindre Vargas, they announced it as a group. All of their top pitching prospects, the guys who have been theoretically the best, they're all having Tommy John surgery. That's weird. And I think about that when I think about the high-end investment

of the young pitchers in some of these orgs and making that heavy investment. Not that Brewer is going to take that same path, but that's in my head with the Rockies. The Rockies minor league system is also high altitude, right? Yes. They have Colorado Springs as one of their places. Yes.

Is it just Colorado Springs? Albuquerque is their AAA. That's high. I'm completely forgetting who the AA is. They're Hartford, Colorado Springs? No, they're all the way on Hartford. Yes, you're right. Hartford. How incongruous is that?

Is it high A or something? I think Colorado Springs is low. It used to be AAA, and then I think they moved it down to low. Yeah, I thought it was AAA. Colorado Springs might not be affiliated anymore. You might be right about that. Let's see. Colorado...

They had the S'more logo, I think. The Rocky Mountain vibes, I think, is what they were. But some of this is changing around those players. So I see Albuquerque, Isotope, Grand Junction. That's in Colorado, right? Grand Junction, Rockies?ies colorado okay so here it is yeah you're right they are gone college springs is gone so it's ashville at low a lancaster high hartford double and albuquerque triple that's grand junction junction rockies

that is the uh well that was the former rookie level that is now defunct. It was the Boise Hawks and Grand Junction. Those were when we had short season ball, and those are gone. Lancaster is one of those parks that I believe it's both altitude and there's a jet stream that has been blowing out at 20-plus miles per hour ever since that park was built. And their name is the Jet Hawks. Yeah. Look up the old.

As in, that's what happens to fly balls. Look at the old Delano DeShields Jr. numbers from his time in Lancaster. You'll have a nice little chuckle about that performance. It was very impressive. Well, the only reason I'm bringing it up is, you know, and this has all been moving around, right? So, you know, in the course of those prospects' lives, they may have played in Colorado Springs or wherever so you know in the course of those prospects lives they may have they may have

played in colorado springs or wherever you know like but there seems to be like a fair amount of altitude in their minor league system and i just wonder if they're doing enough to uh make sure that rest and recovery you know they're like surgically altering their arms for this like i mean no no no no that i'm saying that are they doing enough to to uh to increase rest and recovery because uh altitude decreases that increased fatigue units from uh the conditions yeah exactly yeah i mean develop you got a one i don't know if they've made any big changes in that organization but like i think it's super suspicious that all their top pitching prospects had tommy john yeah that's right that's what i'm sort of talking about i'm like you know i'm saying maybe there's an altitude issue there

yeah maybe and maybe more rest you know chase delander is here i saw him over at the diamondbacks complex i've been perusing some complex over the last week as draft prospects no he's not now there are dvr actually actually are talking about this. It's so weird. Arizona does this more than Florida, but the teams will bring out their college bats and they'll let those guys start playing. And those guys will start playing here in rookie ball,

which might seem weird. And then they'll only play a couple of games and they'll move on where Chase Davis with the Cardinals who was just drafted U of A, he just started. He was the first rookie to start anywhere. And he went to a ball. He didn't come here to rookie ball.

So in these complexes, I'm seeing these guys, but what happens is the pitchers high school or college, they don't, but they just come and hang here. And Chase DeLander is here. And I wonder if he's going to pitch at all, but he is hanging with the group.

They're going to the games. He's doing the process, but he's not doing anything. And maybe coming back to some guys are having surgeries, He's hanging with the group. They're going to the games. He's doing the process, but he's not doing anything. And maybe coming back to some guys are having surgeries, maybe because of wear and tear, and maybe they're going to be a little bit more hold back on some of these guys. And maybe the lander is just going to sit here, not pitch at all this year, rest, and then just go.

Maybe they have, in your mindset of what you're saying, they have a better concerted effort of fixing whatever is going on with them because there's some of these orgs that are struggling. What's up, dude? I got a visitor. He can't hear you. He doesn't have headphones on. How's it going? Say something.

