Welcomest.

Welcome to the Prospects Live Dynasty Podcast, episode number eighty eight.

It is Wednesday, October fifteenth, twenty twenty five.

I am your host, Greg kok Camp.

I'm the director of Dynasty content for Prospects Live.

I am joined by two more members of my Dynasty team.

First, Tom Gates, How you doing.

Tom?

I appreciate you checking in on me for the Cubs lost, I'm doing as well as I could be.

I'm glad you're alive.

And Well, it was a tough ending to the season for the Cubbies, but I think a successful season.

It was a good season for them.

We can get into that in a little bit if you want.

And the second member of my Dynasty team, Raj Meta, How you doing, Raj?

Well, good to have you on.

Rag and I are currently have one eye on the blue Jays Mariners game.

It's Wednesday evening.

The blue Jays are currently up twelve to two after six innings, so we're feeling a little better about this game compared to the first two.

We'll get into a playoff discussion here in just a minute.

Before we get there.

In this episode, Tom, Raj and myself will discuss the dynasty outlooks for the Athletics and the Twins.

Two very interesting teams going in somewhat different directions at the very moment based on the way they perform this season.

So we'll get into both of those teams and kind of discuss the direction we see them going and some of the dynasty buys and cells and prospects you should be targeting on those rosters.

But before we get there, guys, let's just get an update on the playoffs here Wednesday evening we're into the ALCS and NLCS.

Maybe Tom will just talk about maybe a recap of your Coby season.

I could go on.

This could be a two hour podcast, Greg, I'll try to limit it here.

As a Cubs fan, it's a little disappointing starting out the year going after Tucker and really that being the only chip you push in knowing that most likely he's not going to stick around.

So people say, well, pitching was so expensive at the deadline, I think you have to know that going in right, You're I think it's going to be tough to get pitching.

And if that's the reason why the Cubs didn't get it at the deadline, I think that's a poor excuse because they should have known, and that's what killed them in the playoffs.

They didn't have I mean, their bullpen was awesome, but like they were, they were not going to last the way they were going, right, they were going to run out of arms.

So it was only a matter of time before they got caught and their bats got cold there in that final game against good, good pitching.

But uh, yeah, we weren't built to win the World Series and that's kind of disappointing after our first step was Kyle Tucker.

So it'll be interesting to see what they do this offseason.

They need they need an ace or two, so like, how are you going to get it now?

It's not like it was cheaper.

Yeah, and and they have the system to be able to acquire some some pitching, and we know, we know the pitching prices were very expensive and relief pitching as well, even at the deadline, so they didn't want to spend that that prospect capital.

They wanted to maybe they know that Tucker's going to test the market and probably not come back, and and they didn't want to give up an Owen Casey or Kevin Alcintara because they're going to need those guys if he vacates that right field spot in Wrigley.

So there's probably information we don't we don't know, but as a fan, it has to be frustrating, like you said, when when they they make the trade to get him and then they don't do much else to really fill in the gas.

And obviously it was starting pitching with the Cubs.

For sure.

Losing Kate Horton I think was massive loss for them.

He had been so good down the stretch, so that that definitely hurt.

He would have been Game two starter maybe probably.

Yeah, it's they kind of went out with a little bit of a whimper, but they did advance one round, which I think is a positive for them, so and they're they're building something really nice there.

They've got a lot of good young pieces.

So I don't think it's it's all bad.

I know it hurts in the moment for sure, and it sucks to get knocked out of the playoffs, But I think things are looking up for U Cubs fans.

By no means I think our window is closed.

Yeah, no, they they do need to address that pitching though, for sure in the offseason.

Lerage since the last time we spoke.

Our Blue Jays have advanced into the ALCS.

They did not look great really in either game Game one or Game two.

The bats just kind of went silent, the bats that kind of dominated the Yankees, and the pitching kind of fell apart in Game two as well.

So it was just kind of a worst case scenario.

Obviously, they've turned it around in this Game three, But do you think they can keep it going against the Mariners or the Mariners just too complete a team to overcome this.

I think they can.

Like also, I hope they can, but I think they can because I feel like while they didn't really score that many runs, I think their process in those first few games is still pretty good because they didn't really strike out that often.

They drew some walks, and I like, I'll just give an example in that game two day, struck out just five times and walk five times.

The only issue was just when they put the ball in play, it just went right to the fielders.

And that's really gonna be the big question is if and the Seattle defense hold off the Jays bats and in Games one and two that happened in Game B so far it hasn't, So it's just we'll see which way it goes.

Yeah, in this in this game, we're into the seventh inning and the Jays have struck out five times.

That's just the team they've built is a team that puts the ball in play.

They don't have a ton of sluggers, although they do have three home runs in this game, but they really just they battle and they put the ball in play, and they put the pressure on the defense, and they themselves have a very good defense.

So that's how they're gonna win games.

They're not gonna I mean, they'll have solid pitching performances, but they're not gonna dominate you with their arms like the Dodgers are right now.

They're they're gonna need to pitch good enough to kind of get by, but it's really this offense that that needs to carry them, and so far it has in the playoffs.

But Seattle's kind of they if they've really done well, they put together some good at bats against the Jays.

Pitching and Rally and Rodriguez and especially Polanco have have been excellent all the way through so far for the Mariners, and I mentioned they were a complete team that I think they're top to bottom.

I think they're one they would rival the Dodgers in my mind as far as roster construction goes.

They've got a great bullpen, their lineup as much improved, maybe not as good as the Dodgers, but and they're starting pitching is excellent as well.

So I don't think it would be bad if the Jay's lost to them because they're just They're just a well put together team.

Tom, do you have any thoughts on this series just as a as a a non biased opinion.

Both teams are pretty impressive, and although I think the Dodgers are going to win it all, I think the Mariners and the Blue Jays could give them a little bit of a bush.

Let's move on to that series with the Dodgers.

Dominance by the Dodgers, especially with the starting pitching Game one, Blake Snell, eight strong innings, eight dominant innings, and then yea have a modo a complete game in Game two, one run allowed.

They I mean, this is what they got these guys to do, is just dominating the playoffs, and that's what they're doing.

Can the Brewers.

Can the Brewers make any sort of a pushback here as they go to LA And this is the other thing.

They're going to LA to try and get this series back on even terms, and maybe Tom will start with you on this one.

Do you think do you think the Brewers can do this?

I think it's going to be extremely hard for them to do this.

So they won against the Cubs.

The Brewers won three home games.

They were all in two at Wrigley.

Wrigley was going nuts, and I think that might have affected them.

I don't know if LA is crazy, you know, I don't know if their fan base is crazy.

I thought I saw pictures of like the the upper deck empty in some of their home games.

But I still don't think the Brewers have the firepower to do it.

And I don't even think the Dodgers' bats have woken up yet.

Yeah, Otani's not been seeming himself.

Really.

He's drawn some walks, but he's struck out a ton, so I'm not sure if he's hurt or something.

But it's do you guys know who's pitching Game three in that series?

It looks like Glass now and then TBD for the Brewers.

So I mean there's another ace right there, Tyler Glass now and then is it Otani for four?

Yep?

So I mean, you're looking at four stuad pitchers that they're going to line up against whoever they're going to face, and that's just a tall order, let alone trying to hold off the bats of the Dodgers.

I mean, this is kind of what we expected before the season.

They didn't really play to that level for a lot of the season, honestly, But we know baseball is a sport where you can build a super team.

