00:00:16
Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to another episode of Earning Their Stripes. My name is Danny Martinez, and as always I am joined by Ethan Bodowski and Ian Smith. No longer introduction today, I promise, because really there's only one place I want to start. And Fellas, I actually even prep you for this, but it's a question for both of you. How big were your smiles last week after that interview with Will Stewart.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Oh, man, I couldn't ask for a better interview. I mean, he was honest, he was polite, he was down to talk about whatever we had for him.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: It was great. I mean, we couldn't ask for a better first interview.
00:00:51
Speaker 4: My smile wasn't as big as Ian's.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: I've been waiting for this man since the train.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: Man, I was like waiting for this day, and I was like, man, I don't think it was gonna happen, and then the whole week started crazy.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: But I mean we made it happen.
00:01:05
Speaker 4: I'll tell I'll tell you that much.
00:01:07
Speaker 5: I was really excited, but Ian was way more excited than I was.
00:01:10
Speaker 4: But no, he was great. That was so awesome, you guys.
00:01:13
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I'm looking forward to doing more of that stuff in the future man.
00:01:17
Speaker 4: That was that was a great time. He was awesome.
00:01:19
Speaker 5: And then he and then he dealt the next nighter to the nighter or yeah we might be we might be hearing about that later.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And that's the thing I mean, for a first interview, the guy was. The guy was great, Like we want have asked for a better prospect, a better personality. He was open like you guys obviously made him feel comfortable. I texted you, guys while I was driving to work that following day, and I told you, I have like the biggest smile on my face right now about to go see clients, and I just I couldn't stop smiling.
00:01:47
Speaker 6: I couldn't stop.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: And like in between clients, I hopefully, like the licensing board doesn't hear this, I would crack up the rady like the thing again to see the podcast, because I mean, it was just it was. It was phenomenal. So hats off to both of you. Appreciate that man kicked that few.
00:02:01
Speaker 6: And he was fantastic. He was fantastic. All right, So we're gonna jump in.
00:02:06
Speaker 1: We're gonna start off with a quick segment that we wanted to put into this podcast. A few weeks in a row now, but with with Will coming on and with just a lot of content to talk, we didn't get to it. So Baseball America releases their best tools for all minor league prospects. So this is not just for the Marlins, this is across all organizations, across all levels of affiliates. They release five players that they indicate as the best tool for X, and for Y and for Z. Right, the Marlins, for the first time in a while, obviously have their name like laundry list all across these tools, whether they were selected as one of the five or whether they were honorable mentioned. So we want to dive into that really quickly, see which ones we agree with, which ones we don't agree with, which ones kind of surprised us. So we're gonna we're gonna go right into it, all right, And the first one is best defensive infielder. Okay, which player in the Marlin system? Ian do you think that obviously goes to?
00:03:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I agree with the Devers pick, but my ultimate pick would be Bryson Brigman. He's got the potential to play the probably the best infield from second and shortstop currently, He's got experience, playing both. His arm isn't the same as some of the elite shortstops, but he plays his angles well and he plays the ball well that I probably think he's the best defensive infielder and a hope of organization.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Right because that's actually the selection they got was Devers. But as soon as as soon as I read that, that's also who I thought of, and I actually thought of the twenty eighteen rep that they selected for the Markins as well, which was Chris Torres, strong infielder, upside, even though we've seen some ups and downs with that this year.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, my question, full time at shortstop this year, which is quite surprising.
00:03:56
Speaker 6: Right right? What about you, Ethan?
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:03:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I love the Devers pick.
00:04:01
Speaker 5: You know, I definitely think he's the most solid position, you know, middle infield guy that we have there. But it just goes to show how many guys there are, because none of us have even mentioned Asan, and he projects to be really smooth at second base. Uh So, I think that's what's really exciting is all these athletic infielders that are up the middle, you know, Devers and like you mentioned, Ian Brickman, he's really really smooth and he can probably play both middle infield positions, and there's a lot of guys that should be able to play both middle infield positions. But I mean, at the end of the day, like Devers is the glove first gonna be hopefully you know, a gold Glove candidate at shortstop.
00:04:42
Speaker 4: And I think they got it right there.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: I mean seeing his arm excuse me, Danny, seeing his arm the last couple of games, I'm self for Jupiter. It's a lot stronger than I expected to be out of the shortstop. I mean he plays the ball well out of the hole for a small guy. I mean he weighs in as they say, one fifty five, but I mean wet sucking Yeah, that's pushing it.
00:05:03
Speaker 3: I'm saying one forty max.
00:05:04
Speaker 2: I mean I'm about buck fifty five myself, and he's smaller than me for sure.
00:05:08
Speaker 4: So he's only nineteen. He's only nineteen.
00:05:12
Speaker 5: He's gonna get bigger, that arm is gonna get stronger, and absolutely, and.
00:05:17
Speaker 1: You guys answered really the follow up there, because what I was gonna ask was, if we see that his frame, and there's some projection into that, if we see that his frame would make him transition from short to seconds.
00:05:28
Speaker 6: Some people have an issue with his frame.
00:05:29
Speaker 1: Some people think he won't have enough of a strong arm, but again, he's nineteen, right, and it seems like at least what I what my answer is lines up with you guys. We can see him adding a little bit of weight, adding a little bit in the weight room, and being able to stick there because, like we've all mentioned, and like Baseball America greased, the glove is there.
00:05:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's just got to do it. We've been waiting for him to do it.
00:05:52
Speaker 5: But I mean we're still talking about him being one fifty one fifty five soaking wet on a good day, you know. So we can talk about the project to bullframe all we want, but he's got to actually put it together.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: You know, he's got it has to happen, has to happen, all right, So this next one will be a surprise.
00:06:08
Speaker 6: Best fastball? Who you got Ethan?
00:06:11
Speaker 5: I mean I would have picked Okay, personally, I would have picked Guzman. I mean, he's a flame thrower. He's just got to get it a little more under control. And I guess that's why Baseball America went with the guy they did. But I would go with Jorge. I mean we he he at least from what I've heard, his fastball lights at the gun more than six Dost does. But I'm interested to see what you guys have to say.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: I mean, this is tough for me.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: I mean, I know the amount of flamethrowers we have in this organization, but I mean I have to go Joorge as well. I mean, excuse me, George, as I've heard recently, so but yeah, I mean the everless one O two that I've seen him in practice is dumb, Like the oarm actions are very simple, and he's a huge guy, so it's super easy to throw. His gas six too, is crazy gas as well. But another guy who's probably got the most arms out in the whole organization, ever Cabrera. I mean the ball, the ball jumps out of his hand. I've seen ninety eight on the gun, but it ain't the one oh two. But for a true fastball, it's nice to see that man. But again, Guzman, probably he's got to take it.
00:07:19
Speaker 3: He's got. It's just too much.
00:07:21
Speaker 5: It's all gonna be. It's all gonna be about in terms of that fastball. It's all gonna be about which one can play. You know, which one can can be a piece as a guy that's a starter. You know, it's Guzman's fastball can light up the radar coming out of the pen. But I think if you know, down the road, but I think at the end of the day, in a few years, when we're looking at who has the best fastball, it's going to be the guy that's using it the most as a starter and that's really effective with it.
00:07:47
Speaker 4: Uh, you know for six or seven innings at night, and.
00:07:50
Speaker 3: That's it would be Jordan Holloway. And we didn't even talk.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: About or Sandy.
00:07:56
Speaker 5: Sandy's still throwing. Everybody's forgetting that. Sandy's throwing ninety eight ninety nine every night, and he's looks like he's controlling it a little better this year or so. You know, if he keeps controlling that more and more, he can end up having the best basketball. But there's a lot of flame throwers in this organization right now. We just got to work on the control. Which is the next one, right, Danny, Yeah, yeah, the next one? Control?
00:08:17
Speaker 1: All right, So here's we were talking about it before we started off. The selection that Baseball America has is nier, right, and that makes sense just that face value. Nick Knighter's control is out of this world, right, and you see it in person, it really does. That's why he always gets you know, like the Kyle Hendricks com and and he's gonna be able to put the ball where he needs to, whatever the case may be. And then he starts off this year and he has what eight walks to seven k's and we are seeing a shaky start to something that is a strength of his. And you know, we're not going to read too much into that, but yeah, so Nick Knighter get gets best control. Is there anyone else that you think should have been in the Marlin system chosen as that guy?
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:09:00
Speaker 4: Yodo? Maybe? Yeah?
00:09:02
Speaker 3: Yans was my was my guest as well. I mean that's what I was thinking.
00:09:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, he just he keeps that velocity down so much and he still strikes out a lot of guys because of this deception. I don't know if that's really control as much, but I mean, for the amount that he strikes guys out, considering he doesn't throw that hard, uh, and he really kind of keeps the walks down with it too, I would think that he's a good candidate. But neither start the other night is really kind of concerning. I mean it's one out of you know, a bundle that we've seen a really really good starts from him. So it's nothing to absolutely freak out about. But like you mentioned, Danny, I mean, very very uncharacteristic from him to have a lot of walks and and he had a he got ruffed.
00:09:45
Speaker 4: Up the other night. He only made it through a third e an inning.
00:09:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that's a little that's a little scary, but uh, he's still you know, at the end of the day, there's a very good argument for to be made that he's got the best control in the entire organization.
00:09:58
Speaker 6: Yep.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: And I'll add the just because I'm actually looking now at the site. I'm looking at the twenty eighteen reps just for a fun point here, it's littered with baby faced aces that we have now up at the pro level. So the best fastball, Saniel Contra was on the honorable list, the best control, Pablo Lopez made it as the actual one of the five best change up. That's not going to be a surprise, right, Trevor Richards. So it's nice to see that development actually take place. They actually pinpointed the correct tools and we're seeing it happen now at the major league level. And the hope is that with these guys that have the best tools that were selected for this year, so again Jose Devers for best Defensive infielder, six Do Sanchez for best fastball, Nick knight A for best control, that we eventually see this, right, We eventually see them develop into what we need to see and we could be talking about them in our Major League podcast because they're making a change there. We'll wrap this up with just honorable mentions. Victor Victor mesa honorable mention for best speed, no surprise there, and that we have best defensive catcher, right, and that's again not going to be a surprised with Banfield, who we're going to talk about a little later too.
00:11:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, got to talk about him a little bit.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: And then best Defensive outfielder and that goes to Monte who we're also going to be speaking about in a little bit. So again we see the system, which listen, I mean, you know, I don't need to tell you this. Three years ago we wouldn't have had even one honorable mention, and now this system is littered with not just honorable mentions, but actual selections across the league. So, you know, shout out to Baseball America for always doing this. Some things that we might see a little differently here that we might have put a little differently, but it just is a testament to the growth and the development far in the minors and with this developmental team and plan for the rebuilt.
00:11:47
Speaker 7: Definitely, Man, it's exciting stuff at the prospects since I've been a Marlins fan, and that's probably now twenty two years, so it's an exciting time.
00:11:58
Speaker 6: And they give us something to talk about, which is positive.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: We get enough time to talk about prospects over the week.
00:12:07
Speaker 5: And people actually know who they are, you know, they actually get red and and and people know who they are, and it's exciting and it's a great time.
00:12:14
Speaker 4: Man. It's a great time to be a Morlins fin.
