Rates & Barrels - Prospects to Target in Re-draft

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Welsh watched Jacob DeGrom pitch his first live game on the Rangers backfield Tuesday, so Welsh and Eno breakdown the videos. We've also got 10 prospects to watch for re-draft leagues that don't currently have a set job. Rundown 5:10 - Welsh's live look and video of Jacob DeGrom's first game against live hitters 12:21 - Where and how to draft DeGrom 27:05 - Jasson Dominguez 35:10 - Mark Vientos 37:06 - Zac Veen 44:03 - Ricky Tiedemann 49:07 - Brett Baty 51:17 - Matt Mervis 53:45 - Sal Frelick 57:12 - Bradon Pfaadt 59:56 - Christian Encarnacion-Strand 1:03:37 - Anthony Volpe Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Welsh on Twitter: @isitthewelsh e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at $2/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hello friends and welcome into Rates and Barrels right here on The Athletic. For only $2 a month, you can be locked in with everything that The Athletic has. The draft guide, if you're set for your drafts maybe this weekend, this upcoming weekend or the next. Whether you want to get all the incredible stuff that Eno's got, my dynasty ranks, and a gajillion things more, go to theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels and get hooked up. Mr. Eno Saris is with me. I am Chris Welsh. Eno, what's up, my friend? Will you be a little bit more rested in a bed that you didn't have to piecemeal a blanket? Yeah, I'm freshly shaven. I slept on my own bed. Things are better. I just wish it hadn't been the time change the

the youngest had a uh heck of a time with this morning let's just say he was he was not having it yeah it i mean everything like i have the the weird and you all are we're all going to be in the same space here uh come november be when time change is gone, it'll be gone. I don't know if everybody realizes that November will be the last time I believe time will change and then it will be stuck there. But, uh, in Arizona, if everyone doesn't know it, Arizona does not, uh, acknowledge time change. So we never changed.

I've never changed my clock. So I'm originally from California for 20 plus years. I haven't done it. And what we changed time zones. So it's actually worse for me, you know, because like I have to make sure, cause everybody in the world and podcasting speaks on Eastern standard time. Luckily you happen to be Pacific. So it helps me out, but like everybody speaks on Eastern times. So I have to be aware of my two or my three hours away from Eastern where you guys all change your

clocks. It's Arizona and Hawaii that don't acknowledge time change. So it is a weird time and it kind of screws everybody up in different ways. You guys were leaders in this. I mean, you can call it that Arizona. There's something they're leaders in offseason baseball in spring baseball. They're a Mecca is everybody. That's actually a big word I've been hearing out here in Arizona right now. We have lots of people that have been coming in for the WBC, which has created huge, bigger crowds than ever. And everyone kind of talks, and they're just like, this is a mecca, and you're coming off of Florida,

which maybe they're not saying the exact same things, but especially with their hotel accommodations. But, you know, there's a lot more travel in Florida. Arizona, there's not. We're actually going to talk about one of those things here in a bit. We're also are getting into prospects today, and we're going to be talking about 10 prospects that you need to know for redraft, but it's a little bit of a wrinkle because this isn't Jordan Walker. This isn't Corbin Carroll. These are guys that might not have 40 man rosters set. These are guys that don't have

open positions. They also happen to be guys that have not been sent down in the minor leagues. So what it does is it opens up this intriguing idea of can they mysteriously break camp or would they be early fab options that you guys want to take a look at in your league? So we're going to be breaking down those prospects. But, you know, talking about all the craziness here yesterday, I went over to rangers facility and you and i actually have hung out over at the rangers we we watched a royals game back in the day i actually remember it very vividly it was you me chris blessing eric cross we're standing there chris clegg and we're watching frank mazzacato i think our ben kaderna pitch for the royals and then standing behind us that was the power guy there was you love ben kaderna a lot yeah frank mazzacato was the power guy. There was a power guy. You love Ben Coderna a lot. Yeah. Frank Mazzucato was the bigger name,

but you were all about Ben Coderna and standing behind us in that exact moment was Jack lighter and out lighter. They were just talking baseball. We're just picking over our shoulder at that. Yeah. It's such a weird, that's one of those weird things you get, but that was like instructional ball,

that same facility. I was there yesterday because Jacob togrom threw his first live session versus batters it was the double a uh royals god rest imagine i mean who's pitching today does degrom have a brother yeah yeah yeah this isn't like jacob right this is gosh degrom right cousin or something yeah well on the field next to him natey avaldi was throwing to the triple a guy so that was a rough go for the royals in general but i'm not joking when i tell you i was floored by the amount of people and people don't understand backfields aren't like riddled with people if you go to camelback ranch there are usually two or three hundred people there for

the dodgers but that is this unique its own little universe that exists but there's never a lot of people there are two or three hundred people on the backfields for Dodgers oh easy it's it's a mad house it is one it is like avoiding you want to know what the craziest thing is that's the only backfield that connects both teams so you can like walk plenty of them share the same complex but you have to like take your car and go around that's the only one that you can literally walk grass to grass when there's 300 people on the dodgers there's like nine people over at the white socks or 15 people it's such a weird uh there's dodgers fans parking over in the white socks side and 100% walking over but there were two to three hundred people there yesterday in in the Rangers backfield where you and I were to watch.

And they were all set to watch Jacob to ground throw. And it was why we can even imagine that space having 200, 250, 300 people, people live streaming fans. All the bleachers were taken up. Players, personnel, Chris Young, GM. Everybody was there. A lot of times it's also just usually a quiet space you're like if you were to pick up your phone if you were to pick up your phone you would be rude and talk because it's so quiet you actually walk away like you'd have to walk away like people when they get phone calls they walk away

not yesterday there was a guy working for you've got some video here and that was the thing the first thing that hit me was like you know you hadn't told me how many people were there and uh we'll see this fun play here and i was like that's more than the royals bench that's what i'm hearing it is i'm gonna pull this up i'm gonna pull this up here there was like a rangers blog that was up against the fence like narrating as we went it was a wild experience i happen to though and i feel bad because i'm six foot four happen to get right up into this corner and my perfect spot and you have a really good really good angle on this yeah and everybody else behind me had to deal with it so um they just had to you know look over my shoulder come around the side or something so i I got every single pitch that he threw.

He was scheduled to throw 34 pitches, 35 pitches over two innings. He actually beat that over the two innings and a lot of strikeouts, except let's take a look at the two things I've got for you here. And I'm curious what your take on it. First up was his big miscue.