What's up, buddy? What's your take on Chase DeLander? What do you think of Chase DeLander? Who's that? What do you need, buddy? Okay. Good times. He has it right. He has it right.

But it just comes back to like there's so many of these orgs where the Angels seem to struggle in development and they just take as ready as possible. And the Rockies, I don't... If they know what they're doing with pitching, it'll be something we'll all find out years from now because it doesn't seem like they know what they're doing with pitching, it'll be something we'll all find out from years from now, because it doesn't seem like they know what they're doing with their pitching development.

Right. Yeah. It just seems like it's far away from many other orgs at this point. And they have challenges. It just popped in my head. You know, have you had experience? Are enough teams hype? You would think they should be, but sometimes I think they're not at all.

Do you think teams are hyper aware of exactly what you just said like a team like the rockies do you think they're hyper aware of the altitude adjustments that happen to their own pitchers and the wear and tear is enough of that in organizations that like there's people okay okay there's people like yes i wonder on the major league level sometimes some some of these things I think are thought of as more important for Major League because those are the good players and that's where the money is.

And so, yes, they had like a nap room in Colorado. I don't know if they still do, but they did at some point. But that's what I mean in the minors though. Thank God we have a nap room, you know? Um, and, uh,

so they, they had some thinking about it. The players for the Rockies, a hundred percent are super aware of it. And the players are sleeping in hyperbaric chambers. They're, uh, doing their workouts in San Francisco and San Diego because they know that

they'll get a better rest and they'll sleep that night than when they do when they come home. So they never work out when they come home. They always try to work out on the road. You know, there's all sorts of things that the players are doing to deal with this. And I get the sense that the team must be aware of it and must be thinking about it and must be spending some time and money working on it. But I don't know that that means that it has permeated the minors see that's what i'm referring to teams that do things at the

top that they don't do it all the way through the bottom well and like clearly the angels being one of them but that's exactly what i'm talking about like it is in the player development rooms is there a person that is cognizant that not only are we going to have elevation issues with some of our stuff, but maybe to what you're saying is you might have more rest and there might be a better, I just wonder how many organizations have active player development in the minors thinking about the bigger things that you're talking about. Like hopefully,

you know, you're not breaking news to a team that's like, Oh yeah, maybe we should be resting some of these pictures in these high elevation places more. And that's what, oh yeah, maybe we should be resting some of these pitchers in these high elevation places more. And that's what I feel like is still lacking in many spots in baseball. I think that's lacking across baseball. I mean, I think that the best teams are doing stuff like that.

There are, there are things that, you know, end up being an impediment to this. And one of those is you're talking about how many, how many people are in a, in a minor league system, like 300 or? Yeah, I mean, there's four levels of let's call it like 25. There's 100. And then rookie ball, you can- Oh, no, they have a limit, 180. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because rookie, you can put like 50. You can put like 50 people in rookie ball. That's the cheat code. They have some limit to it. So there's 170 kids. But then you think about the coaches, and you probably have another sort of 7,500 coaches right so and then you have your um you have your uh what are they called the pitching directors

the coordinators and stuff right so I would say probably in terms of personnel and management and um and coaches you've got 300 plus people that you're thinking about, right? As opposed to a major league team, which, you know, either you have a 40 man roster and 10 coaches, 15, like at the most you're talking about 55, 60 plus, you know, your front office people at the major league level, you don't have to keep them in line as much, you know, like you hired them recently. They're at the top of their jobs. You know, you're not telling them what to do as much.

They're the ones telling other people what to do, right? So you have 300 people in the minors where you're like, you're trying to get them on board with whatever it is at any given time. And you're like, you know, probably if you're the Rockies, you're like, let's focus on, you know, something like throwing strikes. I'm sure that's something that they would say. You know, like we're going to work on controlling the zone. And you make a T-shirt, right? You make a T-shirt, control the zone. Throw strikes. I'm sure that's something that they would say. I think we're going to work on controlling the zone and you make a t-shirt, right?

You make a t-shirt, control the zone. Throw strikes. And you pass it out in the spring. That's what the guy does. He just goes to, yeah, he goes to teespring and he makes a shirt and he's like, I did my job. There you go. That sounds like the angels developed.