00:12:17
Speaker 5: I don't know about that, but it's a great time to be a fan of Marlin's prospects.
00:12:20
Speaker 4: That's for sure.
00:12:21
Speaker 6: There you go, there you go. That's that's a little better. But it's okay, we got hope, we got hope, we got hope.
00:12:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So something that we actually don't get to really talk about is a best you know, first base prospect or you know depth that the first why Andrew Andrew Vaughan is such a prize right now in the upcoming draft, we have to we have to, I know, to hurt a little bit, but we got we got to do it right. So So here's the here's what I have as a question for you, which is, how do we solve that first base dilemma? Because you look through the system and we're going to bring up some names now, okay, but there's no one that you look at and you say that's going to be the guy that's at first for the next competitive core of the Marlins. So whoever wants to take a dab at it first, how do we solve this dilemma?
00:13:11
Speaker 5: I'll start because I think there's not an I don't know if it's like a solid, solid, surefire solution, but I think there's a couple guys you can look at with this outfield depth right now and you can take them and move them over to first base. And the first guy that comes to mind right away, and I think a lot of people have mentioned this is Tristan Pompeii.
00:13:36
Speaker 4: He got off to a really nice.
00:13:37
Speaker 5: Start last year in his career in GCL and then in Greensboro and in Jupiter, and he struggled a little bit out of the gates, and we haven't seen him. I think he went down to extended spring training. He hasn't been in the lineup in Jupiter in like a week or two. But I think he's a guy that can move right over because he just doesn't have the defensive prowess of some of the other outfield aspects in the system. Kind of a weak arm, not really a great defender in the first place, so you know, he might be a left fielder, but not really and with the need at first base, I think he's a guy that can slot over. You are in Carnacion, who we've talked about a lot in these first few weeks of the season as another guy that just kind of a little farther down the outfield depth in the system. Even though he's absolutely setting the world on fire at the plate right now, he just kind of drops down on that outfield depth chart because of defense. And so I think he's a guy that can easily slot in at first base, which is just not that valuable of a defensive position in the first place. So I think those are two guys right now. But I mean, man, we've got nothing out of first base so far. I mean, Alonso is struggling. He's getting on basic good amount, but oh, Sean Reynolds, What the hell is going on with Sean Reynolds, man? I mean, there is nothing coming out of first base right now, and it's really frustrating to see. And it's a problem because it's not something we're getting a lot of production out of at the major league level either. I'm interested to hear what you have to say.
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Ian, I've been frustrated.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew coming into the year how bad our first base situation was. There's been talking about Sean reynlds and what he can do, but he's got to strike zone in the Southey, Texas and he's it's tough for him.
00:15:29
Speaker 3: To get the ball. I get a bat on the ball.
00:15:30
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a huge man and the strike zones is not his friend, and he likes to swing the bat. And him being the biggest prospect, our biggest name that we have going forward as a prospect at the first base is a struggle. Lazare Alonzo is twenty four years old at high a go above that. John Silviano at double Lane Jacksonville, and I think it's Matt Snyder and Nola, and none of those guys are who you look at to be your next major league first baseman in the coming years when the Marlins set to be competitive.
00:16:00
Speaker 3: One guy that has been on my mind.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: This week that I've been mulling pretty hard all week at first base because of how he's been treated in my mind, is Austin Dean. I don't see him getting another shot for a few months on the major league level as an outfielder, so this time in Nola could be special for him to explore first base, maybe to see if that's something he could take advantage of in the future. He's under contract for six more years. He's only twenty five years old. He's a good prospect, but if he's only going to sit, no, there's really really nothing we can do for him there so to better his career. That's the best mind, the best name in my mind to make a transition into first base of the Austin Dean.
00:16:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:16:43
Speaker 5: I like Dean there because I like what he does at the plate, and I liked it better than some of the options that we had at the major league level. I mean after that first game like where he hit a home run and he had a double or whatever.
00:16:56
Speaker 4: He had a really nice first game. When he came up to the major leagues.
00:16:59
Speaker 5: This year, uh it kind of you know, wasn't great after that, and he was only here for what six games or whatever. So I think to give him another shot to get back to the MLB, like you said, this would be the best option for him. And I think he's a guy that we should try and get back to the MLB because there's just not you know, what is there in front of him that's any better Garrett Deeper or Peter O'Brien who couldn't touch the ball when he was up at the major league level. You know, it's just like what else? What else are we gonna do?
00:17:31
Speaker 4: Really? So I think Dean.
00:17:33
Speaker 5: Yeah is another guy that we could look at as like a short term replacement at first base. Give him a month, a couple of months to you know, try and make the transition and maybe get back up to the major leagues if he keeps raking and he's raking, you know, he.
00:17:49
Speaker 4: Was really raking before he got called up and then.
00:17:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he had a nice night the other night, which we'll talk about later. And but yeah, I mean, where else do we get ho You know, there's it's just a lack of options and we're really running out at this point.
00:18:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I.
00:18:08
Speaker 6: Mean it's a dumbo because it's it's just a truth. It is what it is. We don't have those options.
00:18:13
Speaker 1: I mean, I really do think that it'll eventually be like you guys mentioned either Pompei or in Carnassio and gets moved over, right. I think Dean is more of a short term option, but what are those two guys could be the long term option for a competitive team down the line?
00:18:27
Speaker 4: Right?
00:18:28
Speaker 1: If Alonzo was a little younger, I look at his numbers and I'm okay with him, if he wasn't twenty four turning about to turn twenty five. And I look at that seventeen point seven walk rate and his k rates around twenty five, which is more than less than half of where rentals.
00:18:44
Speaker 6: Is that right now?
00:18:45
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm okay with that. He's also hit a little bit of pop this year as two homers. I'm okay with that. But he's twenty four, right, he would have to get quite a few promotions and show himself in the higher affiliates. I'm not sure that we'll ever see it, but man, it'd be nice if he did.
00:19:03
Speaker 6: If not, I'm with you again.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: Anything you move Pompey over, you move Herra over Dean can be something that's short term. And then I know Ethan won't appreciate this. Right, but for a little operation big fish, which is what we're calling the free agents that the markets spend.
00:19:18
Speaker 6: On, eventually, I want I want one of the Chicago first basemen.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: I mean, it's risky, it's risky to get up break you, even though it will make a lot of sense, right Cuban first baseman if that should still play around thirty two, thirty three, thirty four to thirty five year age seasons. But I mean, are you sure that you won't be okay with Anthony Rizzo coming back home?
00:19:38
Speaker 4: Danny Dan?
00:19:39
Speaker 5: Look, look, it's not that I'm not okay with it. I would cry, real life man tears if Anthony Rizzo signed with the Miami Marlins for multiple reasons, right, one because he's leaving the Cubs, and two because he's signed with the Marlins and coming home and whatever.
00:19:56
Speaker 4: But it's not. It's just not gonna happen. That's all I mean. Is a great option.
00:20:03
Speaker 5: And I think first base in free agency is a great option for this team, Operation big Fish. If we're gonna do that, one of the places that we can do it, along with third base or shortstop. I think one of the polaces we're gonna do it is definitely at first base. And Abray is not a bad option at all. And Rizzo would be a great option if he weren't a Cub lifer. I mean, I just think he's just gonna end up being with the Cubs forever. And it's not anything the Marlins have to do with it. And I would love to make for them to make a play with Rizzo.
00:20:34
Speaker 4: It's just I don't know how. I hope, I.
00:20:42
Speaker 3: Hope, yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker 5: I mean, I think the one that they're less likely to lose. And we're getting a little off topic, but is Rizzo because he's just he just means so much to that team, and I think they'll do a lot to lock him up. But yeah, if we get the chance, there's no reason not to go after Rizzo. I totally agree with you, because he's what, he's twenty eight or twenty nine right now, and and you know, in two or three years he'll be in the middle of his prime or towards the back end of it. There's no reason not to go after him if we can. If but it's not gonna happen anyway.
00:21:21
Speaker 4: This is great, it's greats.
00:21:23
Speaker 5: Just tearing my heart strings spreads because it's is Rizzo gonna leave the Cubs and come to the Marlins or we you know, it's tearing me in both directions.
00:21:31
Speaker 4: So I mean, you can't pay like.
00:21:33
Speaker 6: A win win, you know, either way you're good exactly.
00:21:36
Speaker 4: It's a great option, don't get me wrong. It's a great option for the Marlins.
00:21:39
Speaker 5: But a bray you, you know, talking about realistic options, a bray you is definitely one of them. I would definitely love to see us go get Jose Abrayw because I think he's a very going to be a very valuable bat in a few years still, and he's great, he's a good player, and he fills a position to need. And yeah, I think Operation big Fish at first base is a great idea, you know, for a long term solution, but there's right now, I don't know how many long term solutions there are within the organization. So turning the free agency might be what we have to do.
00:22:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then quite frankly, I'm just messing with you. I think I'd be a cup forever. I think Rizzo is going to be a cup forever. But but I do think I'll Brail can make his way here.
00:22:22
Speaker 3: You know.
00:22:23
Speaker 1: I think it's always risky, and I we'll get right back to prospects in a second. It's always risky to spend free agency money on older players. But if you're going to spend on something, it's going to be a first baseman with a bat, you know. I mean, that's that's what you're going to spend on older free agents. So we'll see how the market. We'll see how the market plans have. All right, So we have we have three segments because today I'm gonna be rolling in my segment as well. All Right, we have Ian segment, then Ethan's Things we Love to See, and my new segment, which I'll give a title to in a second, and we'll talk about. But with the understanding that we have those three to wrap up the show, let's talk really quickly about any updates to prospects that you guys might feel like pointing out right. We have a good five minutes to give to that. Is there anyone that you want to say, this is what I needed to see without spoiling any of our other segments. You know, this is this is the the development that we're looking for. This is the change, whatever the case may be. And I'll let I'll let Ian take it first.
00:23:19
Speaker 3: I mean the change.
00:23:20
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm still super enjoying what I'm seeing on Magnara Sierra. He's still tearing the cover off the ball. He's walking more, he's not striking out that often. He's playing good baseball right now in Jacksonville. Another one in Jacksonville's playing great ball as Jordan Millbrath. I talked about him a little bit last week, but he came out through another appearance this week, two and a third innings, struck out five. He's still yet to walk anybody this year. He's still yet to give up a run this year. He was acquired the last offseason and Nicki nick wickran trade and he's looking like a talented arm out of the pen as an older prospect and hopefully we can see this continued upward trend from him. And yeah, that's about it for me. I mean on prospect updates. Will Stewart throwing the best k rate of his career so far as let's keep that up.
00:24:06
Speaker 3: And I know Ethan's got some good.
00:24:07
Speaker 4: Ones, Mike, my guy. This from this week specifically is mesa. Uh.
00:24:13
Speaker 5: Just you know, the average is still low and the obi you know, this last line isn't great still, uh, but we're seeing him slowly work back into you know, getting back into his timing and seeing pitching and seeing the ball well, because uh, he's getting on base and and he's hitting the ball.
00:24:32
Speaker 4: He's making a lot more contact.
