Hello, and welcome to episode one hundred and eighteen of the Dynasty Baseball Pickups podcast.

Today is December thirteenth.

I'm Kyle Sante and I am joined as always by Taylor Corso.

How are you doing today?

Man?

I'm doing good, man.

Holidays are arriving quickly.

There's a lot to do, but it's a fun time of year and we have some winter meetings to discuss, so lots of fun things going on.

How about you.

I'm doing well.

I was telling you before we got on.

My girlfriend's family is in town, so we got her family and my family together last night.

We got lots going on all weekend.

The holidays are definitely in full swing here, so it'll be a busy weekend, but it'll be good.

And I'm excited to get into all this baseball talk with you.

Man.

Yeah, let's go.

We'll start that off with a brief discussion on the Hall of Fame because the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee, which is made up of sixteen voters I believe from around baseball, they voted earlier this week to elect Jeff Kent into the Hall of Fame.

Now he was the only player to make it off of that ballot as Carlos Delgado, Don Mattingly, and Dale Murphy all failed to get in, but did receive at least five votes, which means that they will remain on the ballot going forwards.

Meanwhile, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Gary Sheffield, and Fernando Vealezuela will all be coming off the ballot as they failed to receive at least five votes.

Now, obviously, congratulations to Jeff Kent on making it into the Hall of Fame.

He was a tremendous player, really a trendsetter at second base.

We hadn't seen a second baseman like him before he came through the game.

I really do think it's a mistake that more of these players didn't get in, especially when we look at the likes of a Bond's, Clemens, Sheffield, Valezuela, who might have just missed their last chance at making it into the Hall of Fame.

Taylor, as a former Giant, I'm sure you've got some fond memories of Jeff Kent, so I'll get your thoughts on him, But first I'm interested to get your thoughts on this class as a whole, and if you think anybody else deserved to get into the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, I think the Hall of Fame is joke to be honest, without Clemens and Bonds in there, Like I just I don't care anymore about like the voting and everything.

I just think it's ridiculous, Like we're so far removed from the steroid era we don't know who was doing it, who wasn't.

And Clemens and Bonds, regardless of what they did, they were Hall of Famers prior to that.

So I feel like the two of them need to be in the Hall, and the Hall without them is just a joke.

And I think when you talk about this particular group and Jeff Kent getting elected in the Hall, like I think Jeff Kent's deserving, but he's I don't know.

I think he's one of those debatable cases, right, Like he's not a slam dunk case for the Hall of Fame.

I'm fine with him being in there.

He's going in as a San Francisco Giant, which I love.

But it's just one of those where you're not even giving the superstars who should be in there, some of the best players who've ever played the game, they're not even getting five votes, Like I thought we were beyond this at this point.

So just really disappointed in the Hall of Fame voters.

I'm not going to really care too much about the Hall until the best players are in there, and they're not in there.

From that perspective, I just I'm just jaded with this whole thing beyond that.

Talking about Jeff Kent specifically, again, I do think he's deserving.

You look at the Hall of Fame metrics like Jaws and stuff like that, and he's borderline.

But I think to your point, he really became that power hitting second basement that we really hadn't seen a lot in the history of baseball, and we've seen a lot more since he played.

He played for both of our franchises, which is cool.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of memories of Jeff Kent because he played for the Giants and what was probably the only sort of baseball dead zone of my life.

When I was in high school, I fell out of watching baseball and it wasn't until I got to college in the two thousand and two World Series that I got back into my Giants fandom and everything like that.

So Jeff camp played during those years.

I think it was nineteen ninety eight to two thousand and two where I was in high school.

I wasn't really paying attention to baseball at the time.

Again, fell out of it during that time frame, so I don't have a lot of memories of him specifically playing.

I do remember him arguing with Barry Bonds being like a big thing.

You can't take away what he did, particularly in a Giant's uniform.

Five time All Star, was the MVP of the two thousand season, was a big part of that two thousand and two World Series run that got me back into my fandom, and I think it's cool he'll go in as a San Francisco Giant.

He'll be the twenty sixth player inducted in the Hall of Fame from the Giants franchise, which is New York obviously combined with San Francisco, which is second behind only the Yankees.

So really proud of the Giants franchise for that and like way in front of third place, which I believe is the Cardinals with eighteen.

I'm a little disappointed that Carlos Delgado didn't make it in.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts as a Blue Jays fan on him, whether he was deserving or not.

But yeah, all around, I think Kent belongs to be there, and I think the Hall of Fame in general is just a joke without bonds and clements in it.

I definitely echo your sentiment there.

We've talked about this a few times.

I don't know how you can tell the story of baseball, which is what the Hall of Fame is supposed to do.

I don't know how you can do that without some of the greatest players to have ever played the game.

Again, put aside anything that they did or may have done when it comes to ease or anything else on or off the field, any controversy they might have been a part of.

They were massive parts of the game.

I don't know how you can't have them in the Hall of Fame and tell that story.

But to your point, this class as a whole, I think Jeff Kent, like you said, is deserving, maybe maybe a little bit borderline of this group, though he might have been one of the least deserving players and the only one.

To get in.

So I just I don't understand what the point of this contemporary Baseball Era committee is if nothing really changes, because I don't see speaking to Delgado specifically.

Yes, he was a slugger, but this is a guy that hit two eighty for his career with a twenty percent strikeout rate and like four hundred home runs and nobody ever talks about him aside from oh, really those were his numbers.

Why isn't he in the Hall of Fame?

And yet here we are every time this comes back up.

I'm glad that some of these guys, at least a Delgado, Mattingly Murphy, have a shot going forward because they did receive at least five votes, But it feels bad for a Bond's, Clemens, Sheffield, Valezuela.

These guys deserve at least to get another shot, because I don't know how we keep doing this year in and year out, And like you said, I just I become less and less interested in the Hall of Fame every year when this key happening.

Yeah, exactly.

Let's move on to some baseball discussion that we are interested in, Taylor, and that includes a bunch of news and notes from the baseball world, because the Winter Meetings were going on this past week, so we've got the draft lottery to discuss, We've got some contracts an extension, a couple trades, and a few intriguing names to come out of the Rule five Draft.

Then we're going to get into our main topic of the day as we continue diving into the top prospects at each position and actually finish off this series.

We are looking at the top twenty pitchers this week.

Before we get into any of that, I do want to remind everyone about all of the incredible content we've been pumping out at Prospects Live.

We've got the daily Sheets, which are taking a bit of a break through the winter, but they'll be back when the regular season rolls around.

We've got the Dynasty Prospect and Open Universe lists.

The Open Universe list just got its update on Monday, and the Prospect rankings are getting their update very shortly.

Here there's the Trade Analyzer and Trade Matchmaker.

There's p Live Plus and Hobby Plus.

And in recent articles, the Dynasty team has been looking ahead to twenty twenty eight, trying to predict what every team's lineup is going to look like in a few years, as well as diving into the Dynasty outlooks for each team in twenty twenty six.

This week we covered the Padres and the Yankees, and our pro scouting team has been releasing their top twenty prospect lists for each organization, and this week they covered the Colorado Rockies.

Will Dodge also put out his primer article for the twenty twenty six draft lottery, discussing some big names like a Rock Chalowski there, jig Barjorie previewed a couple of conferences I believe it was the Southern Conference and the Northwestern Athletic Conference ahead of the twenty twenty six collegiate season.

And on the podcast front, Greg Hugcamp had Drew Wheeler and Brandon Tuo on to discuss the update to the open use list that I was mentioning before, and Greg was also on with Lucas and Tom to discuss their work going over the Yankees and Padres lineups for twenty twenty eight.

So, as you can tell, there's still a lot of awesome work being done up and down prospects live and whether you like to read your articles or listen to podcasts to consume your content, whether you're into fantasy baseball, real life scouting, the amateur side of things, card collecting, you name it, we have something for every kind of baseball fan.

