[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, and welcome to future projection this episode 152 of the show.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a special holiday listener mailbag episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Carlos Closzo joined by Ben Badler as always.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on, Ben?

[SPEAKER_00]: Congrats on being done with the prospect handbook at the time this goes live.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although as we record, maybe a little before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you doing here?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're cheating a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: But.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, everything is good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just hearing up for the holidays where I spend a little time with my family, but also January 15th is coming up.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, we didn't make the schedule design very nice for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You should get a little bit of a break after the handbook season, but the fact that we've moved the international period to basically meet you after the holidays kind of runs out for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but no complaints.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we do have some fun questions to get into today.

[SPEAKER_00]: I also wanted to on this episode, maybe talk about the new tech limitations that are coming to the minor leagues.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was some news that broke.

[SPEAKER_00]: We haven't talked about yet on the podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: JJ has a piece at baseball, America where he talks about eight takeaways from and they'll [SPEAKER_00]: wanted to at least open that up for a quick combo on this episode, Ben, because I mean, I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what is happening?

[SPEAKER_01]: MLB is saying we want teams to invest in technology and drive more innovation, is that what's happening?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, but you would hope that's what's happening, but in fact, it's the exact opposite of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: No more.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: No more.

[SPEAKER_00]: The poor owners and the teams who are behind are crying unfairness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And MLB is trying to standardize the data capture across minor league baseball and amateur baseball for MLB clubs because [SPEAKER_00]: We want everyone on the same page in terms of data collection, I guess.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, congratulations to all you teams who are on the cutting edge of technology and really wanted to invest in your scouting, your analytical abilities, find a competitive edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't get that anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is baseball.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to compete.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're just trying to have a level playing field.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure everyone can get a participation trophy for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hate it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the playing field already is level.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can do a thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Spends as much as you want.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever technology that you want, if you want to have traject machines at your minor league affiliates, go ahead.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to spend money to invest in your own technology, go ahead, if you just want.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if you just want what everybody else has, then go ahead and and do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can spend your money in R&D.

[SPEAKER_01]: However you want to.

[SPEAKER_01]: But obviously what MLB is doing here is just cost containment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right on a thousand percent.

[SPEAKER_00]: At JJ's fifth point in the story is it will control costs and that really could have been the entirety of the story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like at all the real changes we see in baseball are entirely driven about finding ways to control what teams are spending in the amateur market draft caps and the international market.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like desperately want a salary cap, like we don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: like, yeah, it's horrible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's stupid.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not going to invest in technology and you're not going to invest and trying to get better at your processes and you don't want to spend money on either evaluators or the players themselves, you should get left behind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it literally is just, it's just that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's spending control.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: owners who don't care about fielding a competitive team can stay competitive by default.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a joke, I hate it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's this cartilization to work together and say, hey, guys, you know, to the all 30 owners saying to each other, why are we competing against each other for this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't we just make rules that say, [SPEAKER_01]: We can't, you know, we basically have limits on what we're going to spend and what we can use in terms of the technology that we invest in on the field for players throughout our minor league affiliates.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then if we're not competing against each other then there's no incentive for us to try to spend more and we can contain our costs that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the same thing as the [SPEAKER_01]: uh it's quote unquote health reasons why they're trying to shut down or why they have shut down scouting from whatever is right after Jupiter for high school where it's about over 15 to 15 to 15 to November 15.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's not about, oh, we care so much about player health.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is, hey, we can basically now just like keep all of our scouts, like as owners, we can keep all of our scouts at home.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's no competitive disadvantage to doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we can just say, hey, just everybody has to stay home.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to pay travel costs for for all these guys going around the country to see all these players, um, if just to do like [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't even know how you square that with, like a type of motion capture, biomechanical technology that can be useful to prevent injuries.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you have that technology at your minor league affiliates, [SPEAKER_01]: And you're saying potentially we can't use that now just because we're, you know, the brewers or the raise or whoever has invested in that kind of technology to, you know, whether it's for a performance reasons or for injury prevention detection that they can't use that when just because other teams don't want to [SPEAKER_01]: invest in that technology.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think there's really much more than cost.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, I get that there's somebody like it's cost containment too.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have, all right, if you have one buyer, like if MLB buys your product or not, like, okay, we have a lot more pricing power at that point.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're negotiating leverage with all of these different, [SPEAKER_01]: companies that you're potentially working with where you become a big have or a huge have not if MLB is not going to have all 30 teams going to pay for it, but it's not, I don't know, that's the thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: The most ludicrous justification that I've seen for this is that the idea that this is a rule that will save teams from themselves and in selling that as a good thing, saying like, oh, because some teams are so far behind, it's so incredibly hard to catch up now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, like if you're that far behind, it's the onus should be on you to modernize and to invest in [SPEAKER_00]: Like, like, why is it MLB's job or every other team's responsibility to pump the brakes on pushing the boundaries for all these things, because you have not invested in anything in this area that doesn't make any sense at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea where every team can compete.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you're like the raise, the brewers, these are small, more high teams, and so much of their success over the last decade or so has been driven by [SPEAKER_01]: research, innovation, their use of analytics and they do a lot of other great things too, but that's a big part of it and it's not [SPEAKER_01]: prohibitively expensive.