00:24:33
Speaker 5: And he finally had an extra base hit this week, and that's what we had. That's the one thing we've been looking for so far, was all right, he's getting the ball back back on the ball, he's making contact. Now we just need to see him, uh get the ball in the gaps and get some show some power. And he did that this week. He had a double the other night. Uh, And I think that's just the start for him. I think we're gonna start seeing him drive the ball a little more, get some more doubles and use his speed maybe even to to get.
00:25:00
Speaker 4: Some three baggers.
00:25:02
Speaker 5: And eventually, I mean he's gonna have to drive one over the fenced eventually, So I think masis really I love.
00:25:09
Speaker 4: What I'm seeing from him.
00:25:09
Speaker 5: You know, the numbers don't really pop off the page at you so far, but you can tell he's going to be a really, really solid player. And the Marlins so far, that investment that they made in him, uh, it looks like it's really going to pay off, because I really love what we're seeing from him so far.
00:25:25
Speaker 1: With me, I won't go too much into his numbers because they're still ridiculous, but hit id in Carnascio and keeps hitting the ball. And what I actually want to bring up is that you had an interesting comp for him, Ethan, And I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about that now.
00:25:39
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm, I don't. I don't recall you got it?
00:25:43
Speaker 6: I okay, go for it, go for it.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker 2: I love Domingo Santana. I mean younger, earlier in his career. He was injured a good a good bit of the time, so he got a kind of a slow start to his career.
00:25:57
Speaker 3: So he's kind of hitting his stry right now as an older guy.
00:26:00
Speaker 2: I at twenty six, twenty seven in the majors, and that's the type of guy as he is Hara and Carlossion has. I mean the numbers in the early years of the prospect, I mean early years and the miners are similar. They have the same type of body, they have the same type of game, and I think Herr is going to unlock some serious power if this continues, this development this way, he's controlling the plate that Santana is going to be a nice ceiling for him if he can find that kind of level.
00:26:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, with you on that. That's why I wanted to bring it into the show real quick.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, because yeah, I thought it was an interesting It was an interesting comp not one that I think I've seen many people have, even though, come on, really, who's talking about her on anyway?
00:26:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I really looked at when you brought it up. Absolutely, Yeah.
00:26:42
Speaker 2: I mean you look at the even the k numbers from back in the early days, Like he's striking out forty percent of the time, I mean, and he's turned into a every day MLB player now, I mean, like you can be somebody with development. Harar is twenty one years old and he's starting to find what he can do, and then he spent about this mountain time last year in Greensboro and I are in fully and looked horrendous and for what he's looked like right now and Plinn, it's just it's making me extremely excited to see what he can do if he continues on this upward trend.
00:27:12
Speaker 5: And you talked about that, k rate Ian. I just looked it up right now. Twenty six point one percent, which you know is still a little high, but I'll take me.
00:27:22
Speaker 4: Man.
00:27:22
Speaker 5: It was thirty nine percent in sixteen days in green games in Greensboro last year, or that might have been Jupiter, I don't know, but thirty nine percent and then thirty thirty percent oh this okay, that was Greensboro and this is in Batavia was thirty percent.
00:27:40
Speaker 1: Uh.
00:27:40
Speaker 5: And he was hitting two eighty four and now with two sixty one, he's hitting four h three. So or twenty six point one.
00:27:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you give me twenty six percent from him.
00:27:50
Speaker 1: I'll take that from a lot of guys in this And that's the thing, Like twenty six and a pinch here is like above average for the Marlins, right, So I.
00:27:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm I'm good with that. I'm good that you think I'm gonna give you man.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we could always talk about that too, but no, yeah, for another day. I'll give you my guy real quick. Easonda is right. I'm going to keep talking about him. The first day I told you he's my prospect crush. He he didn't give me a lot to flirt over until recently.
00:28:16
Speaker 3: Right.
00:28:16
Speaker 1: I love what they're actually doing with him at Monte Monte. I believe he's hitting off Ison's hitting second I or it might be the oposite way. I'm not sure, but they're hitting at the top of the orders, you're and and he's up to two twenty. I understand no one's going to marvel over that, but he was always going to be that low average. But hiobp guy right over three hundred, uh you know six, he's bringing in runs. He's hitting for some power to home runs. I love the fact that I really do believe and I'm buying into the fact that I'm going to see Esan Dias at Marlins Park sooner rather than later. And I know that'll do with Castro, but I love what I'm seeing from him.
00:28:50
Speaker 4: And how about this Danny uh nineteen point one k percent.
00:28:54
Speaker 5: Absolutely talking about case Man really getting it down. Let's see in Triple A last year thirty six games, twenty nine percent. He was at twenty six point seven in his eighty three games with Jacksonville last year, and now he's down under twenty percent and his BAVIP is still really low, which means he might just be getting unlucky a lot oh wah on the ball. But you know, he'll come back to the mean. He'll he'll kind of regress back up towards the mean. And you know, with that walk rate over ten percent and the strikeout percent is the lowest it's ever been. It's the first time it's under twenty percent in his career. It's only been sixteen games, but still, you know, and if his walk rate goes up a little more, back to like that mid teens where we've seen him earlier in his career, his numbers are going to be fine.
00:29:42
Speaker 4: And he'll be up in September.
00:29:44
Speaker 5: Honestly if he if he keeps continuing at this rate, thinks the ball is going to start landing eventually.
00:29:50
Speaker 6: So yeah, it will.
00:29:53
Speaker 1: Definitely be there, definitely be there to see him. Man say, for sure, I need that call up. I need that call up, all right, So which we had like a drum roll transition to get to our segments, but you know we don't. You can just imagine that that's the case for we're I'm gonna go on to Ian's segment, all right, and just as a reminder, Ian chooses a pitcher and a positioned prospect has to give us his best case for why that is the guy for the week right has to make me a good lawyer about it, and then we get to see if we agree we disagree, So Ian take it away, good sir.
00:30:28
Speaker 3: Well pitcher of the week.
00:30:29
Speaker 2: Guys, I think I'm gonna give you somebody that nobody's really talking about until I think we posted yesterday on the page on Twitter. But Dustin Beggs, he just recently got promoted to New Orleans this week. He's and he threw a gem this weekend through seven endings, no runs, no walks in seven CA's. It's probably the best outing of his career at the highest level. He's kind of an older prospect, but he's looked great so far the start this year. He earned a surprising called up, I mean surprising promotion to New Orleans this week, and he's looking he looked for a fullip phenomenalist on Easter Sunday, and if he continues like this, I can possibly see him as a long reliever on the big league club by the end of this year. He's twenty five years old, he's got nasty stuff, a slider that puts people all away, and he's not Collfee Pitcher of the Week. It's a tough one over a few other guys, but I'm gonna go with Begs.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: There's one guy I wish I had his name on my mind right now who always comments on anything prospect wise on any Fish Stripes article right and he always brings up Begs as an example for prospects that deserve the hype and deserve the respect, but they don't get it because they never made a top thirty list from Pipeline or a Top one hundred from Baseball America or whatever the case is. Like, there's nothing sexy about Dustin Beggs except he produces. You know, he produces, and it isn't just like it's this year. He's produced for a while and there's a lot of validity to like that comment or I wish I remembered his name that says, why don't we talk about a guy like this more often, so I know that at least myself and that gentleman whatever his name is, will be happy with the in.
00:32:05
Speaker 5: Selection and by his standard, Scallon start was a little down from what we respect. Still very solid. Yeah, he only went five and two thirds, but six ks, two hits, no runs, one walk. I mean, he just keeps, he keeps on pitching, he keeps.
00:32:23
Speaker 3: On walk to start the year. Stupid.
00:32:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's really nice. Stupid, stupid what we're seeing from Gallon so far.
00:32:30
Speaker 5: It's pretty stupid, man, it's really exciting.
00:32:35
Speaker 6: You just have to describe it like what it is. Man, That's exactly what it is. Yeah, exactly alright. I in position.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: Position player.
00:32:43
Speaker 2: Another guy not getting talked about, probably won't get talked about, but that's Bubba Hollands.
00:32:47
Speaker 3: He's the third basement up in Clinton. He's had a great.
00:32:51
Speaker 2: Week last week he got it for twelve hit, three doubles, two homers, score six runs. He plays type of like a type of Brian Inoson type game there. He was undrafted in twenty seventeen and he's just producedin's coming up here. He had a rough year last year across two levels, but this year He's gotten three thirty three to start the year.
00:33:11
Speaker 3: He's hitting the ball well.
00:33:13
Speaker 2: He's got MLB bloodlines as the son of former Phillies player Dave Dave Hollins. He's I like it. I mean, for what I was seeing him, I like what. I like what I was seeing. He's got slugging I think five to ninety to start the year. His BAVIP is decently high, but it's not abnormal. He's striking out of only seventeen walking at nine percent. He's having a great start of the year in Clinton, and I could possibly see him in Jupiter here soon. He's definitely my pick of the week before a hitter. I know you want me to pick Mesa here or or definitely you know, I know who he didn't want me to pick next, But.
00:33:49
Speaker 3: Bubba Hollinds is definitely my pick.
00:33:50
Speaker 2: He's he deserves to love and he had a great week and I'm excited to see if he can keep breaking.
00:33:55
Speaker 5: The only reason I didn't want you to pick Monte is because I wanted to get to talked about Everybody wants to talk about him. Let's have Let's have a big discussion right now about Monte. As we move into my segment because God, what a week from him, man, I mean, God, what a week. All right, So let's let's Danny. I'm gonna take over for a sec. If you don't want to take over, man, we're gonna move into things we love to see, which is I'm gonna bring you, you know, just little tidbits from each guy that we really love to see. But let's talk about Monte because what a week. I mean, he this past week in his past seven days, five hundred batting average, five seventy seven OBP eighteen slugging percentage, a home run, two doubles, a triple, four walks, and only five strikeouts this past week. And he's got the k rate. He's in the mid twenties, right, And for him, that's what we wanted to see, you know, we wanted to see him under thirty down in the mid twenty somewhere, and so to see that from him off to a great start, and he's I mean, he's my guy.
00:35:01
Speaker 4: That's my guy.
00:35:02
Speaker 5: You know, he's got all the swag in the world, and he just plays the game the way I love to see it played. And man, it's exciting to see, you know, because we were worried all off season Ian, we were talking about how and and Danny, I think we mentioned this in the first you mentioned this in the first episode.
00:35:17
Speaker 4: We were talking about.
00:35:18
Speaker 5: How with that new approach, we were worried if the power was going to be there because we saw him, you know, making contact and the average was good in in Arizona, but yeah, he had only a few if any. So to see him have a week where he hits a home or two doubles, three triples and he doesn't sorry a triple and he doesn't strike out a ton, man, it's that exciting.
00:35:46
Speaker 4: We really really love to see that.
00:35:47
Speaker 5: So I want to get I want you guys to get in here before we move on. And you know what, what do you guys like specifically that I may not have covered about Monte that you're seeing from him so far.
00:35:57
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I really think you covered it all.
00:36:00
Speaker 1: I'll just say this because I really think it's important and I'm just gonna be that guy that brings this part of it. Monte's a freaking great person. And when you see that from a person and when you meet them and when you talk to them, there's just this added part of you that wants that person to succeed, because you know the difference he'll make. Now, listen, there's a bunch of optics with Monte too. You know, he's in the yell At trade. If he kind of saves that trade a little bit, if he becomes the person we need to be, the gold the gold chain, swag, the kindness, there's a bunch of extra things with this guy that you're gonna root for anyway. And then you know, he just decides to hit five hundred this week, and then he just decides to walk four times, and his numbers across the season. I mean, again, it's still in an early season, and if we remember he didn't start the first few games because he kind of had some things that were bothering him.