In a seven game series, things happen.

If your bats just go cold and the other team makes some good pitches, you can advance.

So we've got to play the game still.

But the Dodgers, I mean, they look awfully good.

This is the best day looked all season.

So I think we're kind of all in agreement.

They are definitely the team to be at this point.

All right, move on to some baseball news from around the world.

Really, we'll start with Glaber Torres with the Tigers being eliminated and he becoming a free agent.

He had hernia surgery.

The typical recovery for an injury or for surgery like that is two months, so he should have no problem getting ready for the spring training wherever he ends up because he is a free agent.

Albert Poohols has drawn interest from multiple clubs to be manager.

I know.

I think last season in the Dominican Winter League he was a manager and I think did he not win the title?

I'm pretty sure he won the title for the team that he managed, and the Angels are one of those teams.

And I heard today that the Orioles are another team that are looking at him to be their manager.

So interesting there.

We'll see what happens.

I'm sure he'll land a job and he'll get a chance to select where he wants to go.

The Gold Glove finalists were announced on Wednesday.

Some interesting names I'll just call out a few and the NL Mookie Betts was nominated as a shortstop.

Guys, he's won Gold Gloves as the right fielder.

We know how good he is out in the outfield, but he was nominated as a shortstop.

And I should say how these nominations are are kind of cast or whatever.

It's seventy five percent of the votes are from coaches, so manager and up to six coaches per team can vote on Gold Glove for their league, and twenty five percent is from a saber metric basically, so I don't know what exactly they use that it's above average or or any of the other metrics that they use for defense, but that's twenty five percent of the score.

So this is how these names were kind of determined.

Some other National League names, Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatties Junior.

We know he's become a very very very good right fielder, PCA, and Matt Schaff from your Cubs, Tom Matt Shaw is a little surprising to me.

I don't know, you watched a lot more Cubs games than I did.

Do you feel like that was deserved?

Our infield was good.

I don't know if I'm getting off topic here.

You got me talking about the Cubs again.

I think he might be a utility guy for the next year or so, if the Cubs could land at third basement and he'll still still get his at bats.

But he's so talented he could he could play.

He probably played the outfields, but yeah, he was deserving.

Nico had a good year, Dansby Sawid at short.

Yep, yeah, Pca up the middle as well.

So yeah, very very strong defense for that Cubs team for sure.

In the al Vlad Junior gets nominated again Julio Rodriguez, and Jay Ram all nominated, and then a couple of younger players.

Cam Smith of the Astros nominated for right field.

He just started playing that position, did he not?

He was playing playing third base.

Before and yeah, yeah, so that's that tells you what type of an athlete he is.

And then Tyler Statustrom is another guy that switched positions as well, nominated for the Athletics.

So he was a catcher and first baseman outfielder, so pretty awesome for him to get nominated.

One omission that it's been really called out on social media was Cal Rawley was not nominated to be a goal glover this season.

So interesting there.

I noticed that his numbers on Savant weren't quite as good as last year, but he's always very well renowned, I guess for his glove work behind the plates.

So okay, moving on to the AFL guys, Lots of different types of baseball going on right now.

Arizona Fall League.

There's been some weather issues with tropical storm canceling a bunch of games in Arizona, which is kind of odd to me, but the fields just weren't good enough to play on.

But the early leader for home runs is as Marline Valdez of the Pirates.

We talked about him in our Pirates episode.

He has four home runs.

Johnny Farmelo leads the league with nine RBIs in just five games, so good start for him.

And then Tom I had not heard of this guy before I looked up the stats, but Owen ayers he's a catching prospect with the Cubs.

He's slashing four hundred and four to seventy one nine thirty three with two home runs already.

He won the hitter of the Week for the first week of the AFL.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with him at all, but he's kind of been known as a glove first catcher and the bats starting to come along came along in the last couple months of the season, so maybe a guy we need to keep our eyes on as we move forward.

Here.

Luis de Leone one pitcher of the Week for the first week of the AFL.

He had one start of four innings with seven k zero runs allowed.

He's a guy that I put in the back end of my top four fifty.

Orioles lefty that gets up to ninety eight with the fastball.

Real interesting prospect.

I'm going to be pushing him up a little bit more because I think he's He's that talented.

Orioles have some underrated arms in their system.

One other note from the Fall League, Sebastian Walcott has been shut down with arm fatigue.

Not great, but the Brangers are obviously going to be very careful with their the number one prospect.

We'll see if he gets in any more game action.

They were going to give him a couple days rest and see where that ended up.

A player from Japan to be posted the rumor is Kazuma Okamoto, who's a first base, third base prospect or prospect.

He's a veteran actually, he's twenty nine years old from the yomi Ai Giants.

Might be coming over this offseason.

He played a partial season.

I think he might have been injured for a little bit.

But he slashed three twenty seven, four, sixteen, five ninety eight with fifteen home runs, so he's a power bat.

Their home runs are not a thing in the NPB, so fifteen home runs is good in three fourteen played appearances.

So he's got some pops.

And one more bit of baseball news light them.

The Dominican Winter League begins tonight on Wednesday nights, so if you're interested in that, MLBtv is playing all of their those games as well, So a little bit of different baseball for everyone, playoff Baseball to the AFL to NPB to lit them.

Got everything covered here, guys.

All right, what's going on with Prospects Live.

The Dynasty team continues with our Dynasty outlooks and our twenty twenty eight lineup article series.

This week we're going to discuss it, but the Athletics and the Twins.

We'll have two different teams every single week.

The pro side released the Miami Marlins Top twenty list early this week, so please check that one out.

The Draft team is busy as well.

They released their top fifty prep prospects for the twenty twenty six draft.

So some names that you should getting to know very soon because they're going to be becoming professional players come next summer.

And Will Dodge wrote an article as well with the twenty twenty six college Draft stock risers for right handed pictures, So some kind of under the radar names there that you should be aware of as well.

And on the card side, Andrew Dahl has been busy.

He wrote his second first Bowman prospect price tracking article, and he also wrote an article about the AFL prospects a price preview for those as well.

So if you're interested in cards, our team has you covered there as well.

If you enjoy our podcast, please rate and review it.

We appreciate the support, and if you aren't all ready, please consider subscribing to Prospects Live to take advantage of all the amazing tools and informative articles we offer daily.

Okay, guys, on the other side of this, we're going to talk about the A's and the Twins and their dynasty look for twenty twenty six and beyond.

Well, we'll take a short break here and we'll be right back, and we're back.

I'm Greg, I'm joined by Raj and Tom, and we are discussing the Athletics and the Twins and their dynasty outlooks moving forward.

So, guys, we're going to start with the Athletics.

The A's were one of two teams, as we know, that played their home games in minor league parks this summer.

They played in the Triple A Sacramento Ballpark.

We know the A's are kind of in a transition phase.

Is they move out of Oakland into Las Vegas, and it's going to be at least three seasons.

This was season one of at least three.

We're not one hundred percent sure if it's going to be twenty twenty nine when they when they start there, but that's that's the targeted date anyways.

And we know that the Rays also played their their games in the Yankees spring training for George Steinberger Field as they get repairs done on their roof based on the hurricane from earlier this year.

Both of these parks played offensively, obviously being minor league parks, especially Sutter Health Field, which is the Triple A park for in Sacramento.