So I'm putting this up on the screen. If you guys watch us on the YouTube, there's a catching prospect named Omar Hernandez, who was actually pretty, I remember Eric Long and Hagan talked about him like three or four years ago. He comes up to bat the first at bat, Jacob to Grom. I think on his third pitch gave up a fly ball,

just a fly ball. Everyone was like, Oh my gosh, he gave up contact. Everyone. Yeah, oh, my gosh, he gave up contact. Yeah, right. That's what I was saying. I'd be celebrating a foul. Well, when he stopped celebrating,

Omar Hernandez will probably be telling his children about this. So this is the video. So here's your first pitch of Jacob deGrom. This ends up being like his fifth overall pitch. And you can see, boom, right there. It's on the corner. It's a little bit outside. And Jacob deGrom gets set. I think that was a It's on the corner. It's a little bit outside.

And Jacob deGrom gets set. I think that was a fastball on the outside. And then right down the middle here comes Jacob deGrom. Omar Hernandez crushes this. And it hits the pole right there in center field, which way over the home run batter's eye. And as you can hear this Omar Hernandez hits an inside the park home run against Jacob deGrom and you can hear that and there's no justice to what the people in the background too there are 250 people cheering him

on this guy just crushed one on Jacob deG degromino yeah and he i mean he looks like he moves better than a regular catcher he's a little bit a little bit more athletic um one thing that also in the video you can see degrom's watching it and he's got like his hands on his hips like you know like oh someone's gonna catch this right and then when it hits the pole and bounces off he like spits to the right or like curses maybe definitely like a like a like a probably an f-bomb i would guess that they couldn't read it yeah they come then he runs the well i don't know i mean i'm not sure that was a really catchable ball that was no no it was 100 not catchable if. That was no, no, it was a hundred percent. Not catch. Well, if you look, the batter's eyes probably, uh, or like the,

the side fences are probably like, uh, nine feet. This hit about 16 feet. Yeah. Uh, but it hit the pole and both outfielders had a bad read. Cause they came in and it allowed,

uh, I mean, yeah. So regardless, yeah, I don't know if the F bomb was about the bounce or just about, uh, giving that up,

but he, there's like a moment where he he's definitely unhappy and he's like he's not not someone who's like oh i can't believe i did that he's like you know he gets fired up so yeah he's not gonna like move past it really quick and he runs the cover home and what does he do afterwards the what's that what did he do afterwards oh he just like he just kind of walked over he just like he no i mean the next three batters oh yeah yeah so so this is um so got angry after this i'm gonna let you narrate these he ends up striking out the side um in i think the the next inning

they actually gave him an extra batter if people are wondering because he ended up striking out five in 24 pitches he is very effective i don't even know how that's possible uh and his effectiveness and here were the beast yeah you woke up the beast here and here were the three strikeout pitches and i like i said i'll let you narrate this if you want these are just the three straight strikeout pitches that we have here and let me bring it back up on screen. And no, let's see. There we go. And these are three, three strikeouts. This is not him. Oh, nope. This is not the one. Hold on. Let me see him again. Right? Yeah. Yeah. This is a, we can watch the inside the park home run

if we want it again, but okay, here we go. So this is the three pitches for strikeouts. Okay, here we go. So this is the three pitches for strikeouts. And what do you think it's going to be? Slider! Outside. It's a sword. And what do you think it's going to be?

Slider! Could it be a fastball? What do you think it's going to be? What do you think it's going to be? I think it's a slider again that's a slider on all three that he walks off and uh he actually was so efficient with it that uh he went over into the bullpen after and threw like 11 more pitches because what they wanted him to do was 35 pitches and they wanted to make sure it was across two innings because they wanted him to sit down i guess bruce bocce said this and then come back up they wanted to see how he responded

and funny enough when he came back up off into the second inning that is where it was like bam bam bam he was lighting guys up no one was making contact anymore and he ends up not walking any i think he threw 20 of 24 pitches for strikes in that inning. I wonder if before that inside the park home run, he's like, I'm going to throw 80% today. Ooh, and then they turned it back up. That's a possibility. The very first pitch of the game was a strike, but it didn't look like it was a normal DeGrom-ish fastball. Yeah, did you see any radar gun readings? I didn't, and they weren't sharing them too.

They're all behind you. Here's the sneaky thing about the backfields. When it's nice and quiet, I got my ear tuned to everything, listening to people. I couldn't hear nothing because of 250 plus people. So I was listening for the guys to start talking about Velo because I was right next to the personnel and they also had the pitch clock going and everything like that. So Jacob DeGrom first live session was pretty good. Any initial thoughts on seeing, you know, I mean, really, we kind of just saw sliders there, I suppose. And it was against the AA guys.

I'm thinking now, you know, Derek Carty was saying Jacob deGrom should be the number one pitcher. And I get it from projections and, you know, even my own projections. We've got him projected for a 17 seven, four ERA using stuff. Plus, and the next one up is like a two, three, one or something strider has like a two, four, like, so that's such a big difference. I feel that, um, you know, if you got, I think if you got 160 innings, you'd easily be number one. And I think if you got 140, I think he'd be, you know, a close number one. Cause you have to think like Garrett. And I think if he got 140, I think he'd be a close number one.

Because you have to think, Garrett Cole, I think, looks really awesome this spring. I just talked to him, and the cutter is looking pretty good. I think Cole could have a good season. But a good season for Cole might be a 3-1 ERA with 200 innings, 210 innings. So there's that bulk versus excellence like you're gonna take that what would you rather have would you rather have 100 150 for de grom or 200 from garrett cole i mean that's why you have the auction calculator do the math for you and that's why you have these

these these setups to do all the math for you and a lot of them are saying de grom is number one let's say but your gut like you your gut like when you hear that without even looking at the calculator like which one i just like the bulk because uh you know when he sits down you're just you get hamstrung a little bit in terms of running a team you're just like what like what do i do it's how bad of an injury is this do i drop him you know like that Do I drop him? Do I drop him? How long am I going to nurse?

Especially because I do a lot of NFBC. You have seven bench spots. Just to have a guy on there. No IL. Yeah, no IL. You're just like, ah. There'll be so many weeks where you're like, I really need to close her. I need to pick up and there's this like closer that might be a closer that i should pick

up to speculate and because i don't have that extra space i now have to drop like an actual hitter or a healthy starting pitcher because the grom's sitting there you know what i mean have you come to terms like i haven't huh have you come to terms with like what you do with the ground because i feel like we've talked about him a couple times and it's like if he does this this is great but like my latest rankings updates where i was just like i think i would take strider over him because i feel like strider is the same proposition not that many innings but really excellent stuff but uh less of a health risk. Over what percentage? And then Colin Burns, to me, look like,