[SPEAKER_01]: The brewers are not going to go out and sign bulbous shit to play shortstop for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can debate whether they should or not, but that's a new thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's for them to have to incur as a smaller market, smaller revenue team.

[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like it's spend more money than [SPEAKER_01]: other or just as much money as larger market teams on research and development or in scouting like who knows like MLB could come and say every team gets 20 scouts or whatever.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't give them ideas because I feel like that literally is the point now like the teams that are far behind I would not be shocked at all if they were looking around saying well all these rich teams are now getting [SPEAKER_00]: huge staves of analysts and people to run all this data and use all this technology, we don't want to have to pay for this large of a staff on that tech and R&D side to keep up and then we don't want to have to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're using this like socialist system to like centralize it all and MLB pays for it, you can catch up and not have to ever do anything in order to catch up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's honestly embarrassing for the sport in my mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's nothing about this, and I think it's positive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like we're an agreement, though.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we going to get to some questions?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get to some questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got an email first from Brandon.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, hey, Carlos and Ben, each fan of the pod can't get enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate all the insight and time you give to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: My question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone in the 2025 DSL class strike you someone who could bust out like Eduardo Florentino did this past summer?

[SPEAKER_00]: Darrell Morelle seems like one for me and not just because he's a pirate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious if you two put into Into any thought into finding the next quarantine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, or if it's just a crap shoot and maybe not worth it I appreciate you guys [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Morrell is a good one because he's he's somebody just to dream on.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think four and Tino is a more advanced hitter at the same stage, but Morrell is like, I mean, ultra long six foot five, [SPEAKER_01]: He's like 190 pounds when he signs, he's probably a little heavier than that now, but was tall, lean, wide shoulders, and plus runner under way, like you can dream on him having plus or double plus, raw power, solid, pro debut.

[SPEAKER_01]: You didn't see the home run power, but I think it's just like a timing thing, like there's certainly power.

[SPEAKER_01]: in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's going to be more swing and miss with him like he's he's six foot five longer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lin guy is going to be some length to his swing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to always be there and some [SPEAKER_01]: Just I think it's gonna be a power overhead type guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where he ends up playing like six foot five shortstop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously the pirates have some history Reason history with ultra long and lean short stops, but He is a good one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that he'd be like the top guy to bet on and then I guess it just sort of depends.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get word for and Tino is like a solid [SPEAKER_01]: mid-range bonus guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't know if you're looking for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, certainly, the very top guys, the very top offensive players in the league, they were a lot of the high bonus guys this year, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So like, Ellie on Pania with the match, the, I mean, got off to a terrible, like, whole horrendous start and still ended up with a really good season overall, left-handed hitter, [SPEAKER_01]: hit ability, power, I don't think is a short stop long term, but I think it's a really good offensive profile at third base.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're looking for like in under the radar guy, that's not obviously going to fit like what you're looking for.

[SPEAKER_01]: He signed for $5 million, he's been pretty famous since he was like 13.

[SPEAKER_01]: years old.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think some of the other guys who jump out for me, Kevin Alvarez with the Astros.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's already in their top 10 prospects.