And it's all available at prospectslive dot com.

Make sure you guys go sign up before January second.

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You can find me at Sunny Underscore one oh eight on X and Sunny one to oh eight on Blue Sky.

You can find Taylor at Dynasty Pickups on both.

You can also get ahold of us with all your Dynasty Baseball questions at Dynasty Baseball Pickups at gmail dot com.

And we've got a little bit more information now on the listener league that we are going to be starting up here.

We have decided that we are going to try to do a fourteen team league, daily moves.

It's going to be a six by six head to head categories.

We'll be scoring average and ops on the hitting side of things.

With I believe Taylor, we agreed on ks per nine on the pitching side.

Yeah, it's correct, and we'll also have saveholds two and WQ three is our win and saves categories.

Right, yeah, so not.

Quite your standard categories league, but a six by six head to head categories nonetheless, and we're looking at a twenty five dollars buy in here.

So we'll be posting the league constitution as well as a Google form to sign up in today's show notes as well as on social media, so make sure you check that out.

Now, let's get into some of the news and notes from baseball over the last week, and let's start with contracts.

There were a lot, so we're gonna start with a couple of big ones here.

Pete Alonso signed a five year, one hundred and fifty five million dollar deal with the Baltimore Orioles, and Kyle Schwarber signed a five year, one hundred and fifty million dollar deal to stay in Philadelphia with the Phillies.

I don't think anybody's surprised that Schwarber returned to Philly.

Alonzo to Baltimore was definitely more of a surprise, though.

So Taylor, let me ask you on that one specifically, because clearly Schwarber's value doesn't change.

He's going back to the Phillies.

How does this affect Pete Alonzo for Dynasty?

I don't know that it affects his value too much.

From my side, it was more of like, what WTF.

Why are the Baltimore Orioles spending money on another corner bat?

It didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Still doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

They better move some hitting for pitching or this really doesn't make sense because we have a roster resources unsure if daw to deal with this.

They currently have Jackson Holiday, Samuel Pisio, and Dylan Beaver's all his platoon bats, which nobody wants to see.

Kobe Mayo's not even on the roster.

Like, what are we doing here, Kyle?

Like?

What is going on with the Orioles?

Yeah, they, like you said, they definitely need to make some moves.

I think this is one of a number of questionable moves they've made this offseason.

Right.

They traded Grayson Rodriguez to bring in Taylor Ward a position of surplus.

They tender to contract to Ryan Mountcastle, which you know was fine, but then to turn right around and also sign Pete Alonzo.

Now you've got a redundancy not only in the outfield, but at first base and DH and it really jumbles things up.

And like you said, like the biggest loser here right now is Kobe Mayo.

And unless there is a trade and you got I think he'd be a big part of that deal.

His value is just in the tank right now.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what they're doing.

It's like they're playing in a league where pitching stats don't matter, like they're trying to build a best ball roster.

I don't get it.

Yeah, we can move on, but it was one of the more confusing signings to me from the winter meetings for sure.

Absolutely, real quick, I will say I agree with you.

I don't think this changes Alonzo's value a whole lot.

Park factor wise, Baltimore is actually pretty close to the Mets home park, and from a lineup standpoint, Baltimore's going to have should have a pretty solid lineup.

So I don't think we're really losing or even gaining a whole lot here with this move.

I don't think this change is really much of anything for Pete Alonzo.

Yeah, agreed, All.

Right, then we will get into some relievers.

And we've got a handful of names moving around here, as Edwin Diaz the big one, moving to the Dodgers here on a three year, sixty nine million dollar deal.

Then we've got Robert Suarez signing with Atlanta on a three year, forty five million dollar deal.

The interesting part of that one is that raise Alaglesias will reportedly still be the closer.

We'll see how that breaks down when the season rolls around.

But for saves holds leagues, that is a bullpen that's still gonna be fantastic.

If you're in a saves only league.

I'm not sure I'm very interested in either Suarez or Iglesias.

I have a feeling that's gonna be more of a committee than they are letting on at the moment.

A few more before I get Taylor's thoughts here, though, Kyle Finnegan signs with the Detroit Tigers two years nineteen million, Tyler Rodgers signs with the Toronto Blue Jays three years thirty seven million, and Gregory Soto signs with the Pittsburgh Pirates one year, seven point seven five million.

So Taylor again, the big one, Edwin Diaz goes to the Dodgers.

We've been talking for a few years about how we really don't have any interest in this Rodgers bullpen because it doesn't seem like one that we can make much sense out of.

But I think we've finally got a guy in that bullpen that we can look at and say, Okay, I'm confident this is the closer.

I think I've got a little bit more interest in him.

But outside of that, for saves only leagues, I'm still not really diving into that Dodgers' bullpen.

What do you think about Diaz's value with the Dodgers and is there anybody else on that list Suarez, Finigan, Rodgers, and Soto whose value is really shifting with their landing spots.

Yeah, I think Diaz is the guy in LA.

I don't see them playing games with him.

I think he's got enough of a track record that I just I think he's going to be the guy.

Kadolen says, anyone who was in an early free draft league and drafted Tanner Scott or Roki Sazaki as a closer.

Obviously that's not happening, but I think it.

It also provides some clarity of the met situation too, Like Devin Williams is the guy, So I think from that standpoint, I think it's a good thing.

And I think Edwin Diaz, like you have to look at him as potentially the top closer in the game, being part of that that Dodgers team.

I'm much more certain than it seems to sounds like you are that he's gonna get most, if not all, the same attempts there.

I don't think they're gonna to Conny.

Yeah, No, I maybe I wasn't clear.

I definitely think he's the guy.

I think in the past it's been hard to believe when they've said they've got a guy.

But it's pretty clear Diez at least should be that guy.

If I'm not mistaken.

Sixty nine million, that's twenty three per year is the highest av four A reliever in history, so he better be their closer.

Yeah, and Dodger's going to Dodger the best team gets better.

What a surprise.

Yeah.

The one I think shifts the most of value obviously Robert Suarez.

I'm taking Atlanta at their word that he's gonna be the setup guy.

But obviously if Iglesias Falters Suarez comes in there, it just that moved to me.

Hats off to Atlanta for bolstering their bullpen, but it just seems like they had that at home with Iglesias, right like you already had a mid thirties closer that does fairly well at run prevention but doesn't necessarily get like a ton of strikeouts.

I don't know.

It just seems repetitive to what they already had there with the Glaciers, But it does link in their bullpen and provides some depth that I think they needed there.

Outside of that, I don't think much changes with the value of the other relievers.

If and again was already on Detroit, he's going to be back.

He was his best self there, so I think that's a good thing.

But again he might be in that committee with like will Vest and that's uncertain, Like who's going to see the fulk of save attempts there?

Yeah, there's definitely some.

Again, I think for a lot of these bullpens, we're going to have to see who gets that job.

I do agree with you.

I think Aglacias in Atlanta probably starts the year with the job, but we saw last year he can be ineffective for stretches.

Now, Suarez can also be that way.

So that's where to me, that sort of committee concern starts coming in.

Is okay, what happens when a Glacias goes cold and Suarez is hot?

And then I feel like it's gonna shift back and forth a little bit here.

The same thing can happen in Detroit.

I think the same thing can happen with Gregory Soto.

In Pittsburgh.

We saw a guy like Dennis Santana step up for the Pirates after they traded away Bednar last year.

So they've got not high end options, but they have options in Pittsburgh.

And then when we are talking about Tyler Rogers going to the Jays, he's clearly a setup man here, and I hope he proves me wrong.

This is a name that I've been saying all off season is overrated and is probably going to be overpaid.

I'm just not a big believer.

I know that it's a really weird look and it works.

I'm just not a big believer in what he did last year being sticky going forwards.