No, you're belittling a little bit. But the problem is that you have these 300 people you're trying to get a message to. And if the message is too nuanced, it's like, well, let's think about rest and recovery. Does rest and recovery go on a t-shirt? Can you broadcast rest and recovery in a good way to 300 people? Just wear a t-shirt and say, hydrate on them. Yeah.

Well, how about wear t-shirts that say, I still play in the bigs and I'm healthy? I guess there are coaches. I'm not trying to make this big. wear t-shirts that say i still play in the bigs and i'm healthy like i mean you know like i guess i'm there are play there are coaches i'm trying to make this big i already made this big long thing they're obviously like pigeon development coordinators and stuff like that but sometimes it feels like they're missing an eno in their organization like a guy you have to have a bigger macro perspective of instead of being like like like bryce miller told you like hey we had a double a initiative just throw strikes and it's like okay but what else is going into this i i guess when i hear you talk about some bigger things that can be more long term are they having those discussions and it seems like the

answer is always yes at the major league level maybe not so much at the minor league level which worries you about the development it's organizational organization at the moment i would guess there's also occasionally some things lost in the game of telephone. By the time a player starts talking to people in the media, they might be simplifying

the message, also not trying to go overboard tipping their hand as far as things that they think are unique. As I was saying, there's simplification also to them.

You know, like, yeah, there's, my main point was there's 300 of them. So like, you know, any sort of broadcast message gets just gets boiled down or messed up game of telephone whatever it is you know it's like it's hurting cats to some extent so it is it can become difficult uh to to do that

well it sounds like the rockies can put tj on their shirt for the minors. So I got TJ. We're getting TJ just brutal. Let's go to our double a leader board surfing. I am not allowed to speak about brewers prospects on the show. Self-imposed plan for the rest of the season. So I will ask Welsh Tyler black. Are you buying the double a success? He's at two 94, 32, five 43, 14 homersers and he's 45 for 53 as a

base dealer the best part of this I was looking at the rotowire minor league hard hit numbers 31.8 hard hit rate too so it's a good enough hard hit rate where we're not going to ask questions about the quality of the contact the way we will about some other players that we're about to discuss yeah I I will tell you, I've, I was never a big Tyler black guy. I got to see him a bunch in the AFL. I thought he looked really mediocre,

but what does that matter when he is one of the most dominant minor leaguers this year, 45 stolen bases, double digit homers under 20% K rate on almost 20% walk rate, which is just absurd. He's not hitting the ball on the ground a whole bunch which is great 38 percent ground ball rate fly ball rates over 40 percent he's pulling the ball he's literally not doing anything wrong and he looks elite at that

level i don't know from when i've seen him does this look like a future all-star player in the approach? I didn't quite see it, but the numbers speak for themselves. So this is one I would kind of even backtrack to my personal bias. And cause sometimes that is just, you know, like I told you with James Wood before, like every time I see him, he just stinks, but that doesn't, he's amazing in other spots. Tyler Black is literally checking every single box that you would want. So, you know, as far as from a breakdown perspective, there's not much I have to say outside of, you know, these numbers are elite at a minor league level. He's already had the tutelage of playing in the Arizona Fall League, I guess at like a really, not a young age, but like a young production to the

minor leagues and what he has done. And it looks like it's done wonders. So this is a guy to bet on right now, for sure. You should speak positive. This is the guy to talk positive about, DVR. Yeah, I mean, Jackson Churio also, but a good story, I think, and Tyler Black. And I think the injuries last year may have been a big part of why the quality of the contact was not as good a year ago. He has a scapula injury.

I think there was a broken thumb mixed in there as well. So just a little point. He broke that. I don't know if it was thumb or wrist, but in the AFL. It was at that game. He slid into second, and then he had a cast, and he didn't play the rest of the way because it was either the broken thumb or broken wrist on a slide to second in the AFL.