[SPEAKER_01]: So again, maybe, and you know, sign for $2 million, but already making a pretty big name for himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: But [SPEAKER_01]: six foot for long lean, but good, good hitter like you might look at him and think I have longer limb guides, he's going to have some holes, but he's a good hitter, a very accurate barrel has a good sense of the strike zone, more hit over power, but you can certainly see the room on his body where you can see him getting stronger, filling out, having more power coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gabrielle Davelio with the angels, if you're looking for a catcher, questions on whether he's going to stick behind the plate, I think he will kind of in that Francisco Alvarez tight mold, he's strong, he's got big power and like you watch him and you think it's going to be this power over hit guy, but he doesn't swing and miss all that much.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a pretty good balance of hitting ability and power, everybody's going to question [SPEAKER_01]: stick behind the plate.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other guy, I would say, who who jumps out is one satchez with the blue jays.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huge up arrow for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had a strong season with the DSL, like big physical, like 63, 215 pounds, sign for just like a tick under a million dollars, power, [SPEAKER_01]: powers there for sure There's a question like what the quality of the advance we're going to look like this year and they were actually pretty good I mean he hit well into Dominican summerly Really encouraging we jumped him up already into the blue jays top 10 prospects list, so I Think those guys are like the best [SPEAKER_01]: That's maybe not like under the radar names, but like if you're looking for the guys and I'm you know, I'm we even out just work in solos obviously in our top 100 like kind of a no-brainer there, but those are the guys where I think like man, like I could see them jumping into our top one hope it's the point.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I had won because I rarely get to chime in on the international specific questions, but there was a name who immediately jumped out to me just because I did the brave system.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would have had this player as a breakout candidate, but unfortunately, I had to push him too high in the brazos.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's already in the top 10, so I can't officially label him as that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he was also a pretty prominent name from this class.

[SPEAKER_00]: Signed for two and a half million.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got above average tools for him across the board.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can say the name, or are you going to just do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I haven't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Diego's a great guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he had a good year in the DSL and I think his his like bad at ball data and all of the scout feedback is probably better than the numbers like if you're just looking at the the stats.

[SPEAKER_00]: like really good feedback on his ability to make adjustments at the plate, good feedback on his athleticism speed defense and he should make his state side debut next year when he'll do speed 17 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if he can continue like showing the sort of impact he showed and then also just start to tap into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: for actual, like you didn't hit a single home run, but I don't doubt that all there's lots of impact there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's another fun one to make it a watch out for.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you're looking for like a deeper cut guy, I'll give you a couple with Louis Serrana who's a short stop with the marlins.

[SPEAKER_01]: He signed for $30,000, so I feel safe calling him more of a sleeper type guy, but he had a really good year.

[SPEAKER_01]: in the DSL 297 419 476 walked more than he struck out like smaller guy like 510 but he's like really twitchy and explosive plus speed huge arm strength there's some sneaky power in there he had five home runs and makes a ton of context so he'd be he'd be one and then Hector Ramos with the red socks like I don't think he's like don't expect like frank on areas like he's not that [SPEAKER_01]: good.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think if you listen to our AL East episode, you know, like frayonaries allowed, but just like a really well rounded switch hitting short stops.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, very different profile than Edward 14, you know, if you're looking for like the big hit power combo guy, like he's not that kind of guy or like a Jossway to Paula, but [SPEAKER_01]: uh...

somebody who's just like a very well-rounded shortstop contacts solid at shortstop so uh...

uh...

guys you know under the the million dollar range or two guys under the million dollar range that uh...

think of a chance to make some more noise next year [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got another question from Falcon Z8572 on Instagram who says, what comps would you give for California high school shortstop Tyler Spangler?

[SPEAKER_00]: Other publications are saying Cal Rick and Jr.

and Corey Seeger.

[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, Tyler Spangler, one of the top prospects in the 2026 class is one of the top rank high school short stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have Stanford commit.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that I necessarily have a good comp for him now, but I wanted to address this question because [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so tired of the Cory Seeger comp, Ben, for every, it's like every left handed hitting shortstop that's listed as six to or higher.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is probably the single laziest comp that is just regularly thrown out in the industry and I need it to end, not every shortstop whose big is Cory Seeger, but if you're big and you're left handed and you play shortstop, you get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has happened to [SPEAKER_00]: Colson Montgomery, this has happened to Marcelo Meyer, this has happened to, I mean, someone probably put it on Jojo Parker, like it happens to everyone and I think it's just not a useful comp at this point, maybe it never was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think the Cal Ripkin Junior comp is good either, I'm not going to comp.

[SPEAKER_00]: anyone to a Hall of Famer.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what are your thoughts on these comps or if you have on specifically for Spangler?

[SPEAKER_00]: I also just don't know that, I don't know that comps are necessarily always useful.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think they can have to be more misleading than anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: We try and explain what a player does well, what he doesn't do well, the sort of offensive impact, defensive profile, all of that is more interesting than slapping another name on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's sometimes useful to say like the swing reminds you of this or the way he plays defense reminds you of some player, but like overall comps, I feel like our often just really lazy, but I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I understand the appeal.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I guess I can't give a cop now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can give a cop.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be Calvin Junior.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the Cal Ripkin Junior one makes me wonder like, what are I mean, I like Tyler [SPEAKER_01]: be conservative.

[SPEAKER_01]: Top 50 player in the history of baseball like that guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: If people just like remember him for the streak as like his greatest accomplishment obviously that stands out.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, this guy, he's one of the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I wrote it in my whole time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote in my report that Spangler has the durability and will to play baseball that could challenge Cal Ripcon Jr's playing streak.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe that's where it came from.

[SPEAKER_00]: Explain it.

[SPEAKER_00]: To be clear, I did not write that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The seeer, I mean, the seeer, when I understand it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, just as I've been, don't give it any oxygen at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is the worst comp we use these days.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you, would you, like, a, like, a left-handed, only hitting Chipper Jones?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you prefer?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's not a lot of, like, six foot, three, six foot, four, left-handed, hitting short stops to use.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's kind of R now, though.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what are we all every project every year has drafted his shortstop and tall.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess if you're talking about a established major leagueers that are like, yeah, that's why I mean players that players are peeped on every.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I mean, I just I hate it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Find a new one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I like Tyler Spamler a lot though.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think he's got a really smooth compact left-handed swing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's [SPEAKER_01]: Cory Seeger Heights.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will say that like it's so that fair to say I'm going to hang out to quit the pod.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's a really it's a really great height and handed miss.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's it's a really nice left-handed swing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not like [SPEAKER_01]: I think he's athletic maybe he's not like the super explosive athlete some people want at shortstop but I think he can play shortstop worst case third pace like smart high IQ player.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's power in there he didn't hit for a lot of power this summer in in a lot of the bigger games, the bigger events but I certainly think there's power in there like I'll take that [SPEAKER_01]: I think pure hit profile fits for him so I would take that pure hitter who has that physical upside and will come into some more power or more game power as you know it just as he gets older and stronger.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go into another question, Devon on Twitter says there are currently six players projected out plus hit and power grays among the players ranked in your top 10 lists.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that seem low?

[SPEAKER_00]: If so, any ideas about why that might be from a macro standpoint?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but I actually don't know if that sounds too low.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like [SPEAKER_00]: just rare to have prospects that you feel good enough about putting 60s on both their hit and power.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like those sorts of tools should be rare if we're putting them out too frequently on anyone or probably using it a little bit too often.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually, I pulled our tool grades for everyone we have in the book right now and I'm actually just using not specifically 60 hit and 60 power, [SPEAKER_00]: essentially just some the hit power columns and I'm trying to see who has a at least 120 on the hit plus power department so they're going to be some guys that have like a 50 hit and 70 power or vice versa just basically the highest offensive grades in the book and we have 12 players of all the all the hitters we ranked and graded that have a combination of hit and power tools that give them 120 in the hit power department and I think that's a [SPEAKER_00]: perfectly normal sort of distribution for hit and power tools and go through some of those players if you want but I guess a long way of saying no that doesn't strike me as being like a less amount than normal or you would expect how about you?

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's probably a good amount of players to were like 55, where it's like close to that mark or 60 in one, 55 in another.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's part of just like how we standardize our process to where we compare.

[SPEAKER_01]: Players across different organizations and across different levels to where.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, theory, there's a, there's one, 20, 80 scale, like 60 raw power means one should mean one thing, whether you're talking about, you know, a 23 year old in double a or a 17 year old player you're evaluating in the draft, but I think like you've probably seen her heard and.

[SPEAKER_01]: in your conversations that I definitely see it internationally where, you know, somebody will be talking about, oh, you know, a scout with a team.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this guy has, you know, he's got plus power.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, well, I don't know, he's a 15 year old kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: from Venezuela.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know he hits the ball hard for his age, but if you put this guy into a double line up with those grown men or just like a BP and see how he hits the ball compared to those guys who do have plus raw power, like then tell me.

[SPEAKER_01]: if he has plus raw power.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like there's, well, it's also just, I think the conversation about plus raw power versus plus gain power, which is the number you see, we're referring to gain power.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are tons of hitters who have more than plus raw power or plus raw power, but their hit tool is such that we can't justify putting 60 power grays on them, because that means we're [SPEAKER_00]: a season.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could have 80 grade raw power, but if you just don't make contact, and off, you might not get a 60 power grade in the book.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it is important to just make sure where the power grades we're listing are not raw power grades.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a rare hitter who's getting the same game power grade as their raw power.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means you basically are able to fully tap into all the power that you have, and those hitters are just rare.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think with the hit grade to that's where I bet if you looked internally at a lot of teams like draft grades, a lot of their hit or grade like just as a scale like when you turn in a guy if you like him, you'll probably like have a higher hit grade than maybe rounding up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, or just then you would like when you're evaluating a high school player relative to other high school players, I think you're more likely to put in a six hit or even a seven hit and then we go in in our process and we're evaluating that same high school player.

[SPEAKER_01]: relative to guys who are in double a in triple a it's like okay sure like we do have some guys with 60 hit where we feel like really confident on it like how many 70 hits do we give high school players right out of the draft like I think that's pretty rare [SPEAKER_01]: But they're the one I can remember putting it on I regret it so so I just think that like there's some element of like confidence and risk baked into that hit grade to where right there are guys we probably have a value it is like [SPEAKER_01]: 50 hit, maybe right out of the draft or 55, who will go out and be like, actually, maybe that should be like a 60 or will be end up being a 70 hit when I actually get to the the major is that that's that's the hardest one to do and the guys are so far away from the big leagues that's it's hard like stretching about on a limb for for certain players, I think.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is the best part about doing both the draft and being involved in the prospect, we can book process because you really get a better understanding of how to contextualize some of those amateur grades like the first year we rolled out draft grades, tool grades for draft players.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think I was just generally high across the board because [SPEAKER_00]: feel like you're comparing players within their own peer group and we're not trying to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want those grades to be a little bit more universal to all prospects and ultimately all the grades we're putting down are future grades.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not saying this player who has a 60-hit tool has that today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're saying we're projecting into the future when he's a major league player.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the the hit tool going to be?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the power tool going to be?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the speed going to be?

[SPEAKER_00]: high school, international college, pro guys, guys who've got to taste the majors, does hopefully it kind of revise and contextualizes and allows you to have a better interesting, but it also is like it still is more art than science, ultimately, and protecting the hit tool as you said Ben is incredibly difficult.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for that one, Devon.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got one more to hit on today's sprawl onto her ass.

[SPEAKER_00]: What picture and hit are not in the top 100 have the highest ceiling?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's a fun question.

[SPEAKER_00]: My mind immediately went to [SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, like probably it's just guys who have real injury questions, so from like the teams that I did, I was thinking like, oh, if Daniel Espino comes back and he's healthy his upside looked pretty good when he was healthy before all his injuries.

[SPEAKER_00]: So guys like that come to mind Alejandro Rosario on the pitching side.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he has crazy pitch grades and showed great control when he's healthy, but they're just like huge question marks about the health.

[SPEAKER_00]: So those were two I went to immediately and then I've also filtered some [SPEAKER_00]: players just based purely on our like average grades to see like which of the players the biggest collection of tools may be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who aren't in the top 100 category for us now or maybe our fringe types.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you have any names you want to throw out, go ahead Ben.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, in the pitching side.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think some of these guys could end up being in our top 100 by the time the preseason list comes out, but I really like Braille and Doty with the Guardians right hand of pitcher.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of success this year in the low-way through a lot of strikes like the fastball, brain balls, a hammer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I'm with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like enough people on our staff like him that I would honestly be more surprised if he wasn't on our top 100 [SPEAKER_00]: As of right now, he's not there, so I'm entirely with you on that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and probably the same will go for Kendry Cheerio with the Royals.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, 17-year-old pitcher signed out of Venezuela this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, he's always had outstanding control.

[SPEAKER_01]: Since he was an amateur, the stuff was taken up before he signed.

[SPEAKER_01]: It got even better after that.

[SPEAKER_01]: just a great combination of like stuff and strikes like him and David Shields like David Shields is great control.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think Cheerio is even better at control and he's easy even younger and he has better stuff like it's it's a pretty exciting upside with Kendri Cheerio.

[SPEAKER_01]: So those would be two arms on the position player side like [SPEAKER_01]: two guys just for like pure upside.

[SPEAKER_01]: One would be Joshua Bias with the Cardinals, who again, I also think, he's not in our top 100 now, like as we've zoomed down like seen the actual movements that he's made this year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, his tool says tremendous.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, he would be top 100, yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he would be probably the first time I went to as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, assuming he's going to be on there, [SPEAKER_00]: Another one of the guys that I, again, this is like purely looking to the upside.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think Henry Bultie's toolset is tremendous across the board, power, speed, defensive ability, arm strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: The tools have always been loud.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're saying like all 99th percentile outcomes, if you make some adjustments and [SPEAKER_00]: and actually hits and stops striking out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think he could be in really impactful player.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Another one is actually Xavier Nions, who is 25, drafty went to the Astros.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think some of the best raw power from this past draft class.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a very selective approach with some swing and miss tendencies, and we just haven't seen him at all in pro ball to know like what is the degree of the contact.

[SPEAKER_00]: The contact questions with him, but if he comes out in pro ball and shows that he can hit and and keep the strikeout rate manageable like he has the sort of power that could could drive a lineup one day, so he would be one of the hitters I point to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, two hitters I would have from this most recent draft, one would be Ethan Conrad, who the Cubs drafted 17th overall on a week forest.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's kind of that chased the louder look in terms of the physicality, the athleticism, the combination of hit and power, but also the injury risk.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's not the injury track record that chased the louder has.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we saw him at Wake Forest early in the season.

[SPEAKER_01]: It looked good then, but he got hurt early.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think if he had played out his whole season, he would have gone higher, but hard to say that, maybe he would have scuffled.

[SPEAKER_01]: Had he played the whole season as we got into ACC play, but I...

[SPEAKER_01]: I like the combination of the hitting ability, the power, like the physicality, the athleticism, so I think he has a chance to be an up arrow guy next season.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so does, and he already is, but Dax Killby with the Yankees, shortstop who's maybe not like the power and some like the bigger tools that we're talking about with some of these other players, but a really advanced hitter makes a ton of contact, a lot of adjustability to his swing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he is a good athlete, [SPEAKER_01]: to you just doesn't have like the kind of juice and power that some of these other guys were talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think the hitting ability and the athleticism at shortstop right now makes for a pretty good starting kit.

[SPEAKER_00]: All throughout one other name from the 2075 graph also a shortstop from the high school ranks Josh Hammond.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has a ton of raw power and just natural athleticism background as a two way player.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was one of the more talented pitchers in the class prior to his spring season.

[SPEAKER_00]: We started focusing on hitting, I think there's a wide range of potential outcomes with the hitting ability and we didn't get a chance to see him in pro ball after signing.

[SPEAKER_00]: still would just need to seem to do a lot offensively, but he also has good hands in the field, probably more likely to slide from shorecept to third base ultimately, but he's got a cannon of an arm.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you wound up sticking around a little bit longer than people expected, shorecept that wouldn't shock me either.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his best speed and impact potential is really exciting and he's also just a dog on the baseball field.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the intensity with which he plays.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's maybe another one I'd throw out here that is just exciting to me and has some upside potential.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that is going to do it for today's Mailbag episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ben, um, [SPEAKER_00]: If you guys do have questions, want to send them in for a future episode like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please send them to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ben is at Ben Badler on various socials on Carlos A.

Colazo.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can email us future projection at basewellmerica.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the relevant contact information is in the podcast description below.

[SPEAKER_00]: So please send those our way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll be happy to answer them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ben and you final comments for we get out of here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mary, Mary, Christmas happy holidays.

[SPEAKER_01]: Happy New Year.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take care.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have a good one.

[SPEAKER_00]: See you next time.