I'm concerned that this is maybe a little bit more money than he should have gotten.

But the Jays are They're being aggressive this offseason.

So for a reliever, a setup man that rarely walks anybody keeps the ball on the ground, Hopefully he's worth it, and hopefully again he proves me wrong because I haven't been a big fan of his this offseason.

Yeah, I will say, like, I think the money is a little much, but like, I don't think you're gonna regret having Tyler Rogers on your team.

I think he's a very good setup guy.

What he does very well in terms of getting ground balls, Like he's the guy that you want coming in in the seventh inning with runners on base.

He's gonna get you that double play.

Oh, he's not gonna strike out a lot of guys.

He's not gonna walk many guys either, And you don't want him out there as your closer, right because it's not a look you want to be giving every day.

But I think at the back end of a bullpen and key points in matchups, like, he is a guy who you want to have in there.

So I agree with you.

I don't think he's a sub to er.

A guy like he had the best season of his career last year.

That's not gonna happen again.

If you think of him around like a three er and again, like a guy that's gonna put the ball on the ground a lot, not gonna get a lot of strikeouts, not gonna walk anybody.

That's what you're getting.

That's a good set up.

Man.

Is it three years, thirty seven million dollars good?

That's debatable, but I don't think you're gonna regret having him on your roster.

I will say, the one thing I'm really excited for is the day that he comes in as the first man out of the bullpen after Trey Ya Savage starts, and we go from the highest release point in the league to the lowest release point in the league.

I don't know how.

Anybody's going to be able to adjust to that.

Maybe that's the only plan here, Rogers.

You're just gonna pitch every time that you Savage goes be ready.

Yeah.

Yeah, I will say, like he's gonna get up there at age he's thirty five.

There, there might be some degradation of skills there.

I didn't see the market for him being as hot as it was, but yeah, I think it's a good signing for the Blue Jays outside of the money factor.

Yeah, and that's the issue for me is I'm not sure about the money, and I'm not even entirely sure about the three years.

But let's move on to a handful of sort of miscellaneous signings.

Here.

We got a little bit of everything, as Jorge Polonko just this morning has signed a two year, forty million dollar deal with the Mets.

He's reportedly expected to play some first base and DH.

I would expect it'll mostly be DH, as he's been more of a middle infielder second base in particular throughout his career, but even at that point has been dhing in recent years.

Mike Yastremsky signs with the Atlanta Braves two years, twenty three million dollars.

Lane Thomas signed with the Kansas City Royals on a one year deal worth five point twenty five million, Mike Soroka signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks one year, seven point five million, and Taylor's favorite player, Christopher Morrell has signed with the Miami Marlins on a one year deal, and he's expected to play first base.

There so some players maybe moving positions to fit with their new teams.

Taylor, there's not a ton of fantasy relevance in this group, but is there anybody that's maybe moving up your draft board with their new landing spot here.

I think cor Hit Polonko is going to provide some fancy value potentially there in New York being in a a good lineup there.

I hope it doesn't block Vianto Serbati.

I'm curious like how they're gonna shift him around and how the playing time is gonna shake out there.

But I like that landing spot for him.

As far as the rest of these names, I don't have a lot of fancy interest Outside of Mike Soroka.

I like the Diamondbacks landing spot.

They he should have a starting role there.

I think he's a bit of an underrated arm that showed some improvements last year and then just got derailed by injuries.

But he's the one I'm most closely watching out of this group.

I could see a bounce back from Lane Thomas getting out of a disastrous stint in Cleveland there.

I'm gonna be watching Christopher Morrell very closely.

I don't have a lot of high hopes for it.

I think it's weird that, like Miami is so against having Augustin Ramirez play first base right now, rossll resources has Morel as like a short side platoon first baseman with Graham Pauli, I don't know why you would sign a guid to be a short side platoon first baseman.

Potentially Morel can work his way into more playing time there, but again, like he's one that's gonna sit on waivers for me until he proves it.

However, if he does start performing well, you want to run out and grab him.

Because this guy we've talked about a lot in the past has some major upside.

He's just never been able to reach it.

And I thought the Rays might be the place, and it definitely wasn't.

He had his worst stretch of his career with the Rays there.

Yeah, I agree with you on most of this.

Polonko's definitely the guy I think value wise, it probably doesn't change a whole lot compared to what he was last year in Seattle.

I don't think anybody's expecting him to replicate that anyways, So a little bit of a step back should be expected y as in Atlanta is just it's he has.

I don't think that we can expect a big step forward, but we should probably just continue to expect him to be who he is, which is a deep league, viable fantasy player, but not someone that you want to be counting on.

I'm not as confident in Lane Thomas having a bounce back here, in part because it's Kansas City.

It's such a pitcher's park.

It just absolutely kills power.

Not that he's that's a big part of his game to begin with, but I think it's gonna take away maybe a little bit more than people realize.

And I do agree with you on Mike Soroka.

The landing spot in Arizona is really nice, but you said it it was he got derailed by injuries again, and that's the story with him.

Every year.

We start seeing that, like Glemer, hope, Oh, he's looking like that picture that we want him to be that we've heard he can be, and then something else pops up.

So I'm just at this point Soroka is a player.

I hate to.

Say it about a Canadian, but I'm just out on because every time he brings us back in, there's something else that pops up and he's out for the rest of the year.

So that's someone that I'll probably be avoiding, and I'll definitely be avoiding Christopher Morrell even if he starts to show signs.

Like you said, Taylor, this is somebody we've talked about a number of times.

He's done this before, where he's shown signs.

He's just a very hard player for me to buy in on.

I'll ever fully be out on.

Pick it up Christopher Morell if he's.

We've all got those players, all right?

We do?

Do you have one extension to talk about quickly?

As well?

As mikeel Garcia signed a five year, fifty seven point five million dollar deal to stay in Kansas City.

There is a club option on there as well as some escalators that could bring this up to a six year, eighty five million dollar deal.

Taylor Garcia really turned himself into kind of a superstar last year, tremendous season.

Do you think he's worth this big extension that he just got.

Yeah, I think so.

I didn't dig deep into it and like what the arbitration numbers would be and what it really boils down to in terms of value, but I think looking at the contract on a base level, I think this was the right move for case.

You know, the Garcia's had a lot of fans for a long time.

Good contact ability, showed good act at velocities, just never was able to lift and pull the ball.

Last year, like you said, he broke out, was a great defense at third base, Finally was getting a little bit more lyft on the ball, getting into a little bit more power.

Hopefully locks down that third base position for the Royals for obviously several years to come, and I think it's the right move on their part.

I still think Garcia, I don't know.

I still think he's a better real life player than fantasy player, but I'm fully willing to admit that.

Like I was never a Garcia believer before, like now, he's a guy who I think it is a good player, but maybe a touch over rated for fantasy there.

I think I would agree with you when we look at what he did.

It was a two eighty six three point fifty one four to forty nine slash.

That's solid.

It's an eight hundred ops on the nose, sixteen home runs, twenty three stolen bases, so not blowing you out of the water in anything, but contributing everywhere.

Like you said, I think a very good player, but probably a little bit better real life than fantasy.

I think this is a really good deal for the Royals.

But I think that there might be with this extension, and with so many voices out there saying this is a fantastic deal, great extension, good job Royals, this might be a decent time to try to sell high on Mike col Garcia.

Yeah.

I think so too.

The one thing holding me back is like he's still fairly young, just twenty five years old, and he was showing improvement in that power department, and he's always had the exit velocity, So there is more ceiling there for mikel Garcia.

So if I agree that he's probably valued higher than he should be right now in fantasy leagues.

So it is a good selling opportunity.

But he's also one that I could I could see that maybe we haven't seen the best of him yet.

We know he can steal more bases than he stole last year.

We know he has more power in the tank if he could lift the ball a little bit more he started to last year.