I think they could even put in like 270s this year, you know, and with 200 innings. What percentage would you put Jacob DeGrom meets the 150 innings pitched off of ATC? That too, right? Like we're talking about, oh, if he makes 140, you know, he's the best pitcher in baseball. What's the percentage that he makes 140 i don't think i mean maybe 50 50 60 40 you know

but i mean these are the aren't these built to be the median projection it's not the high and it's it's usually a little bit more low is it well not the innings. The innings are total human guesses. Okay, yeah. The innings on projections are total human guesses. These are built off of ATC, and Derek, I think, has said that before. And almost everything is that there's a depth chart decision at some point. Okay. That's why innings pitched and plate appearances are actually the biggest source of error from system to system and projection to projection. error from system to system and projection of projection and the easiest way for a human being to um alter the numbers and get ahead of the ahead of his league even if you just if you really want

to put in the work project your own innings pitched and plate appearances for at least the high value weirdos that you're not sure of like you know the guys we're about to talk about today for example in projection systems they're going to have very low plate appearance and ip numbers because right now on the depth charts they are second or third options at best we're talking about them because they are second and third options right that's why we're talking about them they're right there they're very close They're second or third options. But in over at Fangraphs, the second or third option gets five to 10 percent of the plate appearances. So you'll see projections for these guys that have 50 or 60 plate appearances. But we'll make the case for these guys. And maybe you buy into one of these cases. If you do change that number number change that plate appearance number

say you know what he's coming up here 300 you know what he's coming up because there's a couple different benchmarks right there's a couple different moments there's the like super two you know there's the like sixth year of team control i think it's like it's i think it's like two or three weeks for a six-year team control right yeah so they so they'll do that there's a lot of guys that would go down and then come back up two weeks later they're magically ready right a lot of the names we might talk about might be and then there's also the six weeks which i think keeps them out of the six or eight weeks that keeps them out of super two and this is the move this is the one that moves it's bait i think it's based on rookies what other people are doing yeah exactly so this one is not a finite date uh which that one's harder to nail down but i think that one's uh like early june usually

yeah like i think it's like may to june somewhere in there like yeah end of may beginning of june that's where super two means um when you go to arbitration you're treated differently right yeah yeah yeah i mean it's uh well no the the the we you have the extra year of control and then the super two is you go to um you go to arbitration i believe earlier i believe you start hitting arbitration days oh so then you have four years of arbitration and just two years of pre-arbitration i believe that's the super two yeah yeah i believe that so that makes them more expensive quicker so because then you're in your third year instead of being paid league minimum which is like 550 or maybe it's gone up to six or whatever you you instead of being paid league minimum you're in arbitration so that year you're making one or two

or three million so then that compounds because you're ahead of everybody. Treat yourself to Tim's new fudge brownie lattes, made with freshly ground espresso beans, frothy steamed or ice chilled milk, and topped with marbled chocolate curls. Now that's music to our ears. Available hot or iced only at Tim's. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Forget the pressure to be crushing your workout on day one.

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be like the biggest deal. Like that was everything to every team, but with now the extra rules of baseball, giving extra incentives. The incentive is if your guy wins the rookie of the year, you get an extra draft pick. Yeah.

There was also three. It was supposed to be like the top three in rookie voting, get some type of compensation being the winner is the first overall pick, but they tied it or not the first overall pick, but a first round pick, but they tied it to arbitrary lists. So a player also has to be in the top 100 of, I think like baseball America pipeline.

Yeah. They have to be a top one at prospect, which last year would have taken a guy like Matt Mervis out. And I think he'd be good now because lists have updated, but like, there's actually a guy on this list. We're going to talk about that. I think a little ugly,

man. Oh, I think it's a gross thing that they're tying it to like these arbitrary i think we got rid of the you're not allowed to basically tie uh uh contract options to bwa stuff yeah well and they're doing it here they're doing a version of that here there should be no like you have to be a top 100 prospect because one of the guys on this list who could actually break camp that we're going to talk about i think would not qualify for the extra pick compensation based on his potential rank on lists. I don't know if he would, that's like the really messy thing.

That's what ended up happening with Spencer Strider last year. Spencer Strider had he won it. I don't know if this was service by the way, had he won the rookie of the year award, it wouldn't have done anything for the Braves because I don't believe they would have acquired a first overall first round pick if he had won the award Michael Harris didn't break camp so they also didn't win one you know what I mean like he didn't he was awesome but and he was inside the top 100 list but he didn't break camp Strider didn't get there either so it's just a weird dichotomy of all of it last thing on the DeGrom thing before we talk about these prospects,

what do you think the projected innings pitched are? Cause it's fun that I went out and I got the video and people get to see it and everyone makes their snarky comments about like, Oh, how many, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he's going to get hurt. We all get that. Some people are going to look at the video and go, Oh man, he got through this. He was healthy. He was striking everybody out. He looks good looks good i'm happy let's take all the things aside what do you think the projected should be if these projections are not giving you the lowest case scenario do you think it should be 100 innings underground that's how people should approach drafting him regardless of

cardi's take that he should be a first round pick like what would you what would be your personal approach i think about 130 135 i think i think whatever you think glass now can pitch and what is glass now at now let me take a look because that has to last now on the bat is at 115 and atc is 108 so those have been adjusted so i mean like right now recency bias is like well do grom's healthy and and and last now isn't but like a week ago, was the Grom healthy? Kind of. Okay. All right. So we'll go, we'll go one 15 for glass now and one 25,

one 30 for, for the ground. Makes him pretty good. But behind Spencer Strider, you said you, you're affirmed that he is behind Spencer Strider. Okay. I think,

I think Spencer tried more like 160. Okay. Well, there you go. Now, now you guys know exactly what to do with Jacob DeGrom because I don't think people did. Regardless of the video,

you will probably see him in a game here soon. I wouldn't be shocked if he threw one more side session. And I must be wrong. I must be wrong about that. The thing that we tried to get rid of, tying contracts to Baseball Writers Association Awards because if that was true, why would the new CBA also have a bonus for the player if they win a Cy Young or MVP or Rookie of the Year?

That's baseball itself tying money to awards that the writers are getting. Isn't it such a weird thing? Like having compensation. I don't like that at all dude like just like a kid i'm covering like wouldn't that mean that it's like even you try not to think about it's like a bias towards yeah that kid i covered man he's really good really good and he's really nice and yeah let's vote to give him a million dollars yeah or against yeah i'm watching survivor again it's like

you may have the red rose yeah you're right you will take your money so it's a dirty nasty thing um like we were talking about kind of a dirty nasty thing has been the prospect side of breaking camps with teams but the dynamic is just different. I really would love to, I know I kind of like asked you about this a couple of days ago, a couple of episodes ago. I'd love to like talk to just a few uppers about like what has really actually changed in their approach to minor league development and bringing them up sooner. Like did the compensation, does the compensation really mean a whole bunch to a lot of teams? Do team friendly contracts like what happened with Michael Harris and Corbin Carroll,

are those things that are making teams more worthwhile of saying, screw it? I don't even care about getting extra year control because we know we can lock these guys up because there's a standard. I'd love to know the real dynamic behind all of it because at the end of the day, these names that we're going to talk about, they are all on our radar. They're all on our radar to get some work this year into different capacities. But we really just don't know 100% because not every team is as aggressive as the next in bringing up some of these prospects. I mean, has there been, I know I can ask you this before, but has there been any type of thing that's ever popped up in you talking with organizations about the development of prospects and, you know, their willingness to bring them up more rather than not? Or is it just something that hasn't come up for you?