By park factors, it was a one to twenty two for doubles, a one to twelve for home runs, and a one to seventeen for run scored, so that's near the top of the league.

I wanted to ask you guys a question about this, specifically playing in an offensive park like they are.

Do you guys think about that when you're drafting players or acquiring players for your teams, And if you do, how much weight do you put into it?

And do you use park factors as a tool to assist you?

So Raj, I'll start with you on this one.

So for me, I really only consider it for extreme cases, So like think of like Coursfield basically, and so I don't I don't really use as the end all bio because I try to look at the players talent more over the park.

But I sometimes I can use the park as a tie breaker.

Like, for example, if there's two players who had similar or a similar profile, but one of them is in a hitters park and the one is in a pictures park, and maybe I consider to hitter that's in the hitters park more.

Yeah, so extreme cases, you're thinking in Coors, you're thinking maybe a great American ballpark being the two extreme ones.

And maybe on the other side you're thinking like ca America as maybe a pit t Mobile in Seattle.

Yeah, two neworious pictures parks.

And then if you have a tie breaking situation, you might lean towards the one that's playing in the park that kind of favors the hitter or the picture.

Awesome Tom, anything to add on this conversation, where do you think about using park factors or kind of acquiring players that might be benefited one way or the other.

Yeah, I'm on the same page as you guys.

Rajer said the exact same thing I was going to say, except I was going to I was going to Cincinnati instead of Colorado.

I think that's one of the reasons why I was higher on Sala Stewart than others, because I thought he did get a boost playing there, and because he's known to make a lot of contact.

I think it was going to kind of up his stock a little bit.

And I think that's one of the reasons why I might be a tad lower on somebody like Max Clark.

Maybe Camerica SAPs some power even though he's known kind of for a speed and hit tool.

It could take away some home runs for him.

But it's not like I ding them too much.

I don't put a lot of weight into it.

I think kind of like what you guys said, it's kind of a minor thing to think about.

You think about it even more in extreme cases, right, Yeah.

No, I think that's that's probably the proper approach to handle a situation like that.

Obviously, we know we know cores and like Great America Ballpark A definitely the on the extreme side of things, it's it's good to kind of check out those numbers.

I think though, with the park factors, because things do change from year to year with the environments.

I mean, if if a team has a dome and it's open more and closed more, weather patterns can change things.

We know Wriglely can be crazy when the wind is blowing out.

Obviously, Tom so it is.

It is a really important thing to think about, and again in extreme cases, and how players change from team to team, like Isaac Perettez.

When he came to the Cubs, people were posting on Twitter right away it is like, the home runs are not going to play as well here, you know.

Then he went to Houston, It's like, oh, the home runs will play well here, and then who is my next?

So oh, Trent Grisham had a crazy year just feasting off that right field porch in New York.

Right.

No, those are two really good examples actually of guys that took advantage of the park they were playing in.

For sure.

So it's a useful tool.

I mean, it's a tool, right, So take advantage of having the information and don't overreact, I guess is what we're saying.

But use it, use it to kind of help guide you.

I had another question about the athletics before we kind of get into the team specific stuff.

So Nick Kurtz last year coming into FYPDS was kind of a I would say five to seven range ranked player.

I would say, kind of like right in line with Jack Hegleone.

There was often would you prefer Jack Hegleone or would you prefer Nick Kurtz?

And it was kind of a fifty to fifty situation.

Back at that point.

We know now that Nick Kurtz has vaulted himself maybe even to be the top first baseman in all of baseball right now, dynasty or otherwise based on the season that he had.

Can we take anything from that situation where Kurts wasn't even in his own draft class being ranked as the top hitter and then all of a sudden, he's one of the top hitters in the major leagues.

Like, is this just an extreme case where he just everything came together for him, he was playing in an offensive ballpark and he just got into a groove.

Or.

I mean, is there is there something we can actually learn from from this situation?

Tom will start with you on this one.

I went back and looked this was a good question, and we back and looked and Greg, you had him four back in November, so you were you were right right there, tied with Matt and Drew.

And I'm not going to mention the left handed pitcher for the White Sox that I had ahead of him.

Anyways, it I think when we looked at at him and we compared him to Bizana and weather Hold, we saw Kurts his upside was limited.

Right, He's a first baseman.

It's power and it's a good hit tool.

Right, But when you look at Weatherhold and you look at Bazana, you're looking at middle infielders that can kind of do it all.

So like if they hit their upside, we were thinking that was going to be better than Kurt's, right, But we didn't know Kurts was going to hit his like his prime right away.

So it's a crazy case.

I think you need to look at it that way, like like you have a player that can help you in every category, then they're who's pretty good.

That's that's major upside.

You know, Kurtz was kind of limited at the time, we knew he was good.

Yeah, he was also hurt during his draft year a little bit.

We also didn't know how the Sacramento Park.

I mean, we knew kind of how it was going to play, but we didn't know exactly how it was going to play.

So those are factors that are kind of unknown.

Raj, what what do you want to add to this conversation?

So I went back and looking at Nick curses like fang gust like grades, and he got a sixty five grade on his raw power, which I feel like it's it's sort of like if we look back and we look at what he's did now and we were to go back again, I think we'd have that closer to seventy year even eighty grade raw power, And I feel like if you like, if we knew what we know now back then, we would have probably like changed our.

Outlook on him.

So if I like FIPD rankings, I say, like, they're never perfect, like we're never gonna know like how a player is gonna turn out.

But like if we because like if we know what's it gonna say, like it obviously like if we knew like how a player would turn out, then our rankings would be better.

We'd probably have Kurts like at the top.

Yeah, he's he's kind of a unique type of hitter.

There aren't a lot of guys like him with the patients and the power and hit tool all combined, like usually you get the three true outcome guy.

And I mean, I think a lot of people thought he might kind of be that type of player, but I mean his hit tool is a lot better than that.

He doesn't have as much.

I mean, he does strike out, but I mean it's it's less than what was expected in his first season especially, So yeah, it's I mean in fantasy, obviously, you want to that that five tool player that can give you the stolen bases and everything, and he's not going to really do that for you, but everywhere else he's he's pretty elite.

So it might be something to think about it if we have a guy come along kind of similar to him.

We'll have to see how this this current crop kind of shakes out.

But he's been very impressive, and that's kind of what this whole conversation is about, is is he's really everything's coming together for him, and he's worked very hard obviously to get there, and he's going to be a great, great hitter for a long long time.

So the A's got a good one here.

So let's get into the athletics team specific stuff.

So how did we get here?

The team record in the last three seasons.

In twenty twenty three, they won fifty games, one hundred and twelve losses.

Obviously, that's the last place finish in the AL West.

In twenty twenty four, they improved by nineteen games sixty nine and ninety three.

They finished fourth, and they were seven games better this season seventy six and eighty six that the fourth place finished as well.

Their offense is really what carried this team.

They were an eighth ranked offense by OPS in the major leagues two fifty three, three, eighteen, four thirty one.

They slugged two hundred and nineteen home runs.

That's really where they the offense came from, with a lot of power eighty stolen bases.

Their pitching wasn't too bad either, they were they were twentieth some of the teams we've talked about prior to our episode tonight, we're talking about thirtieth ranked twenty ninth ranked pitching staffs.

So they had a four to seventy ERA one thirty six whip and a two fifty two batting average against.

They had four qualified hitters that were abovely gaveraged by WRC plus.