I don't see him going full on, breakout superstar level.

But again I'm not willing to say like it was a career year or anything like that.

There is another step there for him to take if he can make some adjustments yeah.

Yeah, absolutely, I agree with you there.

I think it depends on which side of things you fall.

There's certainly could be more in the tank.

Like you said, the raw exit velocities have looked good for a while.

He just hits the ball on the ground a lot, and even that got better this year.

It was near fifty percent throughout most of his career.

He cut that to about forty three percent this last year.

So if he can continue making those sorts of adjustments while still driving the ball, there definitely could be better days ahead.

Yeah, and before we move on, it just popped in my mind, but like, the flip side is that he's Cabrian Hayes.

Yeah, that's the flip side there is like we said all that about Cabrian Hayes, and if we saw glimpses of like, oh yeah, Cabrian Hayes is finally doing things and then like where is he now?

That's the downside here is that this is Cabrian Hayes two point zero.

So yeah, definitely could be a bye low, could be a cell hide, depends on whether or not you think it's Cabrian Hayes two point zero.

Let's move on to a few trades.

Here we saw Jose Ferrare head to the Seattle Mariners for Harry Ford and Isaac Lyon heading back to Washington.

Von Grissom got sent to the Angels in return for Isaiah Jackson to the Boston Red Sox, and Yoniil Corrett was traded to the Phillies after being dfaid by the Rays, and the Rays got back Tommy McCollums.

So for me, all of these are interesting deals.

The one that really stands out, though, is Yoniel Corrett because I don't understand why he was dfaid in the first place.

I know they needed to make room to get Cedric Mullins on their roster, but of all the players to cut, Yanil Kurett just seemed like such an odd one because he's got such a high upside if he can just put the pieces together.

That one really surprised me.

I think the one that made the most sense to me was for Rare for Ford, because Ford is really he didn't have much going for him in Seattle with cal Rawley there.

This maybe doesn't help 's fantasy value a whole lot, because he was looking like he could be the closer in Washington.

But I think long term.

This really helps his real life stock in particular, and maybe his fantasy value in saves holds leagues.

So there are some interesting names switching sides here, Taylor, is there anybody that really stands out to you from a fantasy standpoint or is there are there any of these moves that, like me with Kuret really surprised you.

Yeah, I agree with you on the correct move.

I was surprised when he was dfaed and then being the return, being a twenty six year old minor league reliever, like it seems like Tampa was willing to obviously give him up for nothing.

It's one of those where you just wonder, like what they saw because there he had a poor end to his season, So maybe there's some injury stuff there.

Maybe there's some off the field stuff going on there.

Who knows, but I think there's more that meets the eye to that because it just doesn't make sense from a outside looking in perspective.

I think the most interesting trade here outside of that one, is obviously the Freir for Harry Ford deal.

I think Ford is now going to be the guy in Washington like keep it Ruiz just hasn't worked out.

We'll see how well Ford works out, but he's his values way up with that trade, obviously getting out from behind cal Rawley there.

And then Forrere, he's one of those guys who throws the ball really hard, puts the ball on the ground a lot.

It's been inconsistent results at times, but I think he will fit in very nicely as a setup guy for the Mariners there.

I don't think he's going to be the closer, but I think he'll be a valuable late inning weapon for them.

And then for Von Grissom, this is like his last shot to establish himself.

I don't have very high hopes that he will.

If you're going too Angels, as we just says with Alec Badoa, this is like your last stop before having to go overseas or hang him up, So we'll see what happens.

Yeah, he's at least got a shot here, and I think that makes him worth keeping an eye on for fantasy.

On the other side of that deal, though, Isaiah Jackson interest me more than I thought he would when I first heard about this trade.

There are tools for days here, he just needs to hit enough to get to them.

And moving into Boston system is a massive upgrade over the Angels.

So this is a player that isn't necessarily moving up my ranks just yet, but is somebody that I'm now keeping an eye on.

Yeah, that's a great call out.

All right, let's quickly get into the Rule five draft here, Taylor.

There were a handful of interesting players selected in the Rule five draft this year.

Unsurprisingly, most of them were pitchers.

The first overall pick is the six foot eight, three hundred pound relief pitcher now headed to Colorado.

RJ.

Pettitt was his name.

The Chicago White Sox took J.

Dixon Piez from the Boston Red Sox.

Washington took Griff McGarry from Philadelphia.

Cleveland took Peyton Palette from Chicago the White Sox and the Loansian player taken in this draft.

Minnesota selected Daniel Sussack from the Athletics, but then immediately traded him to San Francisco for Miguel Caraballo.

So Taylor, again mostly pictures being taken here.

Do you have any interest in any of these names or anybody maybe that I didn't mention for fantasy or are they just guys that you're keeping an eye on?

And of course, as a Giants fan, I have to ask, what do you think about the Susac addition?

Yeah, I'll start there.

I think it makes sense.

I think all these makes sense.

First off, I think the Susac trade makes sense for the Giants.

They don't have a lot of catcher depth behind Patrick Bailey really didn't have like a set backup at the NLB level, So if Susac can provide average like backup performance, I think it makes sense.

His brother Andrew played for the Giants.

I believe that he was drafted by them.

There is some family history there.

Maybe Buster Posey was familiar with what Andrew Sussack did, but I don't don't know.

We'll see.

I don't think it hurts anything to have another depth catching option at the Bailey level.

Maybe he'll compete with Hazus Rodriguez for like the backup role or something in spring training.

I think the most you look at Piez, you look at Washington taking Griff McGary, Cleveland taking Peyton Pellett.

Like I think all these guys are probably more of like low end kind of fancy guys.

Probably for a couple of them relievers, I think Piez maybe could start at some point He's a change up command guy, but hasn't pitched above high A, so that should be interesting.

The one I think has the highest ceiling of those guys is Griff McGary has great stuff, just absolutely dreadful control.

But the Nationals have shown an ability to work with guys like that who really have the big stuff and poor control.

So that's the one that I'm not taking an action on it now, but I'm watching that very closely.

He's going to be a reliever for them to start out with, but I want to see what happens with that, because there is an upside there with McGary.

It's just he's got a a long way to go on the command and control front.

Yeah, I'm with you one hundred percent.

There's intrigue in all of these names, but McGary's definitely the one at the top of the list that I want to see how things go in twenty twenty six here because a team like Washington, there's a reason that the majority of these players that do get selected are often going to a team like a White Sox or a Nationals or a Twins who, yes, they traded away Susac, but they have openings in their lineup, so players like a paias McGary pellet who you know, maybe aren't big league ready, can sit in the bullpen and come in at least at the start of the year in low leverage situations where if things go bad you can live with it.

But I could see all of them, and again McGary in particular, making some strides under big league tutelage to the point where they start becoming fantasy relevant.

Yeah, and like, I don't necessarily think McGary's ever gonna make it as a starter, but like, there's opportunity in that bullpen that I wouldn't be shocked if McGary is closing by the end of the year for the Nationals.

You know, he's got the stuff without Frere there, their bullpen is the so you know, he's got a long way to go to get there.

But I think it's definitely conceivable that that he could make some inroads in that bullpen there and end up being a fancy relevant closer by by this time next year.

Yeah, that is definitely possible.

But let's move on from the Rule five draft to the twenty twenty six draft, because the draft lottery also happened this past week with the White Sox coming out on top.

They will have the first overall pick in twenty twenty six.

The consensus one to one right now is Rock Chalowski.

He looks like an incredibly well rounded, tooled up shortstop coming out of UCLA that's just going to presumably continue taking NCAA by storm and cruise into that one to one slot.

But I will say this time last year we were talking about the conversation of Jayce Laviolette versus ethan holiday for the one one, and we all know where that ended up going.

As Eli Willitts was the first overall pick, So these things have a way to surprise us on a regular basis.