I think one thing, there's a little bit of different feelings sometimes between pitchers and hitters. And I've talked to a farm director that said, you know, if my if my minor league pitcher has major league pitch grades. On his pitches, like if our internal stuff plus basically says they've got major league pitches and they're ready to go. Why am I wasting bullets in the minor leagues? Like they should come up. That's like a painter thing. Yeah. And we haven't seen that sort of play out so much.

Like the starters in particular are not super young. But it is, I think, something that people talk about and are talking about right now. So that could be changing as we talk about it. And then in terms of hitters. hitters and and then the other thing i've talked about with teams and in people is the uh the aging curve sort of suggests that um we're doing pretty well at putting players into the major leagues at the right time because the most recent aging curves from jeff zimmerman show kind of like a uh a plateau when they come in like there's not a lot of like getting into the big leagues and getting better in the big leagues.

You know, it's more like you hit the big leagues near your peak as a group. I'm yes, there are people who get better. I'm not saying that, but I'm just saying as a group, mostly you get into the big leagues and you're very, very good until,

you know, 27, 28. And you start, then it starts falling on the curve. I mean, 26 is the real i think is the peak but it's 26 or 27 anyway so if that's the case um it's it's a it's a little dance of like when do you think they're ready you know i also want to get the most out of their

young years and those best years uh so the the it's there's no exact science to it one other thing i've noticed um debut minimum debut age and average debut age have not changed that much in the last like 10 years basically the minimum debut age in any given season is like 19 or 20 and the average debut age is 24 to 25 okay that sounds about right i mean that that meets the elite versus you know just the graduation and then you always the average is always moved by a few of those like 30 year olds that got their first chance you know the joy meneses yeah yeah 100 those are the guys that do that uh well we got an interesting list here of 10 guys that you guys should pay attention to for redraft this year.

And they're going to come in all different flavors. And this first one up here, number 10, if you will, it's not an exact science, but number 10 was actually one, you know, that you push back immediately on. But again, this conversation is around the value of how much you get out of this player. Can they break camp? And this guy has been a huge huge huge name and has had an incredible spring but people just have not known what to do this is a guy I have kind of stood with the whole time he was out here in the AFL he actually stunk in the AFL but I noted to everybody he hit the ball hard every time he was at bat that was a crazy thing played poor defense we're

talking about Jason Dominguez who took that AFL experience because he hit double A, went to the AFL. He's come into spring with 21 at bats, hit four homers. He has nine hits, eight runs, hitting 429 with a 1500 OPS. Jason Dominguez has taken all of that experience in the finishing school, which is AFL, brought it over to spring. And he's looking the part of a lot of the hype that has fallen him, and it has led to a lot of people saying, hey, listen, with some of the injuries going on, Harrison Bader, should the Yankees consider having Jason Dominguez up? I think the biggest problem is his defense.

He played poor, poor defense out here on the AFL, but the bat is live. Do you think that we are going to get jason dominguez this year and what is it worthwhile in your nfbc mind of uh investment when it comes around well uh you kind of uh undercut i was gonna ask you about the defense because uh i haven't laid as many eyes on his defensive abilities as you have. Stunk. It's stunk in the AFL. Now, he got a lot of good grades on it in early years,

and there might have been, you know, it's early morning. I think he is headed towards the corner. I mean, that's the sort of consensus. No chance he plays in center. I watched him drop three different times ball in just dead center. One was due to the sun. One was just a stupid poor one and another one was just you know you should make that play uh really really bad defensive plays that in my mind

my argument was going to be that there's a real opportunity uh in center right now and uh you know i i i would personally think that it'd be interesting to take a shot on it. But because there's not really anybody in the young group of Yankees that I want in center. I'm not a big Estevan Florio fan, and I don't think he's really taken this opportunity and run with it. And if you look at anybody else with a CF next to their name in terms of who's getting the at-bats for the Yankees right now. There's, I guess, Aaron Hicks is maybe the option, although I'd also think that his days in center should be behind him mostly. And so there's just not anybody other than maybe running Judge out there for a little bit. But the interesting thing is if you do run Judge out there for a little bit, it does create a bit of an opening in the outfield.

You could fill that just with Oswald Cabrera and just go Hicks, Judge, Cabrera, and Stanton at DH. That is an option for them. That still leaves an opportunity for a backup outfielder, maybe because they need a backup center fielder, which still could be Hicks. They could, or was that,

was it, was I putting, no, I was putting judge in center. So that would be a really bad, I think that'd be a really bad sort of defensive and also be putting a lot of pressure on judge who you want to keep healthy. And even if you do that, where Hicks is the backup center field, you still have an opportunity for an outfielder to break camp. And I mean, yes,

it could be Willie Calhoun. It could be Rafael Ortega. It could be Florio. Michael Hermosillo is in camp. So there is an opportunity there for somebody to take it. And the Yankees have not – they did give Peraza and Cabrera chances, but they kind of backed into it, I thought. And they're not a team that necessarily rushes guys to the major leagues. And so I kind of doubt that Dominguez breaks camp with the team i would give it a five percent shot and there's another yankee we're going to talk about obviously um if the yankees were really invested in wanting to play this game where they could have a rookie of the year and they

could acquire a first overall pick jason dominguez would fit the qualifications if they let him break camp but there's another guy that they can do that with as well that probably has as good or better of a shot. The depth chart, at least according to Roster Resource, does have Judge in center. Left is Aaron Hicks and right is Olds Walt Cabrera, which really seems like it's a little bit vulnerable. And Jason Dominguez would be the best athletic.

What's the backup for that? He would be the most athletic outfielder out there if they put him out. And his bat has been live. So, okay, let me ask you this then. Maybe 10% chance. And this is why I put him at 10 on this list. And some could argue he doesn't even need to be on the list. There's actually a couple players that just missed this list that I think you could argue.