So he's recovered well. I love his swinging strike rate. I love his swinging strike rate. I love his swinging strike rate and I love his walk rate. Yeah. He's advanced. He seems advanced at every stage of what he's doing right now. I would just be like, let's get him out of double A.

Yeah. Well, you get him out of this level. Like we're good. We know what you've done at double A. Let's go to triple A or yeah, give him a shot at the, at the major league level. Yeah. I think they could bump them up they've got luis arias down at triple a right now trying to work some things out maybe once arias comes back to the big league club they can bump

tyler black into that infield rotation at the triple a level let's get to a couple other players here everson perera who has recently been promoted to triple a was putting together a really nice season at AA, and I'm just wondering if he's been a little overshadowed by Jason Dominguez being in the same org. Yeah, if you're asking me,

yeah, I think you're clearly right about that. He's been kind of the, like a fantasy darling for a long time. I know James has always been very high on him. Results have kind of varied,

but you know what? In that very, he's raised his batting average for four straight levels across two years he's got a really good hard hit uh strength over on rotowire i want to say it was like 34 at least the last time i looked 114.5 max ev on fangraphs yeah big stuff the 352 batting average right now a lot of homers he can steal some bases i think strikeouts are are a little bit more of a problem than we think, but makes really,

really good decisions. Absolutely just smashes the ball. Does not hit it on the ground bunch. A 24% line drive rate this year at AA. 27.5 at AAA. So yeah, this is a great guy. I think this is a prime. If I'm a team trading with

the Yankees, I'm actually probably trying to get Pereira in something if they were to become buyers. So when you're talking about getting ahead of things, Pereira is a guy that we have to really look hard at next year. And I think he's like a 25-plus home run guy. Yeah, it's interesting. The Fangraph's hit tool is 30 or 40 for Pereira. And I can see that.

Those are pretty bad whiff rates. Those are pretty bad strikeout rates. I wonder if there's a debate right now in New York if they should just graduate Everson or use him in a trade. And I will say I'm writing a piece about possible fixes for teams, and what's available in terms of rentals is not super exciting. And the Yankees, I think, do need an outfielder, not just when Judge is back.

I think pushing Jake Bowers to a bench role would be a good idea. And Bader's hurt so often that just getting another outfielder up there, but should it be Pereira or should it be someone that Pereira brings back? What's the market right now for outfielders in the trade deadline? I mean, there's Gritchuk. I mean, that probably wouldn't take Ferreira, but, you know, the market isn't good.

There aren't a lot of great outfielders out there to be had. Tyler O'Neill might be the biggest name that comes to top of mind. Okay, and that's a good would-you-rather. And that's a year plus, so that's not a pure rental, and I don't know if it'll cost a Pereira, but maybe you could get Jordan Montgomery back along with Tyler O'Neal for Pereira. Yeah, just really impressive the numbers, though, that he put up at AA. Got off to a pretty fast start at AAA,

and I just saw our buddy James Anderson just did a screenshot of his updated prospect rankings. Looks like Pereira made a pretty big move up into the top 15 on that list. So, yeah, I don't have him there, but you know, it would make sense. What about the Tigers?

The Tigers with Eduardo Rodriguez. I guess you were talking outfield. I was thinking of pitching again. I went into them because I know they're sellers, but yeah, I guess the outfield wouldn't help because I tend to think of teams who are teams that would maybe semi middling that would be looking for soon-to-help outfielders that would be able to move off of whether it's expiring contracts in general?

But yeah, my brain went to the pitching side of that, so maybe not the Tigers. But the Cubs. What do I have here? What about Bellinger? Bellinger plus something, yeah. Yeah, Bellinger is the thing. He's the best one.