We'll keep an eye on who that one to one is right now, though it sure looks like the White Sox are getting a really good player in Rock Chelowski if they choose to go that way at pick two.

The Rays won this pick the Twins at three, Giants at four, Pirates at five, Royals at six, Orioles at seven, Athletics at eight, Braves at nine, and Rockies at ten.

So Taylor, obviously great for you that your Giants moved up to the fourth overall pick.

Here going to be really interesting to see what they do.

Having that kind of a top five pick and what really is looking like a fantastic year to have a high end pick here has to be exciting as a Giants fan.

But is there any other team on this list that maybe benefits the most from getting a top ten pick in what looks like a very strong draft class in twenty twenty six.

I can tell you whoever the Rays pick at number two, I'm gonna be all over.

That's a scary idea, the Raise picking top two, Like, that's.

The first team that stood out to me as well.

Yeah, I love the Giants fish in it four there.

I just hope we don't screw it up.

And then, obviously, anytime the Orioles are picking that high number seven, you gotta have interest in who they're gonna go with.

Pirates have done well, I think drafting recently, So I think those are a couple that stand out to me as ones that I'm watching.

But I think this is a fun top ten here, fun outside of number ten the Rockies, We'll see what they do.

But yeah, I'm definitely interested in this draft in terms of like where the Rays go, because I can't remember the last time they drafted that highly.

Yeah, that's gonna be a pick to keep an eye on for sure.

But Taylor, let's move on from the news and notes.

Like we said, a lot to talk about with Winter meetings going on this past week, but we still have to get into our top twenty pitching prospects based on the consensus rankings at Prospects Live.

Now.

Again, these rankings haven't come out just yet, so things might shift a little bit by the time the list is officially released, but these are going to be very close at least to what the new list looks like when things update.

The big thing to remember with this as I discuss the tiers that we're talking about, these are not the tiers you're going to see on that updated prospect list.

These are the tiers the way that we saw them.

Where the based on where the pitchers fall relative to each other, not relative to the overall list.

So just because I say that these first few names are in tier one doesn't mean that they are in tier one of the overall list.

This is just where we broke it down in the way that made the most sense to us for the purposes of this episode.

Without further ado, let's get into that top tier and let's look at our first overall pitching prospect, trey Ya Savage of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Number two is Nolan McClain of the New York Mets, and number three is Bubba Chandler of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

So, Taylor, as we always do, I do want to ask if you think this is the correct group of names to be in this tier.

But the other question I have for you, because these are all players that really should probably be making the opening day rosters for their respective clubs in twenty twenty six, who do you think gives the most fantasy value in twenty twenty six between Ya Savage, McLain, and Chandler.

First off, I think it is the three names.

Chandler feels like a distant third.

I almost think he belongs to a tier of his own, but I think he's closer to this tier than the next tier we're going to talk about.

Yeah, I think we have the right three names there.

I think I'm going Nolan McLain number.

I know he was ranked one spot difference from Treya Savage.

I'm gonna say he's my number one.

But two of those rankers were also Blue Jays fans.

Maybe that's why he snuck ahead there.

I just think we're maybe putting a little bit too much emphasis on what y Savage did in the playoffs.

And you can't knock it.

It was a fantastic playoff performance.

But to me, there's still some control concerns there.

The walks might be a little bit of an issue.

I don't have as many of those concerns with McClain.

I think these guys are a little bit of a coin flip.

But to me, I think I would pick McClain over you Savage.

Say what you want about the Blue Jays fans maybe having a say in swinging things.

Neither me or Greg had Treya Savage as our number one pitching prospect.

In fact, I believe we both had him as our number three.

So I agree that all of these names probably belong in this tier.

But I'm with you that we're maybe getting a little bit too far out in front of ourselves with what we just saw from you Savage.

I think he's going to be a fantastic pitcher.

As a Blue Jays fan, I'm extremely excited for his career, But as a fantasy analyst and ranker, I don't have him.

I can't have him above a McLean and a Chandler.

I just think there's more there with those guys than with you Savage.

Again, it's a hard trio to really pick from, but I do have you Savage at the bottom of this tier.

But I do have them all in tier one.

Yeah, it's interesting, like, so is Chandler your number one then.

Or mclachandler is still my number one.

I just think that the pirates jerked him around so much last year that it was gonna be hard for him to really be himself.

It seemed like maybe there was a mental aspect of it too, where you expect, or you're being told by so many that you should be on the opening day roster last year and you don't get up until the end of the season.

I just I don't take a lot of the numbers at face value that he posted last year.

I think I still saw enough from his stuff and enough when he got up to the big leagues that I still believe in him as my number one pitching prospect.

But McLain is right there behind him.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

I just worry, like, if you're already dealing with those mental hurdles in Triple A.

They're like, you're gonna face more adversity when you get to the majors, And I don't know, maybe that was just a one time thing.

Maybe it was just frustration all the narrative and everything around the Pirates messing around with them.

But I don't know, if he doesn't get off to a good start this year, like the Pirates are going to continue to play games with them.

It's just it's one of those where he's still a very talented, very good pitcher.

But I just have less concerns about you.

Savage and McLain like their floor than I do with Bubba Chandler.

I think Bubba Chandler probably has the highest ceiling of all these guys.

But again, like if I'm investing in the top of a prospect, I'm paying a little bit more attention to the floor.

Yeah, and I think that's fair.

Again, they're in the same tier for reason, right, you can make a strong argument for any of these three names.

So let's move on to tier two.

This is a tier of two as well.

We've got Thomas White as our number four pitching prospect and Jonah Tong at number five.

So Taylor myself I've actually got Thomas White in a tier by himself.

I just think he's got arguably more upside than anybody else on the list behind him, but more questions than that top tier of three ahead of him.

So I've got him in a tier of himself.

But I do have Jonah Tong at the top of the next tier, so I can see the argument for these two being in a tier together.

Do you think they belong to be in a tier together?

I actually have Tongue above White just because I really have questions about White and the command of control there.

I think the stuff is phenomenal, but I think I'm a little again, I'm a little scarier about the floor with White there.

I actually think that these two names in this tier two, I think there's for me a lot more similarities with like what we got going on at tier three, which we'll discuss in a minute.

So I in my mind, combining these guys together, I do believe White and Tong are at the top of that list, but I think I would push Tongue above White real quick.

Here.

You've got concerns about White's command and control, but Tong a guy that has always had a ten plus percent walk issue you're not worried about.

Yeah, I mean there's a difference between like a ten plus walk rate and then a closer to like fourteen fifteen percent walk rate I'm looking at atam.

That's fair, that's a fair criticism.

Again, they're fairly close for me.

I just think Tong showed a little bit more last year and bringing down that walk rate and actually looking at twenty twenty four, he's floated around that ten percent mark, whereas White I think has been quite a bit above that for his time in the Miners other than that twenty twenty four season.

I don't know.

Yeah, maybe you're convincing me the difference in stuff is enough in the body and delivery and every thing is enough for me to maybe put White above them there, Okay, you commits me.

I'm sticking with White above.

I still love Jonahtong.

He's somehow we'll get into this later.

Both proved me right and wrong this last offseason.

But we'll move on to the next tier of names.

Here our number six pitching prospect.

We've got Andrew Painter, number seven Cad Anderson, and number eight Peyton Totally so Taylor.

This is where my order starts to look a little bit different.

But my tiers in particular are very different.

Because my next tier here is just Jonahtong and Peyton Totally.

I can see the argument for Painter and Anderson here.

They're not far behind.

I have them in the next group, and in all honesty, the rankings on these guys aren't all that different from my personal rankings.

I've just broken up the tiers in my personal rankings a little bit differently.

Do you think though, that all of Payne, Anderson and Totally belong in a group together.

I think they belong in a group together, and I would actually push them up with Tong and White.