It's just this. When you hit double A, you're on call. Anything is possible once you've hit double A. And especially when you add the AFL in. I mean, the AFL is, you go to the AFL to attract trade interest, to add plate appearances, and to be ready to make the major leagues the next year. Let's say they send Jason Dominguez to double A month,

and he comes up to triple A and we are may 15th and something happens and they bring up jason dominguez what type of aggressiveness are you going to take and let's say he's at he's continuing on he's doing what he's been doing bad afl amazing spring he's having a really good year this would be one of the like you talk about fabul palooza and nfpc where everyone's going crazy like this would be one of the biggest gets of the season okay so this would be like big fab power speed uh and i'm assuming he doesn't uh put up like a 30 strikeout rate so i'm assuming sort of a 20 to 24 strikeout rate if he does that again with power and speed i'm all over him i mean i don't think he's necessarily going to be trout anymore he's not going to be in center uh he's

he's so big that i don't even know how long the stone bases will be around but in his first year you got a zips projection here of a 211 batting average with 11 homers and 15 stolen bases if he strikes out you know 23 24 percent of the time that's going to change his zips projection pretty hardcore because it's it's reaching back into his a and low a numbers where he struck out more so if he continues to to make good contact um then i think that'll change the batting average so you could uh you know may 1st june 1st get somebody who's going to give you double digit homers and strikeouts with a decent batting average that's that's what everybody wants from a mid-season

acquisition do i am i sure that it's worth you know trying to nurse them on your bench like a like an injured pitcher or something no i'm not sure about that if you were in a league that there's a plenty of leagues out there you can kind of like stash minor league guys that allow you for redraft for the year. Is this somebody that you would put a hard investment in and draft and not try to pick up? You would draft him. If you could slot him in a minor league spot.

See, in that sort of situation, I mean, he's in my top three. So that's, that's generally prospects of the process we're talking today. Yeah. Oh,

okay. Okay. That pushes. Okay. That would probably lead to why you were saying like he needs to be he would be high right yeah i like him okay uh number nine on this list was actually someone that you had brought up a little while earlier in spring because he was leading in spring at bats that has tapered a bit but mark vientos with the new york mess there's actually two mets on this list um that we can go through but we're

going to get the other one here in just a tiny bit. Mark Vientos has got monster, monster power. So far this spring, he's hit 306, two homers, nine RBI with 11 hits, and he does a 36 at bats. That's how aggressive he was. He had a little bit of regular season time as well last year, which kind of put him more on the radar. So this isn isn't like uh this isn't like a like some of these are signing jason dominguez but he has a little bit more experience but he has no locked roster position really because brett baby is the guy that everybody's looking at but mark vientos is one of those guys we're just waiting for opportunity unfortunately pete alonzo blocks him at first i don't think they've got the DH spot set. And third base looks like it would be more of a Brett Beatty before.

So many outfielders. They've got so many outfielders. And he struck out a lot in the minors and had a pretty high whiff rate when his first opportunity in the majors last year. And then also this season in spring training has struck out 14 times and 37 ABs. season in spring training has struck out 14 times and 37 abs so i'm not that heavily in on vientos i don't see much opportunity this year save an injury to basically alonzo um and uh i also think it'll come with a high strikeout rate and low batting average but he's had a really good spring

he actually is second in all of baseball in spring training. And at bats, actually number one is Michael Tolia with the Colorado Rockies. There's a G there, but it said Tolia. If people don't know, he leads in, in at bats with 38,

but Vientos is still getting all those at bats. His power is going to be tantalizing. And that's the problem. It's going to be power versus strikeout rate. I'm not the biggest Mark Vientos guy, but he feels like a guy that might end up getting 350 to 400 bats this year in different spots, maybe based off of injuries or versatility throughout.

Just, I think there's a reason this team is giving him this many at bats. I think it just kind of screams at us. Number eight is actually one of my favorites, and I'm very curious to get your take on him. Zach Veen with the Colorado Rockies. Zach Veen led the AFL in stolen bases out here in the Arizona Fall League. He is tied for the lead in spring training in stolen bases again. Night and day demeanor change on the backfields. This is a guy that looks like he feels he is coming soon.

He is presenting himself in a completely different way. Makes great contact. I think there are real power concerns. BP session I watched. He was trying to pull like crazy, and he just could not get the ball out of the field, out of the park. Didn't hit a single homer.

And it's BP sessions or whatever. No, I mean, usually the guys hit homers in the BP session. Yeah. There's this kid. It was like, I think Braxton Fulton, the catcher or something like that. And he,

this guy was launching homers. It was crazy. And this guy's like a five foot 10, you know, 190 pound catcher tanks. And I told him that I was like, that wasn't, I told him when he walked off,

I'm like, that's not fair. Those tanks you were hitting. And he laughed where V couldn't hit a single one out, but he's really learned to hit across his body good pitch pitch recognition he's going to hit singles and doubles he's got doubles power right now unfortunately you want doubles power at lower levels that can develop into bigger power and that hasn't happened but he is going to steal like crazy and i'm curious about what you think about veen because

there was an article out not too long ago that had mentioned that the Rockies have already kind of told him that, you know, mid-year is their expectation, or they've told the media that mid-year expectation for Zach Veen is on the table that they want to get work. And I think, especially in chasing stolen bases, he should be one of the most tantalizing prospects if he is called up it just doesn't look like it's going to be a space where he's going to break camp at least yet yeah i'm not that big on him if he was a center fielder and his strikeout rate was like five percentage points lower i would be more excited about him because they have a bigger need in center than

they do in the corners but veen has played exclusively in the corners in the minor leagues. And he's listed this spring as a corner outfielder. So unless he's playing center, you know, he's going to have to wait for a monsieur's Gritchick, black moon and Bryant to sort through themselves. As, and not to mention even Nolan Jones and Michael Tolia,

who can play some outfield as well. So he's in a bigger mix there. He has a 31% strikeout rate this spring. And I don't believe in the power. So I'm sorry. I don't mean to be negative about people, but I'm not necessarily in on this type of player. If you got 10 homers.

So fun from a young guy. 10 homers, 30 stolen bases with 85 runs, but really low RBI. I mean, what does that do? From like a full season. From a full season. Yeah, full season. a full season yeah full season i guess i would say his upside is to do what jake mccarthy did last year okay but his like i also

think jake mccarthy's gonna regress so agreed so like he could have a good season where it's a jake mccarthy s season but i don't i don't see him like, I don't see him even becoming like a Cedric Mullins or something, you know, like I don't see him Mullins doesn't strike out like that. No, he doesn't have the strike. I've always kind of assumed maybe like a Starling Marte, but also the strikeout rate is not there being strikeouts. So I do, I'm, I'm hopeful that that is going to alter a little bit. He's hit two 65 in spring.