00:36:46
Speaker 6: Are still beautiful on.
00:36:50
Speaker 1: Precisely right, and doing it with elite like outfield defense as well. I mean, it's it's it's someone who you can see why they got all the designations of top one hundred prospects. You could see why he was targeted by the Marlins. You could see what excited them. And I mean, Ethan, yeah, you're right. I brought that up in the first in the first episode because it was it was worrisome. You know, we were seeing a lot of slap hits and we didn't we didn't expect him to be when the Marlins targeted him, they did not target him to be a slap hitter, right. They target him because of these immense tools and because.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: Of the exactly that guy thinks. Slap hitter.
00:37:26
Speaker 1: You know, it's right, and it's nice to see it come into play and him him just shutting people up, if we're being honest, right, Like, he's just shutting people up, and it's a beautiful thing.
00:37:35
Speaker 5: And you can tell he just grinded this offseason because he you know, he came into Arizona and he had that new approach and he hit for more contact. And then he showed up in in you know, in New Orleans, which everybody was saying, you know, why is he going to New Orleans? You should probably be going to Jacksonville, you know, me included to get that k raid down from from last year and work on things. And then he comes into New Orleans and he's tearing the cover off the ball and like getting on base. Moore is walk rat is fourteen point three percent right now, which is really nice and really really exciting.
00:38:07
Speaker 4: Start.
00:38:07
Speaker 5: I mean I could talk you know, I could talk about Monte all day, and I'm sure we all could, but i mean, man, what an exciting start.
00:38:13
Speaker 4: Ian from a from a really in depth.
00:38:15
Speaker 5: Baseball baseball perspective, before we move on here, one thing you really like from Monte so far, but.
00:38:21
Speaker 2: Now talking about baseball perspective, but another thing about him starting in New Orleans. They said he was starting in New Orleans in early February, so he went about this whole spring knowing he was going to start there. So I think that put a different mindset in his mind about how he wanted to go about this. And he's coming out on fire, and I think that drove him to be the better player, and knowing they had the confidence in him to start the year triblea after struggling my league sometimes last year. But from a preer baseball aspect, I mean, you cover a lot of but him him striking out twenty six percent off leadoff is making me extremely happy. He can see a world win of pitches coming that leadoff position. He's walking, he's driving the ball, and he's not striking out that much, And from pure baseball perspective, I'm just extremely happy to see extra base hits.
00:39:07
Speaker 3: The singles in.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: The Fall League were worrisome, we heard people, we heard scouts talking about it was more worrisome seeing that than him striking out almost and that's frustrating to know that. So to see him come out this year and completely shut people up, like Danny said, is exciting for sure.
00:39:23
Speaker 4: For sure, that was great man.
00:39:25
Speaker 5: I mean I've been waiting to you know, we've mentioned him and everything, but I've been really waiting a fan boy over Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, wet. So he needed this today.
00:39:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, he earned it. He earned it with a great week.
00:39:39
Speaker 5: And all right, so next thing we love to see from this past week is our boy Will Stewart coming on the podcast, showing out, having a great interview and then going out and dealing the next night and backing it up. Five inches, pitch, six hits, one run, it was only his only run was on a homer. One walk, in seven strikeouts and just another really nice performance from him. Good strikeout, you know, good strikeout numbers in five innings, and like I said, you know, backing up the talk and showing that all that he talked about with his game. You know, he talked about the change up in its effectiveness and how he really feels good where he's at right now.
00:40:18
Speaker 4: He showed that the other night and with a great performance.
00:40:22
Speaker 5: And then the third thing we love to see, and this is a guy that we haven't talked about for all the wrong reasons, is Will Banfield, even though we should be talking about him because he's one of the more important prospects in the Marlins system right now.
00:40:34
Speaker 4: But is Banfield and a thing.
00:40:38
Speaker 5: He's gotten off to a really really slow start this season, which has been really concerning for me. But hopefully he's snapping out of it this week, because he showed some power this week, boys, and that was really something we love to see double and then he walked off the game with a three run homer this week. And if we can see some power from him, man, and you know, what's your typical catcher's not gonna hit three ten. You know they're not going to have the greatest numbers that pop off the page at you, especially these type of defensive catchers. But if we can see Banfield hitting two fifty, two, sixty and putting in some work with the power numbers, you know that that would be really exciting, and that would be something that could be really important to his developments. So seeing him have some nice power during the week was really exciting. But has that start. Those numbers are ah, Man, they're frustrating but good to see. And I really hope he snaps out of it because he seems like a really good guy and a guy that's easy to root for.
00:41:42
Speaker 4: And I hope he can snap.
00:41:44
Speaker 5: Out of it here because, like I said, man, he's really important to the process, and.
00:41:48
Speaker 6: He has all the defense in the world. Right, we already all understand that.
00:41:52
Speaker 1: And then the other element of that, and this will actually transition into my next segment is is the age of course, right, kid's nineteen. I mean he's he was drafted as a we know he's young, we know he has to start hitting, we know he has to get out of this funk. And it's just it's nice to see the power like you brought into play. The reason that that's gonna transition into my segment. My segment is going to be a weekly under the radar candidate. I like looking at the guys that don't get their names, you know, put on the prospect list. I like looking at the guys that aren't tweeted about aren't spoken about, but produced, right, and all of these all of these prospects that I bring into play will have some varial variable about them which has led them not to be on a prospect list or led them not to be Twitter famous necessarily. And my guy is with age, all right. This is a twenty three year old shortstop prospect. Now, we spoke about a lot of shortstop prospects on today's episode. In the beginning we're talking about defending. We didn't bring up this guy, Demetrius Sims. If the last name is familiar for you, it's because he is the brother of ex Dolphins tight end Dion's Sims. All right, Demetrius was drafted in the fourteenth round, four hundred and nineteen overall on twenty seventeen. He's currently with Clinton and he's producing now. Again, the age is why he doesn't get spoken about. He's a twenty three year old prospect in low A. I understand that he's going to have to promote, and he's going to have to be able to develop rather quickly. I understand that he would be a late blossoming, late blossoming prospect. He was a two sport athlete. He played football, he eventually chose baseball, he said, because it was his passion. This is a guy who was very talented on the grid iron, but decided that he was going to go for the diamond because that was the love that he really had. And he's producing all right so far, fifty three at bats his slash two eighty three, three thirty nine, so he's getting on base four seventy two, he's at two homers. He knows how to work the base path, the base paths nine runs, six RBIs, he's fast. He has already three stolen bases. And the reality is is that at that age he has to be producing like this, right because if he doesn't, he's just gonna end up being a career minor league He's and end up being someone that doesn't even get to double a, get to triple A. But he's doing it thus far, so for someone to keep an eye on, add them to the tracker that MLB dot Com allows you to add players on. My guy for the week is Demetrius Sims. What do you guys think like that?
00:44:17
Speaker 5: I like that and I really like that slash line. That slash line, you know, if that's over a year long sample, Uh, that's a really really solid player at the major league level, uh, getting on base and showing a lot of power and hitting for a pretty good average too. So yeah, I really like that that projection so far, I mean, off to a really nice start.
00:44:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
00:44:39
Speaker 2: Absolutely of guys in that Clinton team right now that just are going on the air. That's a pretty good roster if you really look at it with a bunch of different guys.
00:44:47
Speaker 3: Man, But I agree with Simms right here.
00:44:50
Speaker 6: Nicely.
00:44:51
Speaker 1: You guys are just going nice on me, see because it was my interaction. That's what it was, all right, guys. So we're gonna wrap this up some news for you, just to let you know. Joe Farsarrow, awesome MLB writer for the Marlins, released some footage on Twitter of six Dough Sanchez on the mound. I believe he's still I believe he's still in Jupiter, right. He's an extended spring and there, yeah there, you know he was able. He looked flawless. I mean, you don't see you didn't see a hitch from him. You didn't see any kind of protection with his elbow or anything to that extent. He didn't look like he was compensating for anything. I don't know if you guys saw the footage, but it looked clean. He looks healthy, he looks on on track for that call up coming. When was it in a few weeks? No, I believe there you go.
00:45:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was supposed to be.
00:45:39
Speaker 5: I had heard April twenty six, which was you know, this week, but then I think it got pushed back a little bit.
00:45:45
Speaker 4: And yeah, I think Ian said May second was the day.
00:45:48
Speaker 6: Ten days, I think perfect.
00:45:50
Speaker 1: And then we already hit on Dustin Beggs earlier getting promoted. Dylan Lee also got promoted to Trip a A. We're also going to be talking next week, probably a little bit about promotions and who he might see getting promoted. One of the listeners actually gave us that feedback and something that we could add almost as a as a podcast segment to see who our choices are for promotion across different levels. But with the last two minutes that we have, fellows, anything that we want to add.
00:46:13
Speaker 5: Well, I just want to say in that six sto you know talk talking about him, did you guys watch the video because he looked really sharp. I mean, his pitches were you know, it's a nice movement on the fastball. The fastball looked good, getting guys swinging miss and being it was just exciting to see him pitching. You know, it was exciting to see footage of him because, honestly, to be honest with you guys, I really haven't seen a ton of footage of him, or I didn't really know anything about him at all before he got into the system. So it was nice to just see footage of him and looking good, like you said, Danny, you know, looking healthy, and the pitches were working, and you know, it's just extended springs, so it's not really the greatest competition, but it's just good to see him back on the mount and throwing.
00:46:55
Speaker 2: And absolutely his footage last year in the Forest State League was pretty disgusting. I mean, the kid he works the mound like a bulldog, and for his size and the way he attacks hitters with the stuff he has, it's just super surprising to see. And like when I'm just seeing him throw on the mound the other day, just it makes me extremely excited to see what kind of kid this can be. Like you don't see one hundred miles an hour or the kid his size, especially with that arm talent like it's freakish, so I'm excited to see what he can do if he's healthy.
00:47:24
Speaker 3: He's going in this year in double A.
00:47:27
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and when we take away Anthony Rizzio from Ethan's cubs, it's gonna even be more beautiful situation.
00:47:33
Speaker 6: Absolutely, all right, gotta watch yourself, dam you gotta watch.
00:47:37
Speaker 1: And you have a long drive to get to me, so I think I have some time.
00:47:42
Speaker 6: All right, everyone, we appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:47:44
Speaker 1: And this is Danny Martinez, always, Ian Smith, Ethan Bodowski. Please make sure it a like of course, of course, and subscribe really anywhere you could find a podcast, Google iTunes, Apple, Spotify. We will be there, absolutely and we can't wait to have y'all back next week.
00:48:01
Speaker 6: You have a good one, are y'all
Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to another episode of Earning Their Stripes. My name is Danny Martinez, and as always I am joined by Ethan Bodowski and Ian Smith. No longer introduction today, I promise, because really there's only one place I want to start. And Fellas, I actually even prep you for this, but it's a question for both of you. How big were your smiles last week after that interview with Will Stewart.