I think that to me represents a tier of like God, got a lot of upside with this tier.

You've got a lot of questions with this tier, and yeah, I think they all belong in the same discussion.

I would have White and Tongue at the top, like I mentioned, but I don't think Painters that far behind.

Kate Anderson, we're not really sure.

We haven't seen him yet pitch professionally, but like by all accounts, he should be a very good starter.

Maybe not some of the ceiling as some of these other guys, but who knows in that development system and then totally again like really good stuff, but some question marks there as well.

Yeah, so the one other name that I would actually push up right around all these same names.

This shouldn't be any surprise to anybody.

I'm higher than everyone else on Robbie Snelling.

I think he needs to be in this group.

I think we've seen that not only is the floor there, but I think the ceiling is a lot higher than he gets credit for.

So even though I'm gonna list him in the new tier of names, Tier four, we still have him ranked highly.

I think people are still too low on Robbie Snelling.

One percent agree I have him in that same tier.

Awesome.

Love that.

Then let's get into the next tier where we'll maybe discuss him a little bit more.

But our number nine pitching prospect is Ryan Sloan of the Mariners, Number ten is Gauge Jump of the Athletics, eleven is Robbie Snelling, and twelve is Liam Doyle of the Cardinals.

So when I look at this group again, there's upside across the board here, but Snelling stands out for having a lot fewer question marks in the profile.

I feel like I know who he is.

Where Sloane Jump, we could almost say that between these other three guys and Sloane Jump and Doyle the high school kids, Sloan is the one with the least question marks.

So that to me really speaks volumes to why I have Robbie Snelling ahead of this group.

Yeah, one d percent agree there, I will say, I think this is the right tier with Sloan Jump a Doyle.

When you take Snelling out of there, I will say I have one more name in this tier with these guys, I do too.

Is he on the rest of our list here?

Yes, I wonder if he's the same guy.

Then we'll see if maybe we get to him shortly.

Here Tier five, we've got just one name here in Seth Hernandez, and I think the big thing here it's almost like what I was saying with Thomas White earlier, and why I would put him in a group of his own.

I see the upside with Seth Hernandez, but there are again just so many question marks that it's hard to put him on the same level of some of those guys ahead of him, or pull him down to some of the names below him.

What do you think about Seth Hernandez in his own tier.

I think he's one of the most difficult ranks of this MIPD class, if not the most difficult, because the upside is astronomical.

Like, by all accounts, he's one of the best prep pitching prospects we've seen in a long time, and it's one of the where it could go wrong.

It's a prep prep pitching prospect.

But I've seen some of the grades on his arsenal and it is downright outrageous.

So I'm gonna move him in the tier above.

I just think, like from an upside standpoint, once you're getting even that Liam Doyle range, where again like huge upside, but there are some questions there.

I think Seth Hernandez, we already have one guy who was a prep pitcher in there, and Ryan Sloan gage Jump has his questions.

I think he belongs at the end of that tier.

But I just like for me, I guess, going back to what I said earlier, like he's closer to that tier for me than he is to like the next tier that we're going to talk about, So I think i'd put him at bottom of that one.

Yeah, that's fair.

I can definitely see where you're coming from.

He's not the name that I have up in that tier above.

I've actually got somebody that ranks near the bottom of our top twenty consensus wise up in that to that higher tier.

And I'll get to why as we get further into tier six here.

But at the top of the list, we've got Jamie Arnold of the Athletics.

Those are number fourteen pitching prospect.

Number fifteen is Connolly Early of the Red Sox, sixteen is Jackson Wiggins of the Cubs, seventeen is Carlos Lagerne of the Yankees, eighteen is Travis Sacora of the Nationals, nineteen is Brandon sprot of the Mets, and twenty is Logan Henderson of the Brewers.

And the name that I have up a couple of tiers higher is actually Brandon Sprote.

And for me, it's a lot of the same things I was saying with Bubba Chandler, where I saw enough in previous years that when he got to Triple A and was dealing with a new ball, because the ball in Triple A and the big leagues is different than every other level of the miners we've seen pitchers that have struggled a little bit with that to begin with until they get things figured out.

And I think by the end of the year we started seeing more of who, in my opinion, sprote is than those struggles with the new ball.

So I've got him pushed a little bit higher.

But Taylor, this is a big tier to finish things off.

Do you think all of these names belong here?

I think the one that I don't think belongs in this tier is Lagron Hay I just the command of control.

Like he showed a little bit of improvement at the beginning of last year, but then if I recall correctly, it all fell apart towards the end of the year and then like historically had been so bad that he's one of those where I'm just I think he's probably a reliever.

Yeah, because you look at like he started the year seven point one percent walk percentage in High A, fantastic, but he spent the bulk of the season at Double A and had a near fifteen percent walk rate, And you look at what he did in twenty twenty four, he had a twenty percent walk rate.

So it's one of those where, like I just think he's probably a reliever.

I think he'll be a very good reliever, but I think he has way more questions than everyone else on this list, and I don't think he belongs in the top twenty there.

I would put Kyson Witherspoon in there.

You said that because I also don't have legir On Hay in there.

I actually have him down as my number twenty seven pitching prospect for a lot of the same reasons you said.

But I've got not only Kyson Witherspoon inside of my top ten.

I think I'm the highest ranker at Prospects Live on him right now.

I absolutely love his stuff.

I think he's going to be a monster for Boston.

The other name that I do have in my list, though, is Hagen Smith.

I'm still hanging on to hope that he can be a starting pitcher.

He is my number nineteen pitching prospect, so he's just barely hanging on.

And I think there are a lot of people still there too, because even though he didn't make the consensus list, he was number twenty one, so he's still kind of right on that edge for a lot of people.

I think this is going to be a big year for Hagen Smith.

But the other name that knocks out of my top twenty is Travis Sikora, and it's got nothing to do with the ability.

It's just the injury and the fact that we're not going to see him pitch for a while that pushed him down.

He's another one I was going to ask you where you had him, because like he's tough for me.

I usually will be pretty harsh on pitcher Tommy Johns ors and everything like that, but for Sikora, like he was just so good, it's hard for me to push him outside the top one hundred.

So I think, like to your point, he's probably at the bottom of this list for me, but he's still in it just based on the talent, guys like Conley Early Logan Henderson who have shown some success at the big league level.

I always have difficulty where to rank these guys that maybe look a little bit better than they actually were expected to be, so they belong in this tier for me.

But like I could see them going higher, I could see them going lower.

It just depends on where your believe in them is.

And then you know, Jackson Wiggins, I think is a guy who, again we've seen we've seen improvements, but maybe not as much as we want to see.

He's a guy who I think could really move up, but he's got to continue to again refine that command in control.

Brandon Sprote was lower down on this list for me, but after hearing you talk about him, I think I would push him more towards the top of this group.

But again, like I don't know if I had twisting Jackson Wiggins and Brandon Sprout, I think I'm probably chaking Jackson Wiggins, so I wouldn't have him like at the top or anything.

Yeah, that's fair.

I'll touch real quick one more time on Secora to answer your question there.

I do still have him inside my top one hundred, and he's my number twenty two overall pitching prospects.

So he's just outside of this list for me.

He just barely misses.

And when we start talking about all these names that could graduate this year in a Y Savage, McLean, Chandler Tong, maybe Painter does totally snelling Like we've got maybe half of this top twenty if not more, that could graduate off of prospects list this year.

So Sakora, even though he might not pitch a whole lot this year could be moving up this list pretty quickly.

Yeah, all right, Taylor.

With that, let's get into some names outside of the top twenty.

We're gonna go over two names each.

Quick recap on last year's picks, Joey Cantillo and Winston Santos, Taylor, those were your picks.

I almost picked Santos this year again.

I think he's still underrated.

I last year went with Jonahtong and Joey Oki.

And the reason I say Jonahtong both proved me right and wrong last year is because I was always worried about the control.

I wasn't crazy about him, so I did push him down my lists in some regards.

But I looked back at some of my notes from last year, and a lot of what I was talking about was the stuff is good.

What happens if the control ticks up, And even though the control didn't really do anything or didn't really progress, the stuff just continued to get better and better, to the point that again he still made me look right him out as a name outside the top twenty last year and wrong for saying that we need to be more worried about the command and control.

So even though, that is still something I'm looking at and saying is what we've seen to this point.

The real Jonah Tong, he absolutely made a huge jump this year.

But Taylor, let's get into this year and let's get into some players that we think could take a huge jump in twenty twenty six.

Yeah, real quick, before we do, I want to touch on my picks joining Antio and I agree with you on Santos, Like, he just had a bad back injury all year and that really kept him out.

He had a couple of blow up starts upon his rehab that is skewing like the era, but the FIP is under two.

He had a ridiculous strikeout rate, low walk rate.

Like health is the biggest thing for him.

But as long as he's healthy, I still feel confident in him.

Joey Cantillo had a very strange year.

Terrible the first half, amazing the second half of the year.

I still don't know what his role is and who he is, but I think his value is probably higher than what it was when I talked about him last year.

So I'm gonna take that as like a C plus.

Yeah, that's ok, real quick, tailor before you do dive into your first name here, we've got some breaking news.

Oh and Kyle Finnegan's job in Detroit might be a little more shaky now as they've also signed Kenlee Jansen to a one year deal, So that bullpen in Detroit is maybe getting a little murkier now.

That that's gonna be a nightmare.

That is, in my mind, definitely gonna be a committee.

And Yeah, I just wonder though, because Jansen, I think he's chasing some career save numbers, So I do wonder if they might have made him some guarantees or something.

We'll see what additional information we get on it, but it just seems weird to me that he would go somewhere if he didn't think he was gonna be closing.

I think he's trying to pat his numbers.

It's a good real life moves.

It helps their bullpen for sure, but fantasy, I think your initial reaction really said a lot.

It definitely makes this a more confusing bullpen to try to figure out.

Yeah, and I'm just wondering, like selfishly, I'm thinking, like what are the giants gonna do?

Like are they really gonna roll with Ryan Walker?

Because I would have loved to have Jansen there as the guy until he fails, and like a lot of those other guys like Robert Suarez are off the board now.

So I do wonder if the Giants are just gonna be left without a chair in this game of reliever musical chairs there.

Yeah, the reliever pool is definitely drying up.

But let's move back into the prospect pool.

Taylor, who's your first name outside the top twenty that people need to pay attention to?

All Right, I'm really excited about this one.

I know we've talked about him on the podcast before, but I'm gonna bring hi up again, and that's David.

Hageman was right up for me in late August of this last year, originally a fourth round pick by the Rangers in the twenty twenty four draft and then traded to the Diamondbacks in the Merrill Kelly deal.

And Hageman, He's got a great frame, six' four two, fifteen got a good.

Delivery it has a deep arsenal of above average to plus.

Pitches so depending on where you look at the scouting, reports the, fastball, curveball and slider all received plus.

Grades the change up is consistently, great an above average, pitch and a lot of the older scouting reports have big time questions About hageman's command and, control but he really showed improvement in that.

Area last year didn't have a walk rate over ten percent, anywhere and on the year was just six point one percent with a five point three percent walk grate after the trade to the.

DIAMONDBACKSTAIRS i don't think the performance necessarily gives off that there's questions about the command and, control And Baseball america.

AGREES i think they're the most updated of these scouting.

Reports they recently UPDATED theirs and Gave haghiman a fifty five control.

Grade so we're looking at, potentially if you take the top grades three plus, pitches an above average pitch and above average, control why are we ranking him outside our top two.

Hundred there's some major questions about his durability and his ability to hold his stuff deep into, games because he's never pitched deep into.

Games he was a reliever in college and then was slow played this year coming off of elbow.

Surgery he didn't pitch a.

Lot he only pitched forty two and a third, innings and you know most of those were three innings or.

Less he only pitched three times over four innings and one time over five, innings so he's never shown the ability to go deep into.

GAMES i think that their ability is a big question with.

Him BUT i think that next year he'll come into the year fully, Healthy he'll have a regular.

Offseason if he shows the ability to go five plus innings on a regular basis and continue to show the great stuff that he, has the good control that he, has presumably he'll start the year at DOUBLE a at age twenty.

THREE i think there's the potential there where he could just skyrocket up.

Lists AND i, again WHEN i talk about these, prospects AND i talked about a lot with position player, PROSPECTS i want guys that have a number of routes to.

Succeed with pitching.

Prospects you have this many plus.

PITCHES i like your chances of, succeeding like you've got a lot of avenues to be successful as a.

Pitcher you just got to show the durability and with a six to four, FRAME i think he can get.

There So i'm really excited About David.

HAGEMAN i know you're a fan ofs Wal, kyle But i'll let you talk about.

Him, Absolutely, YEAH i love this call.

Out like you, said he's been an afterthought in the prospect community for a.

While he was sent To arizona in part of that deal that Brought Meryl kelly To, texas and he was the third name on that, list not really getting much.

Attention and then he started pitching For.

Arizona was, like holy, Crap like we need to pay more attention to this.

Guy like you, said the stuff is.

Electric he just needs to stay on the field and he's going to shoot up the ranks next.

Year, YEAH i absolutely.

Agree all, Right i'll move into another name THAT i think will be shooting up the ranks in twenty twenty.

Six and this is a Name i'll admit THAT i was wrong on last, year and That's Braylan dody of The.

Guardians it's not THAT i didn't Like dody last, year BUT i liked Fellow guardians draft Pick Joey oak a little bit more and didn't end up with Many doty shares BECAUSE i was Taking Joey oki over.

Him i'm correcting that this.

YEAR i now Have dody ranked nearly one hundred and fifty spots higher Than.

Oki i've got dody at about one fifty, overall which is about thirty spots higher than the consensus At Prospects.

Live and it's not necessarily because of the.

Fastball it's a solid.

Offering it's maybe even above average.

Offering its sits load to mid nineties has touched as high as ninety.

Seven it's got good arm side.

Run but what he's more known for is his ability to spin his breaking, balls because both his slider and curveball can exceed three thousand rpm and typically receive plus grades with some outlets even giving the curveball a seventy.

Grade then he rounds out the arsenal with a solid change up and exceptional command that helps everything play.

Up because he walked just six percent of batters in single a last year and through sixty nine percent of his pitches for strikes while striking out twenty percent of the, batters keeping the ball on the ground nearly fifty percent of the, time and limiting the long, ball he still might have fallen into some bad luck despite all of those strong, numbers because his three forty six babbit against and sixty nine percent strand rate are quite a bit worse than what you would typically Expect so you look at, that you look at the fact that his two point eighty FOUR fip was significantly better than his three point four to eight, er and while he still had a very good professional debut in twenty twenty, FIVE i Think Braylen dody had maybe an even better year than some of those surface level stats would.

Indicate, again the era is still a respectable, mark especially for a teenager making that pro.

Debut he's now twenty years.

Old he's going to be heading FOR hya in an organization who's pitching dev we hold very highly In.

CLEVELAND i wouldn't be surprised to See dode take a big step this.

Year maybe the velo ticks up a little bit more as.

WELL i think he could be pushing top ten pitching prospect status next winter If i'm making an aggressive.

Prediction more, REALISTICALLY i think top twenty is well within his, reach.

Though oh, YEAH i have one hundred percent.

Agree LIKE i think this is a great combination of stuff and.

CONTROL i think this is like future mid rotation starter stamp all over.

HIM i think he's going to be very.

Good wrote him up last year as well and liked him at draft.

Time liked him during the, year AND i still like him, now So i'm a Big dodi.

Fan all, Right, Taylor let's get into a COUPLE fypd, names then a couple of guys that we're maybe diving into for the first, time where for, Me i'm diving into a guy for the second time with my.

Selection so let's hear about your pick.

Here, Yeah i'm gonna go With Landon harmon of The Washington nationals six,' five one hundred and ninety pounds right, handed pitcher third round pick By the nationals in last year's draft at, eightieth overall but was signed for or more than doubles spot at two point five million and easy plus seventy grade sixty to seventy grade mid nineties fastball reaches up to.

Ninety nine there's room on that frame again, sixty five one hundred ninety to Add.

V low so this is a bet on the fastball with.

This guy the fastball has good shape And.

Ve low pipeline gave it a.

Sixty Five baseball america gave it a seventy said it was the best right handed prep fastball in, the class so Better.

Than seth hernandez's also has a good slider that gets consistent above.

Average grades he didn't uses change up much as a.

Prep pitcher that's.

Not surprising commands still, a question but this to me is Like The travis sakora playbook here, And, SIMILARLY secora i think was a third round pick By.

The nationals he got another significant, overslought deal again known for.

HIS fastball i think that's what you're Getting.

In.

Harmon now harmon isn't quite at that Level that sikora was viewed, coming OUT but i think right now we have him ranked at three.

Fifty two he's our number sixty TWO ranked, fypd name which MEANS that i think it's possible heels undrafted and a lot.

Of fypds so, for me this is a guy where you're betting on an organization that has done pretty well with these big fastball kind of questionable command.

Guys lately and the fact that you can pick him up as your last pick in a draft or even post.

Draft waivers really like him as a late lotto TICKET.

For, FYPD yeah i love this.

Call out like, you said the fastball.

Is huge it's really the thing that makes him so, intriguing because like, you said, the slider the off.

Speed stuff i've seen the consistent fifty five's on there, as Well but i've also seen almost every scouting report that gives him a fifty five kind of contradict themselves and say that it might be an above.

Average pitch they really commit to that as hard as they commit to the double plus seventy, grade fastball and they all seem to be a little bit worried about the command.

And, control so like, you said this Is The travis sacora Or The yarlene susana starter kit here where you take this kid with the, big fastball some questions about the rest of the profile and hope that you can.

Develop it and if, they do Like a sacora or Even a susana to a, certain extent this is going to be a huge riser in.

Twenty.

Six yeah and it's one of those where like why not at where, He's going if he's going to the point where you don't even have to spend a draft pick, on him where you can spend your, last pick maybe even a late fifth round pick, on him like take the shot on upside because you don't lose anything if you miss.

On, it ABSOLUTELY and i will say to, THAT extent i am one of the rankers currently dragging him down a little BIT because i hadn't really dove into him before submitting.

MY ranks i knew who, he was that sort, of Thing but i've got him ranked much.

Too low he'll be moving up inside of my top sixty at the, very LEAST which i would assume is going to pull him inside of that top sixty for a consensus list.

As well so while as, you said he currently sits outside that top sixty could, go undrafted that's.

Still possible with how deep this.

CLASS is i would be probably urging people a little bit more so to if you Really, like harmon you really like, this profile go get him in that, fifth round because he might not be sitting there by the time the.

Draft, ENDS yeah i.

COMPLETELY agree i think he's one where the upside warrants if you're willing to take a shot on a tege arm like Outside Of, seth hernandez this might be maybe what the second best prep pitcher in, this class either as early as maybe late fourth if you feel like you really.

Want HIM but i honestly don't think he's gonna get that.

MUCH hype i think he's gonna fall quite.

A, BIT yeah.

I don't think you need to get too aggressive, on HIM and i don't think you need to get too aggressive on the Next player i'm going to talk.

About either this is SOMEONE like i.

Alluded to i'm going back to another Player that i've already discussed On The Prospects live, dynasty Pod and i'm Looking At marcus phillips Of The red, sox here who was just drafted thirty, third overall With the socks taking him In COMP round a of the twenty.

Five.

DRAFT here i don't think he gets the attention he deserves coming Out, of TENNESSEE and i think part of it is because it's a relatively short.

Track record i'll get to that a little bit more in, a moment but this is a.

Big arm he's listed, six four two.

Thirty five he can touch triple digits with, the fastball and he creates.

Elite extension showed major improvement in his draft Year, at tennessee which isn't a major surprise because he was a two way player as recently as twenty twenty three before he Transferred.

To tennessee his first Year, at tennessee he was in, the bullpen he showed some.

Control issues he had a sixteen percent.

Walk rate then he moved into the rotation in twenty, twenty five cut the walk rate to, ten percent improved his k rate from twenty four to twenty, seven percent and he cut his ear by more than a full run to three point.

Nine, zero now on The P live dynasty EPISODE where i brought, Him Up drew wheeler noted that the improvements and we Can trust drew on this because he's A massive, tennessee fan so he's Been Watching marcus phillips for.

A While but drew noted that the improvements came with slightly diminished velocity, and stuff as he seemed to back off a little bit in order to command his.

Pitches better but even, with that he still receives plus grades on that.

Big fastball he boasts a high, spin slider which also receives, plus grades and he rounds out the arsenal with a changeup that does leg behind a bit but is still a.

Serviceable offering so what we're looking at here is, a big physical right hander with elite extension and big time stuff who's relatively raw again thanks to the fact that he just gave up hitting a couple.

Years, ago now if things don't work out as, a starter we're talking about an imposing presence coming out to.

The bullpen, but man If everything i've mentioned continues, to click he just needs the command games, to Stick and i'm dreaming about a workhorse starter with big.

Strikeout upside currently ranked forty ninth IN the fypd ranks in our consensus and just outside the top three.

Hundred overall so this is another arm that you can get towards the back end of your draft in some maybe even, after IT but i wouldn't risk trying to get him after.

The draft i'm looking To Take marcus phillips late in a lot.

Of fypds and when we talk about these big pictures with the lead extension going into The red, sox system now the arsenal is.

Very different they throw a, different arms but it's a similar profile as far as big body tons of Extension As, peyton toley who made a massive rise last year once he got Into That red.

Sox system they helped him really refine, his stuff improve, his stuff and improve.

His command and again they're very different pictures outside of being, very big tall pitchers with the, lead extension but we can dream on a really big quick rise for a Guy Like marcus phillips that you again can get towards the back end OF.

Your, FYPDS yeah i love.

This pick obviously you and two way players not at, all surprised but huge stuff.

You mentioned the command is still a bit of.

A question let's see if he can keep some of.

The games but for the value going potentially late fourth or fifth ROUND.

IN fypds i think we talked about it.

Last week we mentioned A couple fypd players that we liked in the mid rounds of.

THE hitters i think the strategy FOR this fypd is pitching early and late and the hammer the hitters in the.

Middle ROUNDS like i think that's The strategy i'm landing On because i'm looking at these sort of late round guys Like A, marcus phillips Like A landon harmon there and then some of those mid round outfielders that we talked about, last week and what we talked about just breaking down our top twenty here with how many of those particularly college arms are ranking in that top twenty FROM this.

FYPD class i think it's, early pitching late pitching and those hitters in, the MIDDLE and i think that Late Pitching marcus phillips is gonna be a guy on my radar, As well so you might have to move him a little bit up your draft boards because you got me completely sold.

On him i'll, remember That but i'm not gonna tell you where he lands anymore because we have too many of these players that we end up fighting OVER and i need to Get My marcus.

Phillips chares i'm sure.

You will you go aggressive at.

Your guys i've anticipated you'll get Plenty Of.

Marcus, phillips yeah for better or, FOR worse i definitely do go get.

My guys.

All right that is everything we have for you.

All today thank you for joining.

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