He does have one Homerer um nine hits seven stolen bases which is tied for there and that's what i think makes the most interesting okay so may 15th here's here's uh here's uh i'm going to talk about the qualified major leaguers with the highest strikeout rates and the lowest isos okay trent grisham jorge mateo okay that's a good one uh josh donson's on here but that's not a good comp tommy fam okay i don't think he's a tommy fam type he does he does walk a little bit but he doesn't look like i might have a personality like tommy but maybe uh that's it uh javier baez not really the same situation so i think grisham's an interesting comp uh like someone that could use but grisham's a center fielder see like those guys are center fielders he's been working in center i i i was gonna pull this up here it would have

been beneficial if i had gotten it quickly i wanted to see the game log because i feel like he has played some center while he was at it actually mlb's page just want to point out uh mlb stat page does list him as a center fielder but i just don't have it in front of me the games that i'm looking at it it's it's not it is annoying because what you have to do is do game logs spring training on mlb.com and then you have to have to press all the games because i've seen him work in center march 13th he was right field yeah i see i see it right here right field was on that day against the a's but they should have his position listed for every game i feel like yeah which isn't great so um so i i don't know he didn't play any center field the minors last year

may 15th um jason dominguez zach veen and mark vientos are up and you have 100 well i know that but let's do fab percentages on what you would put may 15th i i might go to like 150 200 on dominguez out of uh a thousand so okay so 20 on dominguez and let's say you really need a stolen bases veen still not an option you need power and speed i mean people spent a fair amount of money on bubba thompson last year so and they got what they wanted so if you really need stolen bases yeah uh veen hasn't played center i'm four games back yeah i uh yes we do all sorts of unspeakable things uh to get stolen bases on our team all right let's talk about a little bit more interesting this would be one of the lesser unspeakable things i think he's better a better prospect

than bubba thompson i'm sorry okay there's a good one that was bubba or him who would you rather have there we go exactly i think veen can be up by june 1st and i'm hopeful that the strikeout rates do improve that it definitely has been like a work that's what i've watched that's what i've watched i think that changes that as much as the power changes everything he can have like a 140 iso if he has like a 16 to 18 strikeout rate and like then he's just a different kind of player then he's just like you know decent obp puts the ball in play you know runs around that's a different kind of player but if he's like 31 like he's a spring that's that's not no colorado also helps a little bit um let's go to this next one and i think we're changing

tiers here number seven is a player you just spoke with Ricky Tiedemann, who I love. And there were fun little things about like, Hey, could he be the Andrew Painter and break camp? Doesn't look like it's going to happen, but they do have the options. And Ricky Tiedemann really does look like a guy that is going to be able to at some point contribute with this team. What level will be a question? Will it be in May or June?

And all of a sudden you know he's eligible for rookie of the year or is it going to be later into July or August and it's going to be a playoff run type of thing so give me your thoughts on Ricky Tiedemann and the investment and what you talked with him about the amount of play that Yusei Kikuchi is getting right now for the Blue Jays suggests to me that Tiedemann is going down you've got Yusei Kikuchi is getting right now for the Blue Jays suggests to me that Tiedemann is going down. You've got Yusei Kikuchi leading the team in innings pitched. He has six walks and nine innings, and I don't think he's solved any of his command issues. So Kikuchi is not necessarily on my sleeper list like he is for a lot of other people but he's in you know what i mean so

teetaman to me yeah teetaman to me is the seventh pitcher on this list the seventh pitcher on a list on a depth chart gets about 70 innings this is also my number for yuri perez 70 innings remember what edward cabrera did last year 70 innings i think 70 innings in the major leagues is the number for teeteman and i think the key for him is uh treading water adding some innings but not too many you know doing a long-term sort of three and four inning starts uh all through uh april even to to kind of the extended build because i think the key for me is holding velo um i've got you know stuff numbers on him from the spring and they are you know through the roof uh for all of his pitches. You know, the... Let me see here. I have Teed, and then he's got a 138 stuff plus on the slider,

128 on the foreseam, and a 90 on the changeup. But remember, changeups take longer, and this is not a large sample. So, you know, Teedeman seems ready to go and by the way like Dustin May had like two wild stuff pitches and that feels very May-ish can I ask you something you said 70 on Yuri Perez I didn't put Yuri Perez on this list because I just don't assume where I think there is potential spot for Tiedemann I just don't see it with Uri Perez, especially based off the current depth chart.

They're pretty locked in. Like their fifth pitcher, I think, is like Rodgers. Right. So the difference is they're both seventh pitchers, though. Yeah. Edward Cabrera is the fifth. Yeah. Yeah.

I think they're both seventh pitchers. And Braxton Garrett and Mitch White are actually pretty similar, I think. You know, okay guys. Don't have the ceiling of these guys, right? But the real difference, I think the real difference is that in Toronto, there's like a pretty obvious spot for him, even if injury doesn't come. You say Kikuchi's spot, you know what I mean?

Agree. Where in Miami, there's a less obvious spot i'm just saying though no matter what injuries come and no matter what seven starters put up around 70 innings so uh i see i'm gonna put 70 innings on both but i would put a little up arrow next to teetaman over those 70 innings because what if kikuchi has six walks in his first nine innings in the major leagues this year do you think you'll have a zero era again yeah no exactly and the team will probably be looking pretty quick to move off of this um i love the ricky teetaman one ricky teetaman when he comes up i don't know how aggressive are you with like minor league pitchers for fab? Are you gonna, are you gonna dump it? I don't usually, but in this case I do have stuff numbers and that's why I usually wait and see,

but these stuff numbers for him in the spring have been through the roof. And also, uh, we talked about this a little bit. He has that really unique arm slot that everyone loves. He has that sort of three quarters with ride situation that, you know, DeGrom-esque from the left side in terms of it's lower, but it still has good, good ride. And he says, that's why I think Velo is everything.

Cause he said it's, it's firmer and has more ride when it, when it's harder. Interesting. So, and he's a pop-up velo guy i mean this is why he's arrived on all of our doorsteps is that he's the one blue jays prospect that has managed to add velo okay uh moving through the rest of this list here number six and then yeah

these are good guys we'll have to burn a little bit on the top five number six brett baity brett baity uh homer two stolen bases that's very interesting a 423 batting average in spring like vientos he had a little cup of coffee uh brett baity put up crazy afl numbers the previous year it was just like hard hit velos of 110 left and right. I mean, this guy absolutely smacks balls. He's a max EV guy for sure. It's just being consistent and being given the playing time. Everyone said, let's watch where Eduardo Escobar plays.

If he plays in the outfield or they move him around, maybe that would be something for Beatty. We just don't have any assurances right now. So your thoughts on Brett Beatty coming in for production this season, because he seems like the prime power hitting corner infield prospect. If we can just get the playing time.