Because I'm looking at a list of free agent outfielders on on cots and it's charlie blackman randall gritchuk uh enrique hernandez teoscar hernandez i mean if the mariners want to sell um one thing i would i would keep some guy named shohei i think with the outers, we see a lot of corner guys who are in the last year of arbitration end up getting non-tendered or flipped in the offseason for very little. Guys like Hunter Renfro would be probably the sweet spot of this. Yeah, he's on that list. I don't think he would cost anything if the Angels decide to sell. And that's kind of the bucket that Tyler O'Neal is in in terms of what he has shown us around the injuries, where it's like,

it's really good when he's healthy. He's not healthy very often. He might be the kind of guy that, even though he's got years left, is actually very tradable, aside from all the drama with Ali Marmal and O'Neal earlier this season, right? That type of player is not the kind of player

that orgs really cling to the way they have in the past. So that might be where we see some outfielders actually get moved how about this next one your beat vivas who's in double a right now for the dodgers the thing that really jumped off the page in a bad way a 20.1 hard hit rate based on those rotowire numbers but really good strike zone judgment he's walked as much as he struck out so far this season oh it's like a miguel vargas clone 10 homers 14 for 18 as a base dealer is he an extra guy the Dodgers are going to flip to someone else or is he actually part of their core what do you think about Vivas you know I think they're gonna trade this guy he looks like he looks like a lesser Miguel Vargas he's got a

beautiful swing uh if you've ever seen him play, he's got a gorgeous, beautiful swing. But whether he's hitting 300 or not right now, the inconsistencies are there. I think he's right in the, like, just okay dude. He's very movable in an organization that has got, I mean, they've got middle infield help. They've got infield help in general. We're talking about Michael Bush being traded. they've got middle infield help. They've got infield help in general across.

We're talking about Michael Bush being traded. Your Vivas could be somebody that could be part of like two or three players that they move for an organization that's looking for double A plus guys, you know, that can come and help soon. Vivas is the type of guy to me that gets traded to a very low in team. That's, I mean, I guess not,

but you think of the pirates, you know, what if the dodgers were looking for david bednar and the you know they had to move off a couple people but we just talked about like four infielders that the pirates are trying to deal with vivos would literally just be smashed into that group and not in an otani deal he would be like the third best player oh yeah he's he's an extra guy he's just the guy you want because of club control and the possibility of him being good enough to be a regular for a couple of years of the club control.

I think the comp, even though the numbers sort of jump off the page from a leaderboard perspective, is someone like Josh Smith, who the Yankees traded a couple summers ago to the Rangers, controls the zone well, has some things that are interesting, doesn't hit the ball hard enough consistently, and as a result he's really been an up and down guy in texas even though if you were your number scouting what he did throughout his time in those minor league systems you'd be pretty excited about josh smith

yeah that's a pretty good con yeah i think that's in that general range i think i think josh smith might even be a little bit more versatile defensively which might help him be able to kind of stay on the field. Vivas is not. What is Vivas' glove like? No, I think he's pretty stuck to where he is. I don't think he's a guy that they're going to go throw out in the outfield. But, you know, I mean, I'm not sure people would have said that about Josh Smith before he started doing it.

I was thinking about one more player who was at AA, is currently in the big leagues, skipped over AAA entirely. It's Johan Rojas. He has put together a 130 WRC plus so far at AA this year, working in a part-time role kind of in the Christian Pache small side platoon with Brandon Marsh in center field. The tools questions

based on the scouting reports really just focus on in-game power. As far as being a great defensive center fielder, having speed, even having good enough hit tool, those things seem to be pretty solid for Rojas and I think the power gets even further complicated because AA Redding, if I remember correctly, is one of the more power-boosting AA environments that a player can play in.

So I'm curious what you think about Rojas. I'll throw this one to you first, you know. Yeah, he's got this alternating WRC Plus that gives me shivers, you know. Below 100, above 100, below 100. You know, it just makes me it smacks to me of like lucky years and unlucky years. And if you look at his BABIP, a lot of those below and above 100 years track with his BABIP. So I think there's someone who's going to be dependent on bad ball luck to be a real fantasy asset. All right, let's get to a couple mailbag questions here before we go. We're going to rapid fire on these.

This one came from Wes. Evan Carter has been on a decent tear since returning from injury. What is the likelihood that we see him in 2023, given the Rangers' needs and given where he appears to be development-wise? What do you think, Welsh? I think the possibility is there for September. I think when September hits, it is very likely that we could from things that I've heard. Obviously, you've also got injuries where a guy like Duran is less of an option in the outfield when he's making up for Corey Seager.

This team needs to keep pace, though they have gotten a ton of production out of their outfielders. You know, Leori Tavares has had just a complete rebound season. But I would put it at 10% chance before September, and I would say, like, maybe 50-50 starting in September that we will see Evan Carter. You know, I'll throw the next one to you. If you adjust 25 points of WRC plus for each year, a player is under the league. Average is junior Caminero going to break the league.

Yeah. I mean, there's no, there's no hard, there's no hard situation like that. And as much as we reported that, and that is what the research says. It's not,

not exactly like that, but you know, he's 20 years old right now in double a junior Caminero. as we reported that and that is what the research says it's not not exactly like that but uh you know he's 20 years old right now in double a junior came in here and he's got a 104 wrc plus that does not sound too amazing but i believe i've got that tab open so i've got a leaderboard for this i pulled this up going back to 2018 so no i'm just saying you know what the average age is i've got yeah oh average age he's's well, well below average. But the guys that have played at that level at age 20 or younger and posted similar WRC pluses in recent years, Andres Jimenez.

He's 24.4, so he should be getting four years of boost. Wow. Yeah, well, you could have done that for Andres Jimenez, and I think we would have been wrong about Andres Jimenez's ceiling. Jemai Jones put up a huge season, relatively speaking, for his age. Carter Keboom, he's been really hurt, but also just doesn't look like that guy. Jason Dominguez is in that range right now. Mason Wynn did it last year.

Kiebert Ruiz did it back in 2018. Leone Tavares, a little under that at 94 back in 2019. The guys that play at 19 versus 20 at AA, it's an even shorter list. Those guys tend to be just ridiculous. If you get to AA as a 19-year-old, you're usually amazing. Luis Garcia is kind of the more meh example from the last five years or so. But he got to 19, right? Yeah, he's 20 days into being 20, so I think he just...

What are your 19-year-olds in double-A? The 19-year-olds going back to 2018, minimum 200 plate appearances, Vlad Jr., which is the best WRC plus of anybody of that group by far. He just destroyed double-A. Tatis, back in 2018. Jeez.

Jackson Churio doing it right now with the 108. Wow. And then Ruiz, also a 19-year-old, back in 2018. Jackson Churio, doing it right now with the 108. And then Ruiz, also a 19-year-old. And Luis Garcia. Those are the five. I mean, that's the group I think he belongs in. Yeah. Really impressive stuff. And also, I would say that some of those names that you named

did not necessarily have the history of Caminero going into that. You know? Am I right? Am I wrong? In terms of at least consistent power. Kibum, I remember, was being up and down. Jimenez didn't have power back then.

Jimenez had no power back then, yeah. Jemai Jones maybe had some. I'm trying to remember. He had some big hard-hit numbers when he was at the Angels, but he'd move off of outfield the second. Yeah, nothing real. I mean, Kibum might have been the most prolific. I thought Kibum was going to be legit.

Yeah, Jemai Jones had 150 ISOs or lower heading into that year. Yeah. And Caminero heading into this year had never had a 150 or lower ISO. So there you go. Maybe Junior Caminero out of the league someday. I tend to, you know, other than a strikeout rate and swing strike rate,

I tend to follow things like ISO fly ball, raid power. I want to know about your power because I think that there's a, there's a number of, there's a power number you have to hit to be in the, in the big leagues. You have to have, you have to hit for power in the big leagues.

I think, I mean, you can, unless you're Steven K kwan or somebody and even then it seemed kwan would be better if you hit for power you know so like power is hugely hugely important thanks a lot for those questions i believe that one came from eric and the question before that i do not recall who it came from but uh i appreciate the questions nonetheless rates and barrels at gmail.com is the best place to send those. If you've got a question for a future episode, you can find all of us on Twitter. Eno is at Eno Saris. Welsh is at IsItTheWelsh.

I am at Derek Van Ryper. If you don't have a subscription to The Athletic, $2 a month gets you in the door at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. That's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We're back with you on Wednesday. Thanks for listening.