That's Shay Langleiers at one thirty two, Tyler Satostrom at one twenty five, Brent Rooker at one twenty two, and Jacob Wilson at one twenty one.

And Kurtz wasn't a qualified hitter, so in four hundred and eighty nine played appearances he had a one seventy WRSC plus, so really five five key hitters and their their lineup there that were all above average.

The home run leader was obviously Nick Kurtz at thirty six, Shae Langleiers had thirty one, and Brent Rourker had thirty, so three thirty home run hitters in that lineup.

Their stolen base leader was Lawrence Butler.

With twenty two top fifteen ranked position players on this squad, Shay Langliers was the fourth ranked catcher, Nick Kurtz was the first ranked spaceman, Tyler Stderstrom was the twelfth ranked first spaceman and the fifteenth ranked outfield.

You qualified at both positions, and Jacob Wilson was the eighth ranked shortstop by WRC plus.

They had zero pitchers with seventy eight things or more and an era under four.

They had two pitchers with a K minus BB of fifteen percent of more of those Jacob Lopez at nineteen percent and JT.

Ginn at seventeen point three percent.

Their wins leader was Jeffrey Springs with eleven and their save leader was Mason Miller, who they traded to the Padres.

So after that it was Hogan Harris with four.

So we see this as a very offensive team.

They got a lot of sluggers, a lot of great offensive pieces.

We'll get into some more of them as we move along here, but that's really what carried this team.

And the pitching I think is a little bit underrated and I think up and coming, So we'll talk about that.

So, Raj, you wrote up the twenty twenty eight lineup article for the Athletics, kind of give me your highlights and your your over writing view of where this team is headed.

So first of all, I'm going to talk about the offerense.

Like Decierro is already a by ops and by twenty twenty eight they have all of their main pieces still on the roster under contract, but they get to add Leo Device, who they got in that trade for Mason Miller.

And they also get to add Tommy White, who is a very nice prospect that gird base and with those two, I think the lamp is really going to be really like there aren't really that many weak spots.

There's only like one or two I can think of, and I'll get to those into my buys themselves later.

But as for the pitching, there's the pitching is going to be basically very different from what we see right now.

Ikay I had a gay jump, Jamie Arnold, Luis Morales, Barnett, and Jacob B.

Lopez.

That's a.

None of those get only Jacob Bullope has has been in MLB.

The over four guys are still prospects, so it's gonna be a bit of a question mark whether they can perform or not.

But it's gonna be very fun to watch, especially with the stuff that they have and the numbers that they put up in the minors.

Right now, the only issue I see with the team is gonna be in the bullpen.

Like you had.

They do have like a few nice names like I grow up, Neil Nunez State trade got in that Padres trade as well.

I have saw to him as a closer and I feel like they have like a few good names, but like it's not really exciting.

So I said that if the athletics were to be competitive, the bullpen.

May proof be their downfall.

Yeah, I think I said.

I said twenty twenty nine was when they were gonna move to Vegas.

I think it might be actually twenty twenty eight, because that would be twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven, three seasons in Sacramento, and I think the goal is to be twenty twenty eight in in Vegas.

We're not sure what that ballpark dimensions are going to be, Like we know that the ball flies in Vegas in the Triple A Park, so I would think that it would probably be an offensive environment.

And looking at the club, like Raji said, they're not losing anyone from this current roster.

Everybody's under contract and a lot of them are still very young.

They're going to be a feared offense in that Al West for years to come here and it's gonna be fun.

They're they're already fun to watch.

And yeah, there's there's some there's some very fun names.

And you mentioned Leo DeVries top five prospect.

Do you think the second base is where you kind of see him ending up.

Yeah, so there's two reasons why I put him at second.

So first of all, they already have Jacob Wilson at shortstops, so they could move Jacobilson to second, but they could keep him at short.

I really went back and forth between that.

But I also read I believe it was sports inflo Solutions.

I think the guys who created DRS, they had an article that basically highlaid some top shortstops in the minor leagues and their DRS scores according to major league average and lear degrees.

Actually ranked had negative twelve DRS in his minor league season in twenty twenty five, And so with his weaker defense I just in the minors, I decided to maybe he'd be a better fit at second base, which is a less demanding position defensively.

Yeah, I think I think what the A's will do is continue to put him out there or stop all the way up until they need to make a decision on him for the major leagues.

Because he's he's been so young at every level.

Right, we know the Padres how aggressive they are moving him, and offensively, I mean, his numbers haven't been standout numbers, but he's performed so well being so young for the level, So it's it's truly impressive what he's done.

And I think with the defense too, I think that's just he's going to have to continue to learn.

And I think he's athletic.

I think they're going to want to continue to push him.

And you never know what's going to happen in two three years time, by the time he's ready to actually come up and play.

I mean, Jacob Wilson maybe isn't even on the team anymore.

So you want to continue to develop those elite players up the middle and sure stops, specific specifically for Debrees.

Good right up there, good job.

Let's get into your your dynasty buying, your dynasty cell for the Athletics.

Who are you buying right now?

My dynasty buy has done so Clark he was rough in his first taste in the big leagues.

He had a seventy five dollars plus and one hundred and fifty nin played appearances, with three homers, six done bases, and whopping ten strikeouts.

For every walk.

Clerk needed some time to adjust a big league pitching, but splitting his season and half shows that he was making those adjustments.

In his first twenty four games, which was eighty player appearances, he slashed one ninety five, two twenty five, two sixty with a dirty which is a thirty very Wisity plus with a two point five percent walk rate and forty five percent k rate.

In his last twenty three games were seventy nine player appearances, he slashed two sixty eight three twenty five, four to ninety three, which is a one twenty two dollars c plus with a five point one percent walk rate and a thirty one point six percent k rate.

The play discipline still wasn't great, but I think he but it was an improvement and I think he'll get some more opportunities to improve that on that even further because he has a leade defense and set at center field, so he'll get the opportunity to play every day and work on his bet and with his power and speed.

Like in my opinion, he's at worst fifteen to fifteen guy, but has the upside for it dirty dirty if it all comes together.

Yeah, I agree.

He's he's one of the most athletic players in the majors, and we saw some of the catches he made in center field last season in just a very very short period of time.

You and I both got to see him live this year when the Athletics faced in Toronto with the Rogers Center, and he was doing something in every game that was impressive.

So, yeah, you're right.

I think he's gonna he's going to be on the field, in the field every day just because they want that defense out there.

He's saving runs like crazy out there.

Yeah.

I believe the game I went to was actually the one where he hit his first career home run, and it was nice to see because he's a Canadian kid.

Yeah, he's from Toronto area.

The other thing that I've noticed about him is is kind of when he's had his struggles as he's reached new levels, he it takes him some time to adjust, but he does make the adjustment and he's kind of worked.

He worked very very hard on reducing and swing and myths and swing decisions and things like that, and he's he's always going to be a higher strikeout guy.

But with his power and speed, I think if he can keep a strikeout rate high twenties, like twenty seven to twenty eight percent, I think he's still going to be a very very productive player obviously with his defense added into that too.

So yeah, he can sort of be like a PCA kind of player.

Yeah, I can see it.

Yeah, and he's not even as aggressive as PSPCA is, So that's a good comp actually, Okay, who are you selling in dynasty?

So my Dynasty cell is Lawrence Butler.

He took a step back in twenty twenty five.

He slashed two thirty four, three, six, four or four, which is ninety six starversy plus, though he still put up a good numbers finny fantasy perspective because he hit twenty one home runs and it's still twenty two bases.

Stuggles with due twos to platine switch because since he's a lefty hitter, he struggled against lefties.

He had a one o six doversy plus he can and fifty two dou warsit plus against lefties, and so as a result, starting in August, he got routinelian bench and basically platooned against lefties, and that would reduce his playing time if he was patuned further all the way in twenty twenty six, and in addition, his overall numbers took a dep as the season went along, and because even though he saw more rities on the second half, because he was platooned, he had a doubarsit plus he just seventy after the al start break as opposed to a one on nine dovers plus in the first half.

Butler could bounce back in twenty twenty six, but if he continues to gep patooned, he may not get as much playing time and that could limit his chances for a number twenty twenty season.

Yeah, he he definitely struggled in the second half, and I think it might have got into his head a little bit too.

He has such a good rookie season.

There were such high hopes for his second season.

But we've we've seen players have that success in their rookie year and then the league adjusts back to them and they struggle, and I mean it happens, right.

He's definitely an athletic player, I think, a player that can make adjustments, kind of like Clark, similar to that.

But those platoon numbers are concerning for sure.

At least he's on the strong side of the platoon, which which is a benefit.

But if you're looking, I mean he was he was being drafted as a top twenty outfielder at times last year, I believe.

So that's a lot of value for a guy that maybe is only playing four fifty five hundred plate appearances if he's not playing against lefties.

So that's a good call out there because you might be able to get something, get something pretty good for him because people still think that he's an arrow up guy that they want to invest in.

So good shout there.

He really struggled against breaking balls this year, breaking balls and obvious speed pitches.

He struggled finding it.

Yeah, and that's just the adjustment he's going to have to make.

He's going to have to work out this offseason to get those get that pitch under control.

We know we can hit fastballs, but he's gonna have to be able to because he's going to get a steady diet.

We know that because he struggled against them.

So all right, we're going to pivot over to Tom now for a prospect to invest in for the athletics.

All right, honorable mention here to we In Lynn, who I wrote about in the for his Dynasty Outlook, and also somebody that back in I think it was July.

Greg we drafted a team for twenty and younger.

Was it July?

Do you remember?

I think it was the middle of the summer.

Okay, so that was my It might even my second pitcher, I can't recall.

But anyways, moving on to somebody who I wrote about here prospect to invest in, I'm going with Junior Perez.

He's an outfielder.

He did like.

The A's have a type, right, they love the power speed guy with the swing and misconcerns.

We've seen that with Zach Geloff and Max Munsey and Denzil Clark and Henry Boltt and you know, Lawrence Butler.

But I'm like, I'm going to assume, and this might be bad to do this, that the A's feel like they can take this profile and like turn it into something.

Right.

They feel like they can otherwise I don't know why they keep drafting these guys.

But uh Pres was traded back in the day for Jora Matteo from the Podres and then since he's been with the ACE, he's put up double digit home run numbers and speed totals just about every year.

It's come with a low batting average and a good number of strikeouts, but he hits the ball hard.

This year at Triple A, I'll be at a friendly hitter environment.

He had a max EV of one thirteen and ninetieth EV of one o seven.

He did damage against both breaking pitches and fastballs, and overall he didn't chase too much.

But he's also kind of passed of even in the zone.

So I think that like low chase number is skewed a little bit by his swing right.

I think it's a risky profile, but he's cheap in Dynasty leagues.

I was the only one to rank him in our last update, and it could pay off if he hits right.

He's got everything but the hit tool, and I think he's kind of being ignored.

Mark Kotze recently comped him to Julio Rodriguez.

Now, he did go on to explain it and say that they're both like really tooled up.

They run well, they play good defense, they have some pop.

One can consistently hit the ball, the other hasn't figured that out yet.

But I was liking the excitement by Kotse.

And then another thing kind of in Junior PRES's favor is that he's in his sixty year with the A's, so he's either going to become a free agent this off season, which I don't think he will be.

I think he'll be added to the forty man because I don't think they want him going to the Rule five either, So I think he's close to the majors.

Yeah, you think he's going to make an impact somewhere at some point next season.

Awesome, good shout there, Okay, Raj.

Who is your prospect to invest in?

My prospect is Tommy White, who I picked to b D starting third basement in D twenty twenty eight lineup.

I made so Tony White.

He was seen as a power over hit player coming out of the draft, but as a prospect for the eight, he's been more of the opposite, with contact rates routinely above eighty percent and ISOs mostly averageable leverage.

The White still has puss straw power, and he did hit twelve homers in ninety three games, which is not bad, but he has been able to get to that power as much as he liked due to a ground ball rate no for fifty percent.

And it's just a matter of if Tony White can figure out how to lift a bow more and because his blend of contact and power will make him rise quickly during to minors, and the major's where he is don't really have an established everyday player at their base.

Awesome, that's a good that's a good shout there.

I got to see Tommy White's batting practice at the Futures game and it was it was impressive.

He was hitting home run after home run after home run.

He's got a ton of pop.

So, I mean, they already have a ton of pop in this lineup, but to add another guy that probably won't be in the middle of the order, maybe a little bit further down to start his career would be a nice little thing to handle.

So good call there.

I'm gonna go with Shotaro Moury.

So this is a international free agent this past January twenty twenty five out of high school in Japan's This is a unique situation.

This has not happen very often.

He's a two way player and they signed him for one point five million.

Only Matt Thompson ranked him in his inside his top up four fifty.

He ranked him at four O seven, so that gave him a total ranking of six forty seven.

So we have not ranked him very highly.

But I'm just really intrigued here.

So he only hit this year, and it was at the Complex.

It was a two fifty eight three ninety nine three eighty four slash line with four home runs of five stolen bases.

This was in one hundred and eighty nine played appearances.

I believe he did a nineteen percent walk right in a twenty five percent strikeout right.

So it tells me he's probably a little bit passive.

Works the count, but gets deep in counts and swings and misses or chases.

He did not pitch in an organized game this summer, but he did throw in the Bridge League.

The report was that he sat kind of eighty nine to ninety, but reportedly he can touch ninety five.

I have not seen any video of that, but that's the what I've read.

So he had a one o four p Live Plus score with a fourteen home run eight stolen base oopsie peak projection.

So not not amazing or anything like that, but he does have some pop.

In the spring breakout game, he hit a ball over one ten one ten point one.

And we know he's athletic because he's a two way player.

And so my view of this here, this is a deeper league shot, obviously, is that he's got he's got two chances to become a good prospect, one as a hitter, one as a pitcher.

So we'll kind of see how the A's use him.

But I'm intrigued.

He's six feet one ninety, he's kind of that's that's the frame you're going to probably see.

But he is very athletic and he can play both sides of the ball, so we'll see.

Uh, this is a good time to get him, obviously, because he's then not a lot of hype right now.

So if you're in a deeper league, I would say, of five hundred prospects or more, good a good guy to go grab and see what happens next year, see how the A's use him.

Okay, guys, I think we're ready to move on to the Twins now, so we'll start with this Byron Buxton.

Guys, he's been with the Twins for eleven eleven major league seasons.

He's mister Twin right now.

He had five hundred and forty two played appearances in twenty twenty five.

That's easily the most that he's ever had.

It's only a second season with four hundred plate appearances.

We know he's just been that guy that's always got some sort of injury, and he's he's a guy that's not going to be afraid to run into a wall or dive, and often that's how he gets hurt.

How do you guys view players like him?

Who are I mean, I don't know if injury prone is the term here.

Guys that are always on the il are not on the field.

How do you view players like that?

Do you target them?

Do you roster them?

Do you stay away from them?

Roger will start with you.

For me, it depends on the format.

But for me, I find that a the deeper the league is, the more risk averse I become.

So basically, in deeper leagues, I'd probably be more help likely to avoid a player that's more injury prong, whereas in shadow leagues, I'd probably take the shot at the upside and take a guy who is seen as injury problem because and I never think I added side, injuries are pretty unpredictable, and a player like for example, Byron box In this year and also Chris Hill I believe last year when he wont to say young like players who are seen as an injury poem.

They can always put up a full season and end up putting up a very good season fantasy wise and for me.

Also.

One more note is that for in terms of the injuries, it's a bit unrelated, but it matters more if the player has an injury entering the year, Like for example, this year, I believe Spencers Strider was slated to start the year on the IL.

He's someone that's, yeah, I was like more wary of because of the injury.

Right, Yeah, starting the season healthy versus starting the season injured.

There's a big difference there, obviously, Tom, what do you think about like rostering or targeting players that kind of have that injury tag on them pretty consistently.

So actually, one of my leagues this year, I felt like I was going to be competitive, so I was aggressively trying to get Buxton from the owner because I felt like it didn't fit their timeline.

So I thought he could be a good fit for me.

I was going to really pile on depth with him.

I would not be counting on him.

I wasn't counting on him for five at bats.

So I think there's a time to take a risk, like take a role with these guys.

I'm not out trying to get all of them, though, I think that's a bad plan.

And spoiler alert, my team did not finish in the money after I got him.

I had a lot of other injuries I was dealing with.

But I think if you could get these guys at like discount, right, if this is what's going to knock them down to a value where if you do acquire them and they do get five hundred at bats, you can profit off of it.

I think it's great.

And then on the flip side, like I think that this is a great time to sell them, you know, like he's at one of his size values.

I'm kind of spoiling what I'll be talking about later, so maybe I won't talk about that anymore.

But yeah, I think it just depends, Like pictures are way risky ears with injuries, you know, you could be waiting a long time for them to get just get back on the mound.

So hitters, I think I would probably I probably should do it more, but I probably do it too more with.

Pitching not the good point.

I mean, we know just by nature, pictures are get injured more more often.

And yeah, I think it depends on how risk averse you are.

Kind of like Roger said, like depending on link format, and then what you said Tom too about kind of insulating your team with with healthy players that are going to produce.

If you do have that injury take place, it's important too.

So it's kind of a situation by situation when you look at it that way.

But if you had him, if you got him this year, you you you did well because I mean, what was the season like, thirty plus home runs, twenty plus stolen bases.

Thirty five home runs, twenty four stolen bases.

Yeah, so I mean that's that's as good as any hit her out there, honestly.

So, I mean, he could, he could do it again.

He could, he could do it again.

He just he just hasn't.

So we'll see.

We'll see what happens.

But I we'll get to your your dynasty cell here in a little bit.

But okay, how do we get here?

For the Twins.

In twenty twenty three, they were eighty seven and seventy five.

They were and I can conclude myself in this too, they were kind of a dark horse pick for a World Series team that season.

In twenty twenty four, they were eighty two and eighty They were both fourth place finishes, and they finished fourth again in twenty twenty five, but they were seventy and ninety two.

It just everything kind of fell apart and did not work out for them this year, and they ended up selling pretty much everything in the kitchen sink.

Everything that wasn't bolted down.

They kind of sold to get value anybody they weren't looking to move forward with anyways.

The last time the Twins had made the playoffs was twenty twenty.

I didn't say that for the athletics.

It was also twenty twenty for them as well, so kind of a snapshot of their their season here.

They were the seventeenth ranked offense by OPS two thirty eight three ten, three ninety seven with one hundred and ninety one home runs and one hundred and four stone bases.

They were the fifteenth ranked pitching staff by ERA four fifty five, so kind of middle of the road for both a one thirty one whip in a two to fifty six batting average against.

They had two qualified hitters at our above league average by WRC plus, and that was Byron Buxton at one thirty six and Trevor Larnick at one o two.

They had two other players that were not qualified hitters but were over one hundred for WRC plus, and that's Matt Wallner and Ryan Jeffers, a platoon bat and a catcher.

Their home run leader was Byron Buxton with thirty five, Matt Wallner had twenty two.

The stolen base leader was Byron Buxton at twenty four, and Royce Lewis had twelve steals.

Top fifteen ranked position players by w RC plus, Ryan Jeffers with the tenth ranked catcher.

Byron Buxton was the eighth ranked outfielder.

Matt Wallner was the thirty second ranked outfielder, and then i'll mention also that Carlos Correa was the fifteenth ranked shortstop and third baseman, but they dealt him to the Astros at the deadline.

They had two pitchers with at least seventy innings with an ERA under four, Pablo Lopez at two seventy four and Joe Ryan at three forty two.

And they had four pictures with the K minus BB of fifteen percent or more.

Ryan twenty two point five, Zebbie Matthews eighteen point one, Pablo Lopez seventeen point zero, and Cole Sands the believer fifteen point zero right on the button.

Their wins leader was Joe Ryan at thirteen.

Their saves leader was Joan Duran at sixteen.

They traded to the Phillies, so Topa was their leading saves getter at four.

So I mean they weren't bad bottom of the barrel, bad pitching or hitting.

It just it just did not come together for them this year.

And I mean I think a lot of people picked them to win the division in the Al Central this year, and really it just didn't have happened for them.

So, Tom, you put together the twenty twenty eight lineup discussion, this team probably looks a lot different than it did at the start of twenty twenty five.

Run us through where you see this team headed.

Yeah, the the offense is fun, you know, the offense.

The offense is still fun.

They got guys that can get on base, They got some speed, they had a lot of pop.

Keishel at second, Leys, Royce Lewis at third.

The outfield is very sexy here, Walter Walker, Jenkins, I mean, no Rodriguez and then Buxton.

I moved Walner to d e h because he's not the best outfielder.

But if everybody's healthy on this team.

If that's a big If you know, one through nine is is a tough out and like anybody can can hit one out and I think it might rival.

Yeah, I'm maybe stretching it, like the two that as a nineteen team that set the home run record.

I think they're tied for the with the Reds maybe, But anyways, it's a lot of young talent with really just kind of like injury risk.

So if twenty twenty eight they can all get healthy and the offense is going to be fun.

What about the pitching, tom.

Yeah, not so fun that they dismantled that bullpen and in twenty twenty eight there's no more Joe Ryan or Bailey Ober.

You have Taj Bradley mcabeles, Abbie Matthews, Simeon Richardson, David Festa.

As you're one through five, I sprinkled the prospects that have had trouble staying on the mound in the bullpen to make it look a little bit better.

And who knows, maybe that's kind of the route they're going.

Kind of prelip is a with Matt Cantonero as the setup man.

The Twins were doing some interesting stuff this year.

I don't know if you had heard about it, but they started taking the prospects that felt like had a good arsenal but didn't think that they could man and they do well in the majors, and they turn them into like pictures that they would go on four days rest, so kind of like long relievers, but you're starting and you're going through the lineup maybe twice.

They didn't trust him to go three times, and then they kept them at four days rest so that they can move up and down from the miners to the majors easier, like they didn't have to wait a fifth or sixth day for them to be ready to go.

If they're pitching on four days rest, there's more flexibility there.

So they had they had a couple of guys that they were doing that with.

Now looking at the numbers, those guys got beat up pretty good.

But if that's something the twins are going to keep trying in the future, maybe they find that it works with a different match of arms that are ready for it.

Even though the guys that's that did that did it said they were able to bounce back from start to start better over four days because they were going shorter outings.

So I just kind of like that the Twins are are trying new things here, but yeah, they're going to need to spend on pitching, especially bullpen help.

Yeah, they've they've kind of got it, except for like, I mean, Lopez and Ryan are still on the team for how many more seasons?

Tom?

Do you know how right before twenty twenty eight, like a couple more season twenty three, And there was Joe Ryan trade rumors during the season, so I wouldn't say he's untouchable, although you're gonna have to really pay up to get him.

Yeah, the price will be costly for both of them.

They're both really good arms.

Also, like the pitching also weirdly get better if those three get traded because you can get some pitching prospects in.

Return, build up the depth of the system for sure.

Yeah.

Okay, so Tom, give me your dynasty buy for the Twins.

All right.

So when I approached this, I think of I think I'm thinking different than Rasher.

I'm thinking of value.

Okay, so not maybe not so much.

How like they're trending, it's kind of like actually the opposite of how they're trending.

So my buye was Emmanuel Rodriguez.

I think this is Byron Buxton two point zero.

You got an uber talented player who's consistently getting hurt, and you just think that there is going to come a time in which he is he's healthy, and he puts it together and he has the season we've been waiting for.

So Dynasty owners might be ready to ship him off if they're tired of waiting and just hearing about constant iel stints and starting to have in the back of the head.

Maybe just never happens.

So I think he's a goodbye right now.

He was wearing tenth for us in January.

Now he's forty fourth, which is a three tier difference.

So I know we've kind of like adjusted our expectations of them, but I still think like that ceiling is somebody who can lead off for them, hit twenty twenty, have a really good on base percentage, low average, and then he doesn't really struggle against lefties.

So I don't think I think he'll I think he'll get shots against lefties.

I don't think he's going to get platooned, even though the Twins love to platoon.

The Twins do love to platoon.

You're right about that.

But they've got some high upside, like you mentioned in their outfield especially, they've got some high upside talent that of guys you want probably in the lineup every day.

So interesting.

Yeah, that the value of definitely shifted on him, for sure.

He was a top ten prospect and all of us were really high on him.

And the injury, I mean it's been injury related.

Right, yes, multiple injuries all over the place.

Yeah, and different types of injuries too.

So I want to shout out I want to throw out Bailey over too, because he had a down year after dealing with a hip issue, and I think he'll bounce back if he's healthy.

Awesome.

Okay, you already alluded to a who's your dynasty cell?

So it's the opposite of Manuel Rodriguez, right, it's Byron Buxton, who's actually healthy.

So it depends, I think on the situation you're in.

You know, if you're competing, I don't think you sell.

I think you hope you get another season like he did.

And I kind of like what you said, Greg, like I wouldn't really be surprised if it happened, you know, So if you are not in that position, I think it's now's the time to sell him, and I think you can get a good return on it too.

So it's you know, it's are you banking on the health?

Do you want to cash out now that he's been healthy?

You know that That's kind of where I see.

Yeah, I mean, this is the this is the best performing he's been in his career, this is this is his best season.

The value will probably not be a higher I don't know how it could go much higher because he really did have an excellent season.

So uh, yeah, it depends on what your team is on your winning curve.

But yeah, if you're if you're kind of not going to be there, I mean, it would be time to get max value for him.

Awesome, Okay, we're going to start with the prospects now, So, Raj, who is your prospect to invest in?

My prospect to invest in is desaun Hill.

He was the sixty nine overall pick nice of the Twins in twenty twenty four, and he was just nineteen years old when he made his prot debut at single A across single and high.

He pitched to a three nineteen era A and a three three five fifth and sixty two innings across the nineteen starts, and he struck out thirty one plenty one percent of the batters he faced.

There was one major issue, which was the walks.

He allowed a fifty walk rate.

But the stuff is there.

He's a lefty with a two steamer to averages ninety five miles per hour.

He has a slider that averages eighty two with a bit of sweep and a bit of drop, and he also has an eighty four mile pu change up that got a ton of whiffs.

And it's not really it doesn't get that much separation from his main possible, but I think it since a ton of well and also the Vlossy separation.

That's why it performed so well.

The Twins are I feel they're a pretty good org in terms of pitching development.

So if they can fix this on Hill's command, he will be a quick mover to the minors.

Yeah, he's he's a very talented arm I'm pretty high on him myself.

I like that show for sure.

Okay, Tom, your turn.

Who are you looking at in their system?

Ryan Gallagher, right handed pitcher formally from the Cubs.

This is a deeper league ad.

I don't think he's right high ranked him or no one ranked them anyways, Gallagher came from the Cubs in the blockbuster deal they made to acquire Willie Castro, so that you know Willie Castro could help them get to that World Series.

He fits.

I think he fits the profile Gallagher.

I think if it's the profile that the Twins love as a project, somebody with good secondaries and they're going to try to add some v LO to that fastball.

I really like the change up.

I think it plays well off the fastball too.

But he's got a plus change up and a pretty good slider.

Before the Cubs shipped him off, he was putting up good numbers sixteen games, three point four three ERA, twenty eight percent strikeout right, six percent walk rate, and then when he made six starts with the Twins after that, I'm not going to throw those in the results because it doesn't fit my narratives.

His future, I think is like a four or five starter.

I don't think this is like an ACE by any means, but I think he's definitely somebody that could take a step forward.

It's that fastball takes a step forward, and yeah, then we can find himself maybe in the rotation or maybe he's that four day rest guy that you know goes fastball change up for two times to the rotation, you know.

But I just think, I just think he's in a position right now to gain some value.

So in really deep leagues, that's probably somebody that I'd be keeping an eye on.

Many How many prospects would you say he need to be in the league for you to kind of target him?

Well, considering I don't think he's ranked by anybody on our site, I would say over six hundred.

Okay, all right.

My choice for the prospect is Caitlin Culpepper.

He's already a top one hundred prospect pretty much everywhere.

We had him ranked at number fifty one, but I have ranked at number thirty.

I think I'm the highest on him at the moment.

He's a twenty twenty four draftee, twenty first overall, tons of athleticism, tons of tools.

His first full season was this year.

He hit two eighty nine three seventy five, four to sixty with twenty five home runs and twenty stolen bases.

I sorry, twenty home runs and twenty five stolen bases.

Got that mixed up, and he kind of split a season right down the middle between High A and Double A, and all the numbers were very, very similar, so he performed just as well in the higher level than he did in High A.

He had a nine point seven percent walk rate, a seventeen percent strikeout rate, so pretty good numbers there.

An eighty five percent zone contact rate, but the overall contact was seventy three percent.

Because he does chase a little bit, we'll get into that in a second.

He's got some pop max EV of one ten point two this year and in the ninetieth EV of around one oh five, so he's above average there for p lave plus scories at one thirty seven with a peak perchain action of twenty one home runs in thirteen.

Stone bases some negative things with him, a little bit, things he can kind of improve.

I'm thinking he did fade down the stretch.

He had a six to sixty nine OPS in August and a seven sixty seven OPS in September.

It's not terrible, but not what he was performing.

He was in the he eight hundreds and nine hundreds the rest of the year.

Again, I mentioned he did chase a little bit too much thirty five percent, and he also has a fifty percent ground ball rate, So to get twenty home runs and have that high have a ground ball rate was impressive.

So there are definitely some things that he can optimize here.

But he's very athletic, very young, has the whole off season to work on this, and I think if you can tweak these things a little bit and kind of reduce the chase, select better pitches to hit, and just kind of elevate the ball just a little bit more, even get it down to forty five or forty percent, I think this guy could be a monster, honestly, and that's why I have him ranked so high, because he's good right now, and I think he can do some things to really elevate his game and be that much better.

I think he has the ability to stick it short.

I just think he's a He's a very good all around baseball player.

He does everything well, and I think this sky's kind of the limit for him.

So I'm really high on him, and I think you should definitely target him if anybody's valuing him less than as less than the top fifty prospect overall.

So I wrote I had I had a Colpepper blurb that I didn't go into Greg.

I wanted to you to have your moment, but now that you've had your moment, I'm gonna piggyback on you a little bit.

Uh So, last year, Drew Wheeler said that one of the biggest knocks on Culpepper was chasing too much against breaking pitches.

And then in July he was probably like a month after he got called up to double A, people really noticed that he had improved on that.

It was like Twins Daily did kind of a nice article on it saying that he had improved on that.

So that's a step in the right direction.

And then his defense improved.

Scouts kind of questioned if he was going to be able to stick at short but this year he did a good job on that, so you were right about that.

I think he I think he's their future shortstop right now.

And that's one of the reasons why I moved to Brooks Lead to first base and kept Culpepper there.

And I'm with you here, I think he's going to be I think he could be a monster awesome.

Okay, guys, last question on this podcast.

So we're going to compare the athletics organization and the Twins organization.

If both of these GM jobs were open, which team would you take?

The Helm of Tom will start with you.

All right.

I went back and forth on it, and I'm like debating right now whether or not to switch it.

But I'll go with the Twins.

If it's like today, I'll go with the Twins.

If it's three years from now, I might go with the A's.

I think the Twins, like both teams have bullpen issues, right, but both teams kind of have an exciting offense developing.

I think the twins pitching is just more ready than the A's right like right now, and I trust that the Twins can develop their arms a little bit better than the A's, although I don't think the A's are that far behind.

So give me the Twins, okay, Raj do you agree?

Or would you go with the A's.

I went back and forth as well, because I feel like the A's they have like a lot more players that, in my opinion, are like a bit more fun, especially on the pitching.

Fine, but the Twins there is like a lot more decisions to make, especially with Joe, Ryan Bailey, Obra in pabolic place, like if you want to trade them, like who to trade them to?

Like what plus pics again and return that kind of thing.

So I went with the A's because just because I feel like it would be more exciting to see that team and like more exciting to get to and that team and help it develop into potential powerhouse.

Interesting.

Yeah, this is a tough one when you kind of break it down piece by piece.

I think I'll lean A's on this if I were to decide right now.

I just think I think the offense is a little bit better, and I don't think the pitching is too far off either.

I like, I like some of the arms the A's have, but I do like some of the arms and Twins have as well.

So it's close.

This is not a This is not a slam dunk at all.

So but I think the A's are definitely going in the right direction.

I think we can all agree on that.

Do we think the Twins are now headed in the right direction because they just made all their moves at the at the deadline?

Do we do we do we like the way they're moving or is there more to come here?

And do we think the Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan trade are still gonna come this offseason?

Roger Tom any thoughts on that.

It sound like a retool more than like a complete rebuild.

There's got a lot of work to do, but that offense is kind of set and they's got more young talent coming up.

Yeah, I mean they That's why I thought they were going to continue to be a perennial contender, because they had those prospects in the high miners, the Walker, Jenkins, the Mantle, Rodriguez, they got a couple of armed Kendrie Rojas as an arm as well in Triple A.

They've they've got those pieces and I don't know, it's uh, it was it was kind of curious how aggressive they were dealing all of their top bullpen guys.

I guess they just didn't feel like they were going to be contender next season.

So any thoughts, any thoughts or go ahead?

Tom, I just I was gonna sy I thought they got some MLB ready talent back.

They did.

They did a good job maximizing those those returns.

I guess.

I guess what they viewed it as was those bullpen pieces weren't the long term pieces for them, I guess, And I mean those are tough decisions to make, like Griffin Jackson, was supposed to be the future closer for them, and Louis Ireland had really turned into a really, really good reliever.

He's been really good for the JS.

So these are all tough decisions that for no offices have to make, and in that moment, they were very aggressive and they got what they thought was a good, fair deal and fair return for it.

And we'll see how it turns out for them.

But you kind of wish sometimes that your your team.

The time we were talking about the Cubs just not being aggressive enough.

I mean, you can't win in situations like that when you're with the media and with the fans.

If you go one way, you're going to get question by one side of it, and if you go the other way, you're gonna get questions.

So it's all going to be determined by how they perform on the field and what they do with with the pieces that they got.

So it's a good discussion and an interesting interesting to see which way these teams had in the in the coming years.

So one of one of the factors I considered when answering this was which division is going to be harder to win?

And I kind of had an idea in my head, but I was like, I'm gonna ask my buddy, so he he go.

I said, AO West or AL Central.

He goes the Astros best franchise out of the both divisions.

Texas just won a World Series two years ago, and the White Sox are not in the West.

So the answer is the AO West is harder to win.

I was like, oh, it's all good.

Those are all good points.

It just kind of backs up.

That's why I'm picking the Twins.

It's a little easier road for me.

Yeah, I think you're probably right in that the Al Center has been one of the easier divisions to play in definitely over the last decade.

I would say, So that's an interesting way to look at that, but I think valid for sure.

Okay, guys, I appreciate everything that you did with these two teams.

I think you did a great job and hopefully our our supporters will appreciate it and use our lists and our tools here in the off season to help prepare for their Dynasty seasons upcoming.

Where can people find you and what are you continuing to work on raj.

So you can find me on Blue Sky at Rajimento Dot.

Awesome.

Tom Ta Gates ninety nine on Twitter and what are we working on?

What blurbs are we writing this week?

Greg Angels and I don't remember the other one.

That's right going our way up the standings, slowly but surely, so we're getting into the middle the middle teams now.

So there's been a fun exercise though hopefully everybody appreciates the all the write ups on the players.

We're going to have right ups of sixty plus players per team, So any any relevant Dynasty player that you want information on, we're going to have it for you.

And they're all going to have their p Live peak projections attached to them player profile pages.

Lots of great stuff coming from Prospects Lives, so keep with us, and again, if you enjoy our podcast, please rate and review.

We appreciate the support that's going to do it.

For this week's episode of the Prospects Live Dynasty podcast on behalf of Raj and Tom, I'd like to thank our Hall of Fame to your members Danny Cumming, Runner Greer, Mike Lassiter, Mike Nakagawa, Jason Dyer, Kyle Davis, and Chris chen for their support at the highest level.

We couldn't do it without you, guys, the listeners.

We thank you for your time.

We hope to see you next time.

Time Let's cut up.

Tepick came out.