Yeah, I have him ahead of Ventos. I like him. I've asked him about the ground ball rate this spring. He has 2.5 ground outs to air outs. That's similar, actually, to Ventos and Ventos still has power. So it's not the end of the world but uh someone like pete alonso has 0.8 ground outs to air outs so there is still some work to do for baby to unlock that power he still has hit for too many ground balls i specifically that's what i was asking

about too many ground balls so i just hit the ball hard so um you know maybe it's not going to be a huge power thing but people with his kind of profile often have good batting averages and good batting averages and balls in play. And so if you give him sort of a 330 BABIP and a 25% strikeout rate, you can still get a 250, 260 average with, you know, 18 to 20 homers over a full season. That's where he starts his career. But, you know, at 23 years old, you still have

three, four years of improving your ground ball rate, even if you just do it by aging curves and you don't have a big step forward. Or you can have a big step forward like some people do and unlock the power. Either way, really like that he does hit the ball hard. I like his approach generally. And I do think he can maybe reduce those ground balls either over time slowly or make a big leap. He hasn't done it yet. And I don't think he's going to break camp with the team. Well, let's do this. Let's compare him against number five on the list, who probably if you would have done this in November would have been number one.

You know, and you talk to this player. Let's compare him against Matt Mervis, who Matt Mervis had a incredible season last year. A really good AFL. Matt Mervis, who Matt Mervis had a incredible season last year, a really good AFL. He has had a poor spring training and a poor off season because the Cubs just kept bringing in first baseman, which I was pretty vocal about saying, hey, listen, yes, Matt Mervis can break through this, but it really feels like the team is telling us something. They wanted leadership. There's something they don't trust about Matt Mervis right now.

And they did that by signing like two Man you know, Mancini and Hosmer, and then also bringing in like an Edwin Rios. That has told me something. He proceeded to have a horrid spring, a 118 batting average, only had two hits. He's assured to go to AAA, but he is definitely one of the premium prospects when he's ready to come up. Everyone is going to jump and pick up on fab. so any thoughts on mervis and what you've talked about and you know if you can stash is this the type of guy you want to stash because he's close yeah i do like that i do like the stash i like that he has five walks uh this spring that shows me you know we did i did talk to him in the afl and one of the things that he said was um and

this will be another prospect just said who said that i was talking to addison barger and uh barger and mervis both agreed that like the umpiring uh improves as you go up in the major go up from the minors through the minor leagues and so mervis said something really funny he said uh there's a couple times where i've seen who the umpire is tonight and said oh i got a swing so uh and Barger laughed about that when I told him that and he said yeah you know because Barger's uh walk rate has gone up and um and as he's gone up and so I still like Mervis I think he is going to have a good OBP he does also have 2.5 ground outs to air outs uh this spring and so there is i guess some question he hasn't had

a problem with ground balls in the past but he you know there is there has been question about his about his power uh generally i i'm a believer i'm a believer i i'm not i think this is just a you know a stretch where he's probably seeing uh better pitching than maybe at any other time in his life. So he can pull through this for you. I think so. It's an adjustment period. You know, whereas Beatty's ground ball rate in the past has been rough, Mervis's hasn't been.

So this is just him, you know, struggling to lift major league quality starting that he's seeing when he sees it. You know, number four on this list is someone that, because we're now getting into the territory of where people are wanting to draft a lot of these players number four south freelick who is with i believe uh the italy team he hit 400 before he left for spring four hits a couple stolen bases uh he's done very well uh over on the italy team i think he had two hits just the other day and south Freelick is one of those guys where you look positionally, what can they do

and can they get someone out there? Garrett Mitchell, I don't think has been assured anything, already got kind of banged up. And Freelick is a great contact hitter. He's got solid powers, really like sneaky five tools. Feels like a guy that could be

like a 15-15 type of player could hit at the top of a lineup. Sal Freelick is someone that's going to come up sooner rather than later. He moved three levels last year, in triple a and played 46 games at triple a so it's not a it's not a if it's a win he comes up this year it's assured to happen and that's why he's high on this list and he might even be a guy to try to stash so are you

stashing free lick in drafts right now are you waiting for fab well the stolen bases are interesting he did have uh 24 across three levels last year and probably would steal bases the major level i love uh the low strikeout rate paired with good power i've heard that his batted ball exit vilos are not exciting um but he does have the profile. You know, we've talked about this a lot with like a story. Maybe the number one guy on this podcast, we should change the name to a story podcast. And I, and I apologize for that. The problem with his profile is that I think he's going to strike out 21 to

23, 24% of the time, you know, freely could strike out as low as 10% of the time in the major leagues. I mean, that's where he's been headed in terms of contact. And that just means a lot more opportunities to get on base and start stealing. I kind of like Garrett Mitchell, though. I'm not stashing Sal Freelick. And because of that lack of batted ball exit below, I think it does limit his a little bit so if freelike was up right now who would you rather have garrett mitchell or freelike uh mitchell okay so i'd rather have so i think freelike's just a better

more consistent here the one thing garrett mitchell's done i always hated was gerald ball and 100 and hit a ball 110 last year well he always hit across his body and he was like a big ground ball at all times type of hitter wasn't getting the ball up in the air and that's true that does seem like that has changed a bit in his profile which will change garrett mitchell's fantasy potential um i'm just not sure it's going to consistently happen where freelick is not that it's just the hard hit numbers are not as sexy let's see where mitchell is in terms of ground out air outs because we have a little bit of information there garrett mitchell 1.3 ground outs air outs and that is much better than 2.5 and you know more in line with where he was ground out air out wise in the major leagues

last year and that would be a huge change to him okay so yeah because he was doing 57 and 60 percent ground ball rates you're right that is uh pretty rough so you're hoping that baby kind of makes that same jump that mitchell did so but baby's a little bit better of a player overall and baby's hard hit numbers it seemed like they they're gonna do better for him than like where garrett mitchell's gonna be consistent i'm stashing so far i'm stashing mervisann and Dominguez. OK, so we've got the three left here. We've talked about this guy, though. Any last thoughts? I'd love to get number three is Brandon fought.

It's probably one of the number one most asked questions I get just because I'm a Diamondbacks fan. Will he break the rotation? I actually think it's possible. It's not guaranteed. Likely, Tori Lavello will just go with Ryan Nelson. He's a guy. He did it before. They don't have to make major moves. They can see fought a bit more in um jameson's below has been good i know i've been

banging the the drum for ryan nelson and ryan nelson hasn't been great and his velo hasn't been great jameson's velo has been good neither one of them has had good results uh this spring um and jameson's had more innings so i will will reluctantly admit that maybe Jameson has a step on Ryan Nelson right now. But also just the fact that there are two of them there makes me think that Fott doesn't break him. And you're right. The only thing I push back on is because of the lack of success and Fott has been really good,

that I think it opens the opportunity for the team. If they want to do this, I think fought at this point with lists, we'll get him locked into their extra pick thing, but there we go. Corbin Carroll, such as two of them, but like,

because both have not been great. I think it gives the extra opportunity, regardless of the point when Brandon fought is ready. The innings are there. He can eat up innings all season long. It's going to be sooner rather than later. It's going to be by May 1st, I believe. Brandon Fott will be up at some point by May 1st.