00:00:39
Speaker 2: Oh, man, I couldn't ask for a better interview. I mean, he was honest, he was polite, he was down to talk about whatever we had for him.
00:00:48
Speaker 3: It was great. I mean, we couldn't ask for a better first interview.
00:00:51
Speaker 4: My smile wasn't as big as Ian's.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: I've been waiting for this man since the train.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: Man, I was like waiting for this day, and I was like, man, I don't think it was gonna happen, and then the whole week started crazy.
00:01:03
Speaker 3: But I mean we made it happen.
00:01:05
Speaker 4: I'll tell I'll tell you that much.
00:01:07
Speaker 5: I was really excited, but Ian was way more excited than I was.
00:01:10
Speaker 4: But no, he was great. That was so awesome, you guys.
00:01:13
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I'm looking forward to doing more of that stuff in the future man.
00:01:17
Speaker 4: That was that was a great time. He was awesome.
00:01:19
Speaker 5: And then he and then he dealt the next nighter to the nighter or yeah we might be we might be hearing about that later.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And that's the thing I mean, for a first interview, the guy was. The guy was great, Like we want have asked for a better prospect, a better personality. He was open like you guys obviously made him feel comfortable. I texted you, guys while I was driving to work that following day, and I told you, I have like the biggest smile on my face right now about to go see clients, and I just I couldn't stop smiling.
00:01:47
Speaker 6: I couldn't stop.
00:01:48
Speaker 1: And like in between clients, I hopefully, like the licensing board doesn't hear this, I would crack up the rady like the thing again to see the podcast, because I mean, it was just it was. It was phenomenal. So hats off to both of you. Appreciate that man kicked that few.
00:02:01
Speaker 6: And he was fantastic. He was fantastic. All right, So we're gonna jump in.
00:02:06
Speaker 1: We're gonna start off with a quick segment that we wanted to put into this podcast. A few weeks in a row now, but with with Will coming on and with just a lot of content to talk, we didn't get to it. So Baseball America releases their best tools for all minor league prospects. So this is not just for the Marlins, this is across all organizations, across all levels of affiliates. They release five players that they indicate as the best tool for X, and for Y and for Z. Right, the Marlins, for the first time in a while, obviously have their name like laundry list all across these tools, whether they were selected as one of the five or whether they were honorable mentioned. So we want to dive into that really quickly, see which ones we agree with, which ones we don't agree with, which ones kind of surprised us. So we're gonna we're gonna go right into it, all right, And the first one is best defensive infielder. Okay, which player in the Marlin system? Ian do you think that obviously goes to?
00:03:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I agree with the Devers pick, but my ultimate pick would be Bryson Brigman. He's got the potential to play the probably the best infield from second and shortstop currently, He's got experience, playing both. His arm isn't the same as some of the elite shortstops, but he plays his angles well and he plays the ball well that I probably think he's the best defensive infielder and a hope of organization.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Right because that's actually the selection they got was Devers. But as soon as as soon as I read that, that's also who I thought of, and I actually thought of the twenty eighteen rep that they selected for the Markins as well, which was Chris Torres, strong infielder, upside, even though we've seen some ups and downs with that this year.
00:03:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, my question, full time at shortstop this year, which is quite surprising.
00:03:56
Speaker 6: Right right? What about you, Ethan?
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:03:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I love the Devers pick.
00:04:01
Speaker 5: You know, I definitely think he's the most solid position, you know, middle infield guy that we have there. But it just goes to show how many guys there are, because none of us have even mentioned Asan, and he projects to be really smooth at second base. Uh So, I think that's what's really exciting is all these athletic infielders that are up the middle, you know, Devers and like you mentioned, Ian Brickman, he's really really smooth and he can probably play both middle infield positions, and there's a lot of guys that should be able to play both middle infield positions. But I mean, at the end of the day, like Devers is the glove first gonna be hopefully you know, a gold Glove candidate at shortstop.
00:04:42
Speaker 4: And I think they got it right there.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: I mean seeing his arm excuse me, Danny, seeing his arm the last couple of games, I'm self for Jupiter. It's a lot stronger than I expected to be out of the shortstop. I mean he plays the ball well out of the hole for a small guy. I mean he weighs in as they say, one fifty five, but I mean wet sucking Yeah, that's pushing it.
00:05:03
Speaker 3: I'm saying one forty max.
00:05:04
Speaker 2: I mean I'm about buck fifty five myself, and he's smaller than me for sure.
00:05:08
Speaker 4: So he's only nineteen. He's only nineteen.
00:05:12
Speaker 5: He's gonna get bigger, that arm is gonna get stronger, and absolutely, and.
00:05:17
Speaker 1: You guys answered really the follow up there, because what I was gonna ask was, if we see that his frame, and there's some projection into that, if we see that his frame would make him transition from short to seconds.
00:05:28
Speaker 6: Some people have an issue with his frame.
00:05:29
Speaker 1: Some people think he won't have enough of a strong arm, but again, he's nineteen, right, and it seems like at least what I what my answer is lines up with you guys. We can see him adding a little bit of weight, adding a little bit in the weight room, and being able to stick there because, like we've all mentioned, and like Baseball America greased, the glove is there.
00:05:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's just got to do it. We've been waiting for him to do it.
00:05:52
Speaker 5: But I mean we're still talking about him being one fifty one fifty five soaking wet on a good day, you know. So we can talk about the project to bullframe all we want, but he's got to actually put it together.
00:06:03
Speaker 1: You know, he's got it has to happen, has to happen, all right, So this next one will be a surprise.
00:06:08
Speaker 6: Best fastball? Who you got Ethan?
00:06:11
Speaker 5: I mean I would have picked Okay, personally, I would have picked Guzman. I mean, he's a flame thrower. He's just got to get it a little more under control. And I guess that's why Baseball America went with the guy they did. But I would go with Jorge. I mean we he he at least from what I've heard, his fastball lights at the gun more than six Dost does. But I'm interested to see what you guys have to say.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: I mean, this is tough for me.
00:06:35
Speaker 2: I mean, I know the amount of flamethrowers we have in this organization, but I mean I have to go Joorge as well. I mean, excuse me, George, as I've heard recently, so but yeah, I mean the everless one O two that I've seen him in practice is dumb, Like the oarm actions are very simple, and he's a huge guy, so it's super easy to throw. His gas six too, is crazy gas as well. But another guy who's probably got the most arms out in the whole organization, ever Cabrera. I mean the ball, the ball jumps out of his hand. I've seen ninety eight on the gun, but it ain't the one oh two. But for a true fastball, it's nice to see that man. But again, Guzman, probably he's got to take it.
00:07:19
Speaker 3: He's got. It's just too much.
00:07:21
Speaker 5: It's all gonna be. It's all gonna be about in terms of that fastball. It's all gonna be about which one can play. You know, which one can can be a piece as a guy that's a starter. You know, it's Guzman's fastball can light up the radar coming out of the pen. But I think if you know, down the road, but I think at the end of the day, in a few years, when we're looking at who has the best fastball, it's going to be the guy that's using it the most as a starter and that's really effective with it.
00:07:47
Speaker 4: Uh, you know for six or seven innings at night, and.
00:07:50
Speaker 3: That's it would be Jordan Holloway. And we didn't even talk.
00:07:54
Speaker 4: About or Sandy.
00:07:56
Speaker 5: Sandy's still throwing. Everybody's forgetting that. Sandy's throwing ninety eight ninety nine every night, and he's looks like he's controlling it a little better this year or so. You know, if he keeps controlling that more and more, he can end up having the best basketball. But there's a lot of flame throwers in this organization right now. We just got to work on the control. Which is the next one, right, Danny, Yeah, yeah, the next one? Control?
00:08:17
Speaker 1: All right, So here's we were talking about it before we started off. The selection that Baseball America has is nier, right, and that makes sense just that face value. Nick Knighter's control is out of this world, right, and you see it in person, it really does. That's why he always gets you know, like the Kyle Hendricks com and and he's gonna be able to put the ball where he needs to, whatever the case may be. And then he starts off this year and he has what eight walks to seven k's and we are seeing a shaky start to something that is a strength of his. And you know, we're not going to read too much into that, but yeah, so Nick Knighter get gets best control. Is there anyone else that you think should have been in the Marlin system chosen as that guy?
00:09:00
Speaker 3: Uh?
00:09:00
Speaker 4: Yodo? Maybe? Yeah?
00:09:02
Speaker 3: Yans was my was my guest as well. I mean that's what I was thinking.
00:09:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, he just he keeps that velocity down so much and he still strikes out a lot of guys because of this deception. I don't know if that's really control as much, but I mean, for the amount that he strikes guys out, considering he doesn't throw that hard, uh, and he really kind of keeps the walks down with it too, I would think that he's a good candidate. But neither start the other night is really kind of concerning. I mean it's one out of you know, a bundle that we've seen a really really good starts from him. So it's nothing to absolutely freak out about. But like you mentioned, Danny, I mean, very very uncharacteristic from him to have a lot of walks and and he had a he got ruffed.
00:09:45
Speaker 4: Up the other night. He only made it through a third e an inning.
00:09:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, so that's a little that's a little scary, but uh, he's still you know, at the end of the day, there's a very good argument for to be made that he's got the best control in the entire organization.
00:09:58
Speaker 6: Yep.
00:09:59
Speaker 1: And I'll add the just because I'm actually looking now at the site. I'm looking at the twenty eighteen reps just for a fun point here, it's littered with baby faced aces that we have now up at the pro level. So the best fastball, Saniel Contra was on the honorable list, the best control, Pablo Lopez made it as the actual one of the five best change up. That's not going to be a surprise, right, Trevor Richards. So it's nice to see that development actually take place. They actually pinpointed the correct tools and we're seeing it happen now at the major league level. And the hope is that with these guys that have the best tools that were selected for this year, so again Jose Devers for best Defensive infielder, six Do Sanchez for best fastball, Nick knight A for best control, that we eventually see this, right, We eventually see them develop into what we need to see and we could be talking about them in our Major League podcast because they're making a change there. We'll wrap this up with just honorable mentions. Victor Victor mesa honorable mention for best speed, no surprise there, and that we have best defensive catcher, right, and that's again not going to be a surprised with Banfield, who we're going to talk about a little later too.
00:11:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, got to talk about him a little bit.
00:11:12
Speaker 1: And then best Defensive outfielder and that goes to Monte who we're also going to be speaking about in a little bit. So again we see the system, which listen, I mean, you know, I don't need to tell you this. Three years ago we wouldn't have had even one honorable mention, and now this system is littered with not just honorable mentions, but actual selections across the league. So, you know, shout out to Baseball America for always doing this. Some things that we might see a little differently here that we might have put a little differently, but it just is a testament to the growth and the development far in the minors and with this developmental team and plan for the rebuilt.
00:11:47
Speaker 7: Definitely, Man, it's exciting stuff at the prospects since I've been a Marlins fan, and that's probably now twenty two years, so it's an exciting time.
00:11:58
Speaker 6: And they give us something to talk about, which is positive.
00:12:03
Speaker 3: We get enough time to talk about prospects over the week.
00:12:07
Speaker 5: And people actually know who they are, you know, they actually get red and and and people know who they are, and it's exciting and it's a great time.
00:12:14
Speaker 4: Man. It's a great time to be a Morlins fin.
00:12:17
Speaker 5: I don't know about that, but it's a great time to be a fan of Marlin's prospects.
00:12:20
Speaker 4: That's for sure.
00:12:21
Speaker 6: There you go, there you go. That's that's a little better. But it's okay, we got hope, we got hope, we got hope.
00:12:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So something that we actually don't get to really talk about is a best you know, first base prospect or you know depth that the first why Andrew Andrew Vaughan is such a prize right now in the upcoming draft, we have to we have to, I know, to hurt a little bit, but we got we got to do it right. So So here's the here's what I have as a question for you, which is, how do we solve that first base dilemma? Because you look through the system and we're going to bring up some names now, okay, but there's no one that you look at and you say that's going to be the guy that's at first for the next competitive core of the Marlins. So whoever wants to take a dab at it first, how do we solve this dilemma?
00:13:11
Speaker 5: I'll start because I think there's not an I don't know if it's like a solid, solid, surefire solution, but I think there's a couple guys you can look at with this outfield depth right now and you can take them and move them over to first base. And the first guy that comes to mind right away, and I think a lot of people have mentioned this is Tristan Pompeii.
00:13:36
Speaker 4: He got off to a really nice.
00:13:37
Speaker 5: Start last year in his career in GCL and then in Greensboro and in Jupiter, and he struggled a little bit out of the gates, and we haven't seen him. I think he went down to extended spring training. He hasn't been in the lineup in Jupiter in like a week or two. But I think he's a guy that can move right over because he just doesn't have the defensive prowess of some of the other outfield aspects in the system. Kind of a weak arm, not really a great defender in the first place, so you know, he might be a left fielder, but not really and with the need at first base, I think he's a guy that can slot over. You are in Carnacion, who we've talked about a lot in these first few weeks of the season as another guy that just kind of a little farther down the outfield depth in the system. Even though he's absolutely setting the world on fire at the plate right now, he just kind of drops down on that outfield depth chart because of defense. And so I think he's a guy that can easily slot in at first base, which is just not that valuable of a defensive position in the first place. So I think those are two guys right now. But I mean, man, we've got nothing out of first base so far. I mean, Alonso is struggling. He's getting on basic good amount, but oh, Sean Reynolds, What the hell is going on with Sean Reynolds, man? I mean, there is nothing coming out of first base right now, and it's really frustrating to see. And it's a problem because it's not something we're getting a lot of production out of at the major league level either. I'm interested to hear what you have to say.
00:15:12
Speaker 3: Ian, I've been frustrated.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: I mean, I knew coming into the year how bad our first base situation was. There's been talking about Sean reynlds and what he can do, but he's got to strike zone in the Southey, Texas and he's it's tough for him.
00:15:29
Speaker 3: To get the ball. I get a bat on the ball.
00:15:30
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a huge man and the strike zones is not his friend, and he likes to swing the bat. And him being the biggest prospect, our biggest name that we have going forward as a prospect at the first base is a struggle. Lazare Alonzo is twenty four years old at high a go above that. John Silviano at double Lane Jacksonville, and I think it's Matt Snyder and Nola, and none of those guys are who you look at to be your next major league first baseman in the coming years when the Marlins set to be competitive.
00:16:00
Speaker 3: One guy that has been on my mind.
00:16:02
Speaker 2: This week that I've been mulling pretty hard all week at first base because of how he's been treated in my mind, is Austin Dean. I don't see him getting another shot for a few months on the major league level as an outfielder, so this time in Nola could be special for him to explore first base, maybe to see if that's something he could take advantage of in the future. He's under contract for six more years. He's only twenty five years old. He's a good prospect, but if he's only going to sit, no, there's really really nothing we can do for him there so to better his career. That's the best mind, the best name in my mind to make a transition into first base of the Austin Dean.
00:16:43
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:16:43
Speaker 5: I like Dean there because I like what he does at the plate, and I liked it better than some of the options that we had at the major league level. I mean after that first game like where he hit a home run and he had a double or whatever.
00:16:56
Speaker 4: He had a really nice first game. When he came up to the major leagues.
00:16:59
Speaker 5: This year, uh it kind of you know, wasn't great after that, and he was only here for what six games or whatever. So I think to give him another shot to get back to the MLB, like you said, this would be the best option for him. And I think he's a guy that we should try and get back to the MLB because there's just not you know, what is there in front of him that's any better Garrett Deeper or Peter O'Brien who couldn't touch the ball when he was up at the major league level. You know, it's just like what else? What else are we gonna do?
00:17:31
Speaker 4: Really? So I think Dean.
00:17:33
Speaker 5: Yeah is another guy that we could look at as like a short term replacement at first base. Give him a month, a couple of months to you know, try and make the transition and maybe get back up to the major leagues if he keeps raking and he's raking, you know, he.
00:17:49
Speaker 4: Was really raking before he got called up and then.
00:17:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, and he had a nice night the other night, which we'll talk about later. And but yeah, I mean, where else do we get ho You know, there's it's just a lack of options and we're really running out at this point.
00:18:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I.
00:18:08
Speaker 6: Mean it's a dumbo because it's it's just a truth. It is what it is. We don't have those options.
00:18:13
Speaker 1: I mean, I really do think that it'll eventually be like you guys mentioned either Pompei or in Carnassio and gets moved over, right. I think Dean is more of a short term option, but what are those two guys could be the long term option for a competitive team down the line?
00:18:27
Speaker 4: Right?
00:18:28
Speaker 1: If Alonzo was a little younger, I look at his numbers and I'm okay with him, if he wasn't twenty four turning about to turn twenty five. And I look at that seventeen point seven walk rate and his k rates around twenty five, which is more than less than half of where rentals.
00:18:44
Speaker 6: Is that right now?
00:18:45
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm okay with that. He's also hit a little bit of pop this year as two homers. I'm okay with that. But he's twenty four, right, he would have to get quite a few promotions and show himself in the higher affiliates. I'm not sure that we'll ever see it, but man, it'd be nice if he did.
00:19:03
Speaker 6: If not, I'm with you again.
00:19:04
Speaker 1: Anything you move Pompey over, you move Herra over Dean can be something that's short term. And then I know Ethan won't appreciate this. Right, but for a little operation big fish, which is what we're calling the free agents that the markets spend.
00:19:18
Speaker 6: On, eventually, I want I want one of the Chicago first basemen.
00:19:23
Speaker 1: I mean, it's risky, it's risky to get up break you, even though it will make a lot of sense, right Cuban first baseman if that should still play around thirty two, thirty three, thirty four to thirty five year age seasons. But I mean, are you sure that you won't be okay with Anthony Rizzo coming back home?
00:19:38
Speaker 4: Danny Dan?
00:19:39
Speaker 5: Look, look, it's not that I'm not okay with it. I would cry, real life man tears if Anthony Rizzo signed with the Miami Marlins for multiple reasons, right, one because he's leaving the Cubs, and two because he's signed with the Marlins and coming home and whatever.
00:19:56
Speaker 4: But it's not. It's just not gonna happen. That's all I mean. Is a great option.
00:20:03
Speaker 5: And I think first base in free agency is a great option for this team, Operation big Fish. If we're gonna do that, one of the places that we can do it, along with third base or shortstop. I think one of the polaces we're gonna do it is definitely at first base. And Abray is not a bad option at all. And Rizzo would be a great option if he weren't a Cub lifer. I mean, I just think he's just gonna end up being with the Cubs forever. And it's not anything the Marlins have to do with it. And I would love to make for them to make a play with Rizzo.
00:20:34
Speaker 4: It's just I don't know how. I hope, I.
00:20:42
Speaker 3: Hope, yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker 5: I mean, I think the one that they're less likely to lose. And we're getting a little off topic, but is Rizzo because he's just he just means so much to that team, and I think they'll do a lot to lock him up. But yeah, if we get the chance, there's no reason not to go after Rizzo. I totally agree with you, because he's what, he's twenty eight or twenty nine right now, and and you know, in two or three years he'll be in the middle of his prime or towards the back end of it. There's no reason not to go after him if we can. If but it's not gonna happen anyway.
00:21:21
Speaker 4: This is great, it's greats.
00:21:23
Speaker 5: Just tearing my heart strings spreads because it's is Rizzo gonna leave the Cubs and come to the Marlins or we you know, it's tearing me in both directions.
00:21:31
Speaker 4: So I mean, you can't pay like.
00:21:33
Speaker 6: A win win, you know, either way you're good exactly.
00:21:36
Speaker 4: It's a great option, don't get me wrong. It's a great option for the Marlins.
00:21:39
Speaker 5: But a bray you, you know, talking about realistic options, a bray you is definitely one of them. I would definitely love to see us go get Jose Abrayw because I think he's a very going to be a very valuable bat in a few years still, and he's great, he's a good player, and he fills a position to need. And yeah, I think Operation big Fish at first base is a great idea, you know, for a long term solution, but there's right now, I don't know how many long term solutions there are within the organization. So turning the free agency might be what we have to do.
00:22:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then quite frankly, I'm just messing with you. I think I'd be a cup forever. I think Rizzo is going to be a cup forever. But but I do think I'll Brail can make his way here.
00:22:22
Speaker 3: You know.
00:22:23
Speaker 1: I think it's always risky, and I we'll get right back to prospects in a second. It's always risky to spend free agency money on older players. But if you're going to spend on something, it's going to be a first baseman with a bat, you know. I mean, that's that's what you're going to spend on older free agents. So we'll see how the market. We'll see how the market plans have. All right, So we have we have three segments because today I'm gonna be rolling in my segment as well. All Right, we have Ian segment, then Ethan's Things we Love to See, and my new segment, which I'll give a title to in a second, and we'll talk about. But with the understanding that we have those three to wrap up the show, let's talk really quickly about any updates to prospects that you guys might feel like pointing out right. We have a good five minutes to give to that. Is there anyone that you want to say, this is what I needed to see without spoiling any of our other segments. You know, this is this is the the development that we're looking for. This is the change, whatever the case may be. And I'll let I'll let Ian take it first.
00:23:19
Speaker 3: I mean the change.
00:23:20
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm still super enjoying what I'm seeing on Magnara Sierra. He's still tearing the cover off the ball. He's walking more, he's not striking out that often. He's playing good baseball right now in Jacksonville. Another one in Jacksonville's playing great ball as Jordan Millbrath. I talked about him a little bit last week, but he came out through another appearance this week, two and a third innings, struck out five. He's still yet to walk anybody this year. He's still yet to give up a run this year. He was acquired the last offseason and Nicki nick wickran trade and he's looking like a talented arm out of the pen as an older prospect and hopefully we can see this continued upward trend from him. And yeah, that's about it for me. I mean on prospect updates. Will Stewart throwing the best k rate of his career so far as let's keep that up.
00:24:06
Speaker 3: And I know Ethan's got some good.
00:24:07
Speaker 4: Ones, Mike, my guy. This from this week specifically is mesa. Uh.
00:24:13
Speaker 5: Just you know, the average is still low and the obi you know, this last line isn't great still, uh, but we're seeing him slowly work back into you know, getting back into his timing and seeing pitching and seeing the ball well, because uh, he's getting on base and and he's hitting the ball.
00:24:32
Speaker 4: He's making a lot more contact.
00:24:33
Speaker 5: And he finally had an extra base hit this week, and that's what we had. That's the one thing we've been looking for so far, was all right, he's getting the ball back back on the ball, he's making contact. Now we just need to see him, uh get the ball in the gaps and get some show some power. And he did that this week. He had a double the other night. Uh, And I think that's just the start for him. I think we're gonna start seeing him drive the ball a little more, get some more doubles and use his speed maybe even to to get.
00:25:00
Speaker 4: Some three baggers.
00:25:02
Speaker 5: And eventually, I mean he's gonna have to drive one over the fenced eventually, So I think masis really I love.
00:25:09
Speaker 4: What I'm seeing from him.
00:25:09
Speaker 5: You know, the numbers don't really pop off the page at you so far, but you can tell he's going to be a really, really solid player. And the Marlins so far, that investment that they made in him, uh, it looks like it's really going to pay off, because I really love what we're seeing from him so far.
00:25:25
Speaker 1: With me, I won't go too much into his numbers because they're still ridiculous, but hit id in Carnascio and keeps hitting the ball. And what I actually want to bring up is that you had an interesting comp for him, Ethan, And I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about that now.
00:25:39
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm, I don't. I don't recall you got it?
00:25:43
Speaker 6: I okay, go for it, go for it.
00:25:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:25:47
Speaker 2: I love Domingo Santana. I mean younger, earlier in his career. He was injured a good a good bit of the time, so he got a kind of a slow start to his career.
00:25:57
Speaker 3: So he's kind of hitting his stry right now as an older guy.
00:26:00
Speaker 2: I at twenty six, twenty seven in the majors, and that's the type of guy as he is Hara and Carlossion has. I mean the numbers in the early years of the prospect, I mean early years and the miners are similar. They have the same type of body, they have the same type of game, and I think Herr is going to unlock some serious power if this continues, this development this way, he's controlling the plate that Santana is going to be a nice ceiling for him if he can find that kind of level.
00:26:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, with you on that. That's why I wanted to bring it into the show real quick.
00:26:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, because yeah, I thought it was an interesting It was an interesting comp not one that I think I've seen many people have, even though, come on, really, who's talking about her on anyway?
00:26:38
Speaker 6: Yeah, but I really looked at when you brought it up. Absolutely, Yeah.
00:26:42
Speaker 2: I mean you look at the even the k numbers from back in the early days, Like he's striking out forty percent of the time, I mean, and he's turned into a every day MLB player now, I mean, like you can be somebody with development. Harar is twenty one years old and he's starting to find what he can do, and then he spent about this mountain time last year in Greensboro and I are in fully and looked horrendous and for what he's looked like right now and Plinn, it's just it's making me extremely excited to see what he can do if he continues on this upward trend.
00:27:12
Speaker 5: And you talked about that, k rate Ian. I just looked it up right now. Twenty six point one percent, which you know is still a little high, but I'll take me.
00:27:22
Speaker 4: Man.
00:27:22
Speaker 5: It was thirty nine percent in sixteen days in green games in Greensboro last year, or that might have been Jupiter, I don't know, but thirty nine percent and then thirty thirty percent oh this okay, that was Greensboro and this is in Batavia was thirty percent.
00:27:40
Speaker 1: Uh.
00:27:40
Speaker 5: And he was hitting two eighty four and now with two sixty one, he's hitting four h three. So or twenty six point one.
00:27:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you give me twenty six percent from him.
00:27:50
Speaker 1: I'll take that from a lot of guys in this And that's the thing, Like twenty six and a pinch here is like above average for the Marlins, right, So I.
00:27:59
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm I'm good with that. I'm good that you think I'm gonna give you man.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we could always talk about that too, but no, yeah, for another day. I'll give you my guy real quick. Easonda is right. I'm going to keep talking about him. The first day I told you he's my prospect crush. He he didn't give me a lot to flirt over until recently.
00:28:16
Speaker 3: Right.
00:28:16
Speaker 1: I love what they're actually doing with him at Monte Monte. I believe he's hitting off Ison's hitting second I or it might be the oposite way. I'm not sure, but they're hitting at the top of the orders, you're and and he's up to two twenty. I understand no one's going to marvel over that, but he was always going to be that low average. But hiobp guy right over three hundred, uh you know six, he's bringing in runs. He's hitting for some power to home runs. I love the fact that I really do believe and I'm buying into the fact that I'm going to see Esan Dias at Marlins Park sooner rather than later. And I know that'll do with Castro, but I love what I'm seeing from him.
00:28:50
Speaker 4: And how about this Danny uh nineteen point one k percent.
00:28:54
Speaker 5: Absolutely talking about case Man really getting it down. Let's see in Triple A last year thirty six games, twenty nine percent. He was at twenty six point seven in his eighty three games with Jacksonville last year, and now he's down under twenty percent and his BAVIP is still really low, which means he might just be getting unlucky a lot oh wah on the ball. But you know, he'll come back to the mean. He'll he'll kind of regress back up towards the mean. And you know, with that walk rate over ten percent and the strikeout percent is the lowest it's ever been. It's the first time it's under twenty percent in his career. It's only been sixteen games, but still, you know, and if his walk rate goes up a little more, back to like that mid teens where we've seen him earlier in his career, his numbers are going to be fine.
00:29:42
Speaker 4: And he'll be up in September.
00:29:44
Speaker 5: Honestly if he if he keeps continuing at this rate, thinks the ball is going to start landing eventually.
00:29:50
Speaker 6: So yeah, it will.
00:29:53
Speaker 1: Definitely be there, definitely be there to see him. Man say, for sure, I need that call up. I need that call up, all right, So which we had like a drum roll transition to get to our segments, but you know we don't. You can just imagine that that's the case for we're I'm gonna go on to Ian's segment, all right, and just as a reminder, Ian chooses a pitcher and a positioned prospect has to give us his best case for why that is the guy for the week right has to make me a good lawyer about it, and then we get to see if we agree we disagree, So Ian take it away, good sir.
00:30:28
Speaker 3: Well pitcher of the week.
00:30:29
Speaker 2: Guys, I think I'm gonna give you somebody that nobody's really talking about until I think we posted yesterday on the page on Twitter. But Dustin Beggs, he just recently got promoted to New Orleans this week. He's and he threw a gem this weekend through seven endings, no runs, no walks in seven CA's. It's probably the best outing of his career at the highest level. He's kind of an older prospect, but he's looked great so far the start this year. He earned a surprising called up, I mean surprising promotion to New Orleans this week, and he's looking he looked for a fullip phenomenalist on Easter Sunday, and if he continues like this, I can possibly see him as a long reliever on the big league club by the end of this year. He's twenty five years old, he's got nasty stuff, a slider that puts people all away, and he's not Collfee Pitcher of the Week. It's a tough one over a few other guys, but I'm gonna go with Begs.
00:31:20
Speaker 1: There's one guy I wish I had his name on my mind right now who always comments on anything prospect wise on any Fish Stripes article right and he always brings up Begs as an example for prospects that deserve the hype and deserve the respect, but they don't get it because they never made a top thirty list from Pipeline or a Top one hundred from Baseball America or whatever the case is. Like, there's nothing sexy about Dustin Beggs except he produces. You know, he produces, and it isn't just like it's this year. He's produced for a while and there's a lot of validity to like that comment or I wish I remembered his name that says, why don't we talk about a guy like this more often, so I know that at least myself and that gentleman whatever his name is, will be happy with the in.
00:32:05
Speaker 5: Selection and by his standard, Scallon start was a little down from what we respect. Still very solid. Yeah, he only went five and two thirds, but six ks, two hits, no runs, one walk. I mean, he just keeps, he keeps on pitching, he keeps.
00:32:23
Speaker 3: On walk to start the year. Stupid.
00:32:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's really nice. Stupid, stupid what we're seeing from Gallon so far.
00:32:30
Speaker 5: It's pretty stupid, man, it's really exciting.
00:32:35
Speaker 6: You just have to describe it like what it is. Man, That's exactly what it is. Yeah, exactly alright. I in position.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: Position player.
00:32:43
Speaker 2: Another guy not getting talked about, probably won't get talked about, but that's Bubba Hollands.
00:32:47
Speaker 3: He's the third basement up in Clinton. He's had a great.
00:32:51
Speaker 2: Week last week he got it for twelve hit, three doubles, two homers, score six runs. He plays type of like a type of Brian Inoson type game there. He was undrafted in twenty seventeen and he's just producedin's coming up here. He had a rough year last year across two levels, but this year He's gotten three thirty three to start the year.
00:33:11
Speaker 3: He's hitting the ball well.
00:33:13
Speaker 2: He's got MLB bloodlines as the son of former Phillies player Dave Dave Hollins. He's I like it. I mean, for what I was seeing him, I like what. I like what I was seeing. He's got slugging I think five to ninety to start the year. His BAVIP is decently high, but it's not abnormal. He's striking out of only seventeen walking at nine percent. He's having a great start of the year in Clinton, and I could possibly see him in Jupiter here soon. He's definitely my pick of the week before a hitter. I know you want me to pick Mesa here or or definitely you know, I know who he didn't want me to pick next, But.
00:33:49
Speaker 3: Bubba Hollinds is definitely my pick.
00:33:50
Speaker 2: He's he deserves to love and he had a great week and I'm excited to see if he can keep breaking.
00:33:55
Speaker 5: The only reason I didn't want you to pick Monte is because I wanted to get to talked about Everybody wants to talk about him. Let's have Let's have a big discussion right now about Monte. As we move into my segment because God, what a week from him, man, I mean, God, what a week. All right, So let's let's Danny. I'm gonna take over for a sec. If you don't want to take over, man, we're gonna move into things we love to see, which is I'm gonna bring you, you know, just little tidbits from each guy that we really love to see. But let's talk about Monte because what a week. I mean, he this past week in his past seven days, five hundred batting average, five seventy seven OBP eighteen slugging percentage, a home run, two doubles, a triple, four walks, and only five strikeouts this past week. And he's got the k rate. He's in the mid twenties, right, And for him, that's what we wanted to see, you know, we wanted to see him under thirty down in the mid twenty somewhere, and so to see that from him off to a great start, and he's I mean, he's my guy.
00:35:01
Speaker 4: That's my guy.
00:35:02
Speaker 5: You know, he's got all the swag in the world, and he just plays the game the way I love to see it played. And man, it's exciting to see, you know, because we were worried all off season Ian, we were talking about how and and Danny, I think we mentioned this in the first you mentioned this in the first episode.
00:35:17
Speaker 4: We were talking about.
00:35:18
Speaker 5: How with that new approach, we were worried if the power was going to be there because we saw him, you know, making contact and the average was good in in Arizona, but yeah, he had only a few if any. So to see him have a week where he hits a home or two doubles, three triples and he doesn't sorry a triple and he doesn't strike out a ton, man, it's that exciting.
00:35:46
Speaker 4: We really really love to see that.
00:35:47
Speaker 5: So I want to get I want you guys to get in here before we move on. And you know what, what do you guys like specifically that I may not have covered about Monte that you're seeing from him so far.
00:35:57
Speaker 6: Well, I mean, I really think you covered it all.
00:36:00
Speaker 1: I'll just say this because I really think it's important and I'm just gonna be that guy that brings this part of it. Monte's a freaking great person. And when you see that from a person and when you meet them and when you talk to them, there's just this added part of you that wants that person to succeed, because you know the difference he'll make. Now, listen, there's a bunch of optics with Monte too. You know, he's in the yell At trade. If he kind of saves that trade a little bit, if he becomes the person we need to be, the gold the gold chain, swag, the kindness, there's a bunch of extra things with this guy that you're gonna root for anyway. And then you know, he just decides to hit five hundred this week, and then he just decides to walk four times, and his numbers across the season. I mean, again, it's still in an early season, and if we remember he didn't start the first few games because he kind of had some things that were bothering him.
00:36:46
Speaker 6: Are still beautiful on.
00:36:50
Speaker 1: Precisely right, and doing it with elite like outfield defense as well. I mean, it's it's it's someone who you can see why they got all the designations of top one hundred prospects. You could see why he was targeted by the Marlins. You could see what excited them. And I mean, Ethan, yeah, you're right. I brought that up in the first in the first episode because it was it was worrisome. You know, we were seeing a lot of slap hits and we didn't we didn't expect him to be when the Marlins targeted him, they did not target him to be a slap hitter, right. They target him because of these immense tools and because.
00:37:23
Speaker 3: Of the exactly that guy thinks. Slap hitter.
00:37:26
Speaker 1: You know, it's right, and it's nice to see it come into play and him him just shutting people up, if we're being honest, right, Like, he's just shutting people up, and it's a beautiful thing.
00:37:35
Speaker 5: And you can tell he just grinded this offseason because he you know, he came into Arizona and he had that new approach and he hit for more contact. And then he showed up in in you know, in New Orleans, which everybody was saying, you know, why is he going to New Orleans? You should probably be going to Jacksonville, you know, me included to get that k raid down from from last year and work on things. And then he comes into New Orleans and he's tearing the cover off the ball and like getting on base. Moore is walk rat is fourteen point three percent right now, which is really nice and really really exciting.
00:38:07
Speaker 4: Start.
00:38:07
Speaker 5: I mean I could talk you know, I could talk about Monte all day, and I'm sure we all could, but i mean, man, what an exciting start.
00:38:13
Speaker 4: Ian from a from a really in depth.
00:38:15
Speaker 5: Baseball baseball perspective, before we move on here, one thing you really like from Monte so far, but.
00:38:21
Speaker 2: Now talking about baseball perspective, but another thing about him starting in New Orleans. They said he was starting in New Orleans in early February, so he went about this whole spring knowing he was going to start there. So I think that put a different mindset in his mind about how he wanted to go about this. And he's coming out on fire, and I think that drove him to be the better player, and knowing they had the confidence in him to start the year triblea after struggling my league sometimes last year. But from a preer baseball aspect, I mean, you cover a lot of but him him striking out twenty six percent off leadoff is making me extremely happy. He can see a world win of pitches coming that leadoff position. He's walking, he's driving the ball, and he's not striking out that much, And from pure baseball perspective, I'm just extremely happy to see extra base hits.
00:39:07
Speaker 3: The singles in.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: The Fall League were worrisome, we heard people, we heard scouts talking about it was more worrisome seeing that than him striking out almost and that's frustrating to know that. So to see him come out this year and completely shut people up, like Danny said, is exciting for sure.
00:39:23
Speaker 4: For sure, that was great man.
00:39:25
Speaker 5: I mean I've been waiting to you know, we've mentioned him and everything, but I've been really waiting a fan boy over Yeah.
00:39:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, wet. So he needed this today.
00:39:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, he earned it. He earned it with a great week.
00:39:39
Speaker 5: And all right, so next thing we love to see from this past week is our boy Will Stewart coming on the podcast, showing out, having a great interview and then going out and dealing the next night and backing it up. Five inches, pitch, six hits, one run, it was only his only run was on a homer. One walk, in seven strikeouts and just another really nice performance from him. Good strikeout, you know, good strikeout numbers in five innings, and like I said, you know, backing up the talk and showing that all that he talked about with his game. You know, he talked about the change up in its effectiveness and how he really feels good where he's at right now.
00:40:18
Speaker 4: He showed that the other night and with a great performance.
00:40:22
Speaker 5: And then the third thing we love to see, and this is a guy that we haven't talked about for all the wrong reasons, is Will Banfield, even though we should be talking about him because he's one of the more important prospects in the Marlins system right now.
00:40:34
Speaker 4: But is Banfield and a thing.
00:40:38
Speaker 5: He's gotten off to a really really slow start this season, which has been really concerning for me. But hopefully he's snapping out of it this week, because he showed some power this week, boys, and that was really something we love to see double and then he walked off the game with a three run homer this week. And if we can see some power from him, man, and you know, what's your typical catcher's not gonna hit three ten. You know they're not going to have the greatest numbers that pop off the page at you, especially these type of defensive catchers. But if we can see Banfield hitting two fifty, two, sixty and putting in some work with the power numbers, you know that that would be really exciting, and that would be something that could be really important to his developments. So seeing him have some nice power during the week was really exciting. But has that start. Those numbers are ah, Man, they're frustrating but good to see. And I really hope he snaps out of it because he seems like a really good guy and a guy that's easy to root for.
00:41:42
Speaker 4: And I hope he can snap.
00:41:44
Speaker 5: Out of it here because, like I said, man, he's really important to the process, and.
00:41:48
Speaker 6: He has all the defense in the world. Right, we already all understand that.
00:41:52
Speaker 1: And then the other element of that, and this will actually transition into my next segment is is the age of course, right, kid's nineteen. I mean he's he was drafted as a we know he's young, we know he has to start hitting, we know he has to get out of this funk. And it's just it's nice to see the power like you brought into play. The reason that that's gonna transition into my segment. My segment is going to be a weekly under the radar candidate. I like looking at the guys that don't get their names, you know, put on the prospect list. I like looking at the guys that aren't tweeted about aren't spoken about, but produced, right, and all of these all of these prospects that I bring into play will have some varial variable about them which has led them not to be on a prospect list or led them not to be Twitter famous necessarily. And my guy is with age, all right. This is a twenty three year old shortstop prospect. Now, we spoke about a lot of shortstop prospects on today's episode. In the beginning we're talking about defending. We didn't bring up this guy, Demetrius Sims. If the last name is familiar for you, it's because he is the brother of ex Dolphins tight end Dion's Sims. All right, Demetrius was drafted in the fourteenth round, four hundred and nineteen overall on twenty seventeen. He's currently with Clinton and he's producing now. Again, the age is why he doesn't get spoken about. He's a twenty three year old prospect in low A. I understand that he's going to have to promote, and he's going to have to be able to develop rather quickly. I understand that he would be a late blossoming, late blossoming prospect. He was a two sport athlete. He played football, he eventually chose baseball, he said, because it was his passion. This is a guy who was very talented on the grid iron, but decided that he was going to go for the diamond because that was the love that he really had. And he's producing all right so far, fifty three at bats his slash two eighty three, three thirty nine, so he's getting on base four seventy two, he's at two homers. He knows how to work the base path, the base paths nine runs, six RBIs, he's fast. He has already three stolen bases. And the reality is is that at that age he has to be producing like this, right because if he doesn't, he's just gonna end up being a career minor league He's and end up being someone that doesn't even get to double a, get to triple A. But he's doing it thus far, so for someone to keep an eye on, add them to the tracker that MLB dot Com allows you to add players on. My guy for the week is Demetrius Sims. What do you guys think like that?
00:44:17
Speaker 5: I like that and I really like that slash line. That slash line, you know, if that's over a year long sample, Uh, that's a really really solid player at the major league level, uh, getting on base and showing a lot of power and hitting for a pretty good average too. So yeah, I really like that that projection so far, I mean, off to a really nice start.
00:44:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
00:44:39
Speaker 2: Absolutely of guys in that Clinton team right now that just are going on the air. That's a pretty good roster if you really look at it with a bunch of different guys.
00:44:47
Speaker 3: Man, But I agree with Simms right here.
00:44:50
Speaker 6: Nicely.
00:44:51
Speaker 1: You guys are just going nice on me, see because it was my interaction. That's what it was, all right, guys. So we're gonna wrap this up some news for you, just to let you know. Joe Farsarrow, awesome MLB writer for the Marlins, released some footage on Twitter of six Dough Sanchez on the mound. I believe he's still I believe he's still in Jupiter, right. He's an extended spring and there, yeah there, you know he was able. He looked flawless. I mean, you don't see you didn't see a hitch from him. You didn't see any kind of protection with his elbow or anything to that extent. He didn't look like he was compensating for anything. I don't know if you guys saw the footage, but it looked clean. He looks healthy, he looks on on track for that call up coming. When was it in a few weeks? No, I believe there you go.
00:45:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was supposed to be.
00:45:39
Speaker 5: I had heard April twenty six, which was you know, this week, but then I think it got pushed back a little bit.
00:45:45
Speaker 4: And yeah, I think Ian said May second was the day.
00:45:48
Speaker 6: Ten days, I think perfect.
00:45:50
Speaker 1: And then we already hit on Dustin Beggs earlier getting promoted. Dylan Lee also got promoted to Trip a A. We're also going to be talking next week, probably a little bit about promotions and who he might see getting promoted. One of the listeners actually gave us that feedback and something that we could add almost as a as a podcast segment to see who our choices are for promotion across different levels. But with the last two minutes that we have, fellows, anything that we want to add.
00:46:13
Speaker 5: Well, I just want to say in that six sto you know talk talking about him, did you guys watch the video because he looked really sharp. I mean, his pitches were you know, it's a nice movement on the fastball. The fastball looked good, getting guys swinging miss and being it was just exciting to see him pitching. You know, it was exciting to see footage of him because, honestly, to be honest with you guys, I really haven't seen a ton of footage of him, or I didn't really know anything about him at all before he got into the system. So it was nice to just see footage of him and looking good, like you said, Danny, you know, looking healthy, and the pitches were working, and you know, it's just extended springs, so it's not really the greatest competition, but it's just good to see him back on the mount and throwing.
00:46:55
Speaker 2: And absolutely his footage last year in the Forest State League was pretty disgusting. I mean, the kid he works the mound like a bulldog, and for his size and the way he attacks hitters with the stuff he has, it's just super surprising to see. And like when I'm just seeing him throw on the mound the other day, just it makes me extremely excited to see what kind of kid this can be. Like you don't see one hundred miles an hour or the kid his size, especially with that arm talent like it's freakish, so I'm excited to see what he can do if he's healthy.
00:47:24
Speaker 3: He's going in this year in double A.
00:47:27
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and when we take away Anthony Rizzio from Ethan's cubs, it's gonna even be more beautiful situation.
00:47:33
Speaker 6: Absolutely, all right, gotta watch yourself, dam you gotta watch.
00:47:37
Speaker 1: And you have a long drive to get to me, so I think I have some time.
00:47:42
Speaker 6: All right, everyone, we appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:47:44
Speaker 1: And this is Danny Martinez, always, Ian Smith, Ethan Bodowski. Please make sure it a like of course, of course, and subscribe really anywhere you could find a podcast, Google iTunes, Apple, Spotify. We will be there, absolutely and we can't wait to have y'all back next week.
00:48:01
Speaker 6: You have a good one, are y'all