So what is the aggressiveness on stashing? I mean, you don't think he's in a break camp. Are you willing to stash Brandon Fott? Yeah, I guess I am because Nelson has not been performing. I think Jameson just profiles better for the pen long term. And you've also got Davies and Bumgarner as guys who might be near the ends of their careers. Yes.

Yes. Definitely. Didn't want to be rude, but, you know. So, you know, that with those it's like you know i was how much time does bum garner have left on his contract i think two more years two more years i mean it's more likely that he's uh just gonna stick around and be the bulk veteran guy but davies is on a one-year contract and if he comes in and uh has a 5-7 era like he did in 2021 i don't think he makes it to 148 inks like he did in 2021 i think two bad starts they could move on they can move on from

cal davies early and they could go to a brandon fought or a dray jameson or whoever doesn't like you know maybe put davies in the pen and see if he can get you know sit over sit over 90. I mean, he, he does have a good changeup. He's my, one of my favorites. One of the only starting pitchers I really like to covet for redraft as his team. And number two might be the most fun. He's been one of my biggest risers recently. Christian incarnation strand. I was about to say Edwin. If anyone was looking at me, I was just about to go.

Christian incarnation Strand with the Reds who was traded from the Twins he four homers in spring he's been putting up big hard hit numbers I watched him hit a triple live and he's playing first base and I said a couple weeks ago or a week and a half ago that I really think with how the Reds this was a little specific thing that jumped out in the game I watched they ran they ran their starters out. It was like Will Myers, Jonathan India, and strand was in there playing first. And then they had the reserve team,

Ellie, Noel V, Austin Hendrick. They had all the big prospects and strand wasn't a part of that. Strand was in the starting lineup and there's this presumption. Oh, Will Myers can play first. The team didn't do that.

The team put Will Myers in right field and strand played at first. And I was like, man, maybe they're really considering having him break camp with this team because he is at a phenomenal spring. And you might agree with me on here. So number two, Christian Encarnacion Strand, what do you think? I think he might be someone you draft at the end of your drafts right now. Yeah. I love him as a dart throw at the end of drafts because you also know pretty quickly what their plan is. And, you know, in terms of where they're playing,

Myers DH'd in his last game. You know, Strand is playing first, as you mentioned. I know Chad Dotson, who follows the Reds a lot, was saying that he thinks that Strand can can break camp with the team i think steer uh still matters and any kind of you know and can i say on strand came in for steer in a game where myers played right field and vato actually played first uh so you know those are the names that you're kind of trying to put on the chessboard. Does Votto come back in time to just be the first baseman, in which case Encarnacion Strand probably goes down

because they want to see if Stier can hold down any position full-time. But there's a chance that Encarnacion Strand still makes the big league team and Stier just floats around because Stier has played like every position ever. So, you know, there's a lot of... I would say there's you know four possible ways forward vato is not healthy and carnassian strand makes the team vato is healthy and carnassian makes it and strand makes the team as a third baseman and steer floats

vato is healthy and carnassian stream and steer make the team and they both float and then the fourth one is strandier goes down. So I would say, you know, maybe past 50% that he makes his team. I'd also throw out a fifth if he could DH. I mean, at this point on Roster Resource, they've got Votto as the DH, Stier as a third baseman, and they're giving Will Benson the center field. And what do you do with the guy with the bum labrum?

You put him at DH. Yeah, that's exactly right. So I think there's a possibility yeah so i think this is leading towards maybe more likely than not that he makes a team what can he do he makes a lot of contact he's only stuck out twice this spring uh you know and if that that was that's the thing he's doing this spring that was the one thing in his line where i was like what's his strikeout rate going to be in the major leagues if he's strikeout rates gonna be 23 in the major leagues then i think he's gonna is going to be 23% in the major leagues,

then I think he's going to have a good batting average, and he definitely has power. And the park is going to help him. Look at this Zips projection, 255 with 27 homers and four stolen bases and 553 plate appearances. Like, he could almost hit all those. I mean, yeah, that's excited. Well, I mean, I get excited about that, I think. Yeah, right., I mean, I get excited about that.

I think that's exciting. All right, so let's tie in the last one here, and hopefully prospect people are enjoying. We're going a little bit long here, is Anthony Volpe. And Anthony Volpe really is floating out here with the potential. This team is still floating the idea that maybe he could break camp, maybe over Peraza, which doesn't seem likely. They could maybe move Gleyber Torres off.

There seems to be flexibility, and he's had a great spring that is leading a lot of people to wondering if he's going to break. So between Volpe and Strand, where do you want to make your investment? I tied Volpe at number one, but do you agree with it? Steals in the past have been a more valued commodity, a more scarce commodity, something that you need from young players. It's difficult to get from old players. I think Volpe will steal some bases. He stole 50 bases last year. So I can see why you might be more excited to have Volpe, a middle infielder who could steal a bunch of bases. His Zips projection is also exciting.

234 batting average with 17 homers and 24 stolen bases. And that 234 is predicated upon the question is we don't know how much power he has, innate power. And the thing that I would just say is that the Yankees are the team of Derek Jeter. I don't think that, let's say Oswaldo Cabrera is a little bit better of a defender. He probably is. Oswaldo Parraza is a better, sorry, wrong guy.

Oswaldo Parraza is a better defender. He probably is. He can make the team, but I think anthony volpe looks like a star and he looks like a star right now i don't think this team will debate too long before they just install him as their shortstop it seems like this is something that by may 1st this is figured out in some capacity whether they already had oswald cabrera type. This is my, this is just my opinion. They have an Oswald Cabrera type in this Isaiah kind of Falefa.

And they went searching for offense at the position. That's a really interesting take. That's a really, really good take. And curious what you guys think you guys can comment on the tweets, the post, whatever it is on who you think the prospects are that you

need to be paying attention to and redraft. These are not the big guys. These aren't the Jordan walkers, the Corbin carols, but these are players that could break camp or could come soon and are most likely the top prospects to come soon. And there's plenty others. There's Edward Julian.

We missed on this list. We kind of wanted to talk about, who's been playing well with team Canada, Heston Kerstad with the Orioles. Who's playing some first base star in 24 years old hit AFL. That might be a guy. The Orioles look at soon and the Orioles, who's playing some first base, started 24 years old, hit AFL. That might be a guy the Orioles look at soon, and the Orioles in general have a bunch of guys. But you guys can drop and let us know who you think.

You can find us on Twitter at Enosaurus, at IsItTheWelsh, that is me. And Eno will be back with Al Melchior a little bit later this week for some more fun stuff. Guys, I will talk to you next week. Eno, thank you so much as always. And thank you to everybody listening right here on Rates and Barrels. I will talk to you next time, and Eno will talk to you later in the Eno, thank you so much as always. And thank you to everybody listening right here on Rates and Barrels. I will talk to you next time.

And Eno will talk to you later in the week. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening.