Rates & Barrels - 2025 Prospect Sleepers w/James Anderson

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

James Anderson of RotoWire joins DVR to discuss a few news items from the weekend including Mookie Betts' absence from the Japan Series and the playing time outlook for Andy Pages, an early-season IL trip for Royce Lewis, and another pitching injury to watch coming out of Yankees camp. Plus, they discuss several under-the-radar prospects capable of making an impact in 2025 -- including one of James' favorites climbing the organizational depth chart in Minnesota -- an ETA for Chandler Simpson, and keeping an open mind about pitching development for non-elite prospects. Rundown 1:57 Mookie Betts' Japan Series Absence; Andy Pages' 2025 PT Outlook 7:04 Royce Lewis: Will Begin Season On the IL 12:57 Clarke Schmidt: Should Be Ready for Regular Season 15:40 Balancing Ceiling with Proximity in Top 100 Rankings 22:07 Which Prospect Hitters Could Make a Surprisingly Large Impact in 2025? 38:56 Chandler Simpson's ETA 45:14 Which Prospect Pitchers Could Make a Surprisingly Large Impact in 2025? 1:01:42 A Few Pitching Stashes for 2026? Follow James on Bluesky: @[e-mail] Follow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.social Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social e-mail: [e-mail] Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Hosts: Derek VanRiper With: James Anderson Producer: Brian Smith Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Zena Kada here with a huge announcement. We're dropping a new show. No off season, the Athletic Women's Basketball Show. Same place, same time, but we're bringing the heat with some brand new energy. Join myself, Ben, Chantel, and Sabrina as we give you an inside look at the game with candid conversations, in-depth analysis,

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or wherever you get your podcasts. podcast. Welcome to Rates and Barrels. It's Monday, March 17. Derek and I are here with a special guest. We've got Inosaris flying home from Arizona after a long week of coverage covering Cactus League teams. James Anderson of Roto Wire is here, lead prospect analyst, one of the hosts on the great Roto Wire baseball podcast.

James, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me, DBR. It was great seeing you in person not too long ago and good to be on the show again. That's right. We had a retirement party for a coworker, which made me feel really old because I've been to retirement parties for my parents or their friends and people of that generation, but never anybody I'd actually worked with before. So shout out to Herb Ilk, the CTO, one of the founders of Rotowire, big part of the

Rotowire story. Doesn't get talked about a lot because he likes it that way. He's retired now, so good for Herb. Lots of ground to cover with you today though. We got some news and notes we'll start the show off with. I actually gathered a lot of questions from our Discord because I figured, hey, I can talk to James and ask James questions anytime I want. But what do the listeners want? What do people really want to know?

And it's a lot of questions about under-the-radar hitters, a few specific guys, under-the-radar pitchers. So we're going to focus a lot on that over the course of this show. Quick reminder we do have a live show, two live shows coming up next week in San Francisco at Bear Bottle Brewing Company, the Bernal Heights location, March 27th and March 28th 4.30 start time on both days, no tickets required, just show up, have a good time. We'll be there on opening day watching games before we record. They've got beer, they've got coffee, they've got kombucha, there should be a food truck, lots of good stuff there. So really excited to see you live in just over one week in San Francisco.

Alright James, let's get started with some news. Mookie Betts will not play in the Japan series. Two games of course, Dodgers and Cubs, that gets underway early Tuesday morning. He's been dealing with some fatigue ever since landing in Japan. Dave Roberts saying they might send him back home. I don't know if there's anything actionable here given that there's still another week plus before the Dodgers will play after this two game series. It's a little bit disappointing when we get to see him in the first couple games of the season. But I started thinking about the Dodgers' depth chart more because they previously sent Hisong Kim down to triple A. And thinking about how the pieces all work here,

I'm wondering if you look at this depth chart and you see a better path for Andy Pahes today than we may have seen two or three weeks ago when it looked like Kim might have been a fixture for them at second base, especially after that Gavin Lux trade. I had been kind of buying the dip on Pahes after the Kim signing just because I think people initially were maybe overrating what Kim's role was going to be with the Dodgers. I don't think they were that shy about saying he was going to be kind of a utility player.

And the quality of Kim's defense, it made it clear to me when we kind of saw that, like what the Dodgers saw in him, because I just really didn't see much to get excited about offensively with Kim. He just seems like he's gonna be more of kind of a bit player. And what Pahes did last year, I thought, was really encouraging, especially the fact that he's a value add defensively. He just didn't seem like a piece or a potential value add defensively in right field. He just didn't seem like a piece or a potential value at defensively in right field.

He just didn't seem like a piece that they were going to risk stagnating the development of. And so you look at the power that Paheis was able to get to kind of throughout his minor league career. He always kind of walked that fine line of like the Reese Hoskins, Mike Trout, like pushing the fly ball rate up over 50%. But then for him to manage the strike zone the way he did last year as a 23 year old after after some missed time, I think he's he's potentially poised

for a breakout because there's there's much more power than he showed last year. Yeah. And you look back at the minor league numbers, Pai has ran a lot of 380, 390 OVPs coming up in that system. I mean, just a really well rounded player. You're right about the defense. I like a lot more in right than I do in center, but like being able to play center at least keeps you on the roster and in the lineup too. So a lot to like in that profile and if I had like one core thing that I've been spouting for the last three plus seasons now is that when I look at projections,

the public facing sets over at Fangraphs, the thing that I look for that creates the biggest value opportunity are discrepancies in plate appearances, right? If we see something in those numbers that we disagree with, considering them to use those projections and try to massage them on their own or just run them through something like the auction calculator, you're going to find that guys like Pahes can get buried.

Unless you run Zips through the auction calculator, which is the only system that has him, I think above even 350 blade appearances, you're going to see him as like a $2 player, even in a deep league. He's gonna be completely buried. And what do you think the actual playing time outlook looks like?

I mean, do you think 450 is actually still in range for Andy Pahes this year, given the age of this depth chart? And well, I mean, Mookie was hurt last year was a fluke injury for him. But I look at that group and like it's the only downside I see of building rosters the way the Dodgers do with super high end free agents on those longer term deals is they might be more likely to break, but that is good for the younger glue guys like Pahes in this case. Yeah, I think it's very dangerous and challenging when

we start trying to throw out specific plate appearance projections for a guy like Pahes, because it's more like, what is the range? I think you wouldn't responsibly project him for 550 or even 500 plate appearances, but I could see a scenario where Pahes gets up over 500 played appearances. But there's also, you know, if he is just kind of okay and isn't really a viable option in center field, he maybe gets less than 400 played appearances. So it's kind of what spot are you at in the draft? Is he your fifth outfield there, but there's some less exciting outfielders still available that you could get to kind of backfill in case you need to start the year with Pius on your bench. That's kind of where I want to have him.

Not in a spot where I absolutely need him to be playing every day, but just as one of maybe a couple outfielders where I'm trying to hit on one of those guys. Yeah, I think leagues with deeper benches, he fits really well because there will be stretches where he just plays a little bit more. And like the path to 400 plate appearances

or 350 or 550, whatever number it ends up being it's not necessarily linear. There might be stretches where in 12 team leagues Andy Paheis is a streamer and he's picked up and he's used and there's going to be stretches where he's an obvious sort of cut because the playing time dries up, everybody's healthy or something's not going well for him at the plate so I do think that's sort of important too, the shape of the playing time. Let's move on to another story.

This one is like predictable and frustrating at the same time. Royce Lewis is going to begin the season on the IELTS. Another soft tissue injury. It's a hamstring yet again. First question is just about Lewis. Like, what are we doing with him in keeper and dynasty formats? How do you value a guy like this in long term leagues? He's still

relatively young, still 25. He's got the two ACL tears plus the other leg problems that have just been a problem throughout his entire professional career now. It seems like extreme Troy to Lewicki downside health without even the chance to stay healthy for a full big league season yet Yeah, just really really sad and you could kind of just see like Lewis's reaction as he was suffering the injury Running to first base and his head just kind of you could sort of see his mind working and just the extreme disappointment and frustration and yeah, I just think You know in dynasty, I'm not

touching him if I don't have him. And if I have him, I'm probably just going to write it out. Like, I don't really want to spend time in my day trying to find the right Royce Lewis trade. You know, like, I think you're just you're better in these types of scenarios getting, you know, a few weeks at least removed from the injury before even considered, you know, trying to sell low on a guy. So I do not think this is a buy low opportunity. I didn't think it was a buy low opportunity already before before the injury happened. I think you got to just assume the worst with Royce Lewis at this point. That's what the the history tells us. Yeah, I think it is a really sad story the way it's playing out so far. It's unusual for me to be interested in a player, have injuries, slow them down for

half a season or most of a season, have the price drop 60, 75 picks in ADP from the previous season and for me to say, no, still not in. I still like the skills, but the health grade is just an F. There's no way around that. And so many leagues we play in over at the NFPC have no IL spots, so you can't even stash them that way. It comes with that extra penalty of making everything else more difficult.

So he's been an avoid for me all draft season. I think you're right, in the long-term leagues, you'd wanna wait before even trying to do anything on the trade front with Lewis. Now the related question here is, who picks up the playing time this time around? Looking at that Twins depth chart, it seemed like Willie Castro was sort of inching towards being the primary option at second. There are a few moving parts there.

It looks like Brooks Lee maybe could play some more. Is there anybody that you like in the absence of Lewis who could emerge to be at least useful in deeper leagues for us? It's kind of frustrating because I think Lee was going to, he was kind of emerging to be someone that was going to be useful even with a healthy Lewis. I think Lee was going to see enough time at second base over Edward Julian. But now with the injury, you can draft Lee with confidence, I think, at least in the playing time. It is a little frustrating that he's just not really a threat on the bases for a middle infielder But I think Lee is just gonna get as much playing time as he can handle and Willie Castro

You know, he led the twins and played appearances last year of all people I think he might be able to do it again Just based on the fact that he can play everywhere and the twins just have a bunch of these guys that are gonna miss time Throughout the season. Yeah, that was something that surprised us in our twins preview a few weeks ago. We were looking at the projections and we always try to identify the five guys that have to play every day or should play every day because he can't platoon everywhere. And the Willie Castro was once again projected to be that leader. And you're like, well, yeah, he's he's going to play even when everybody's not hurt.

And then when someone gets hurt, he's the first guy to move to a more difficult spot defensively based on how they're built right now. And with like three chronically injured guys in the core between Lewis, Correa and Buxton, that playing time was really safe. But I think that's beginning to happen now with Brooks Lee. As long as he hits enough, he'll keep that opportunity. Is he mostly like a 15 team league guy though in 2025?

I mean, you mentioned the lack of speed. Like there's still some questions about the quality of the contact, but I tend to believe that he's polished enough in terms of his eye at the plate where he's at least gonna hold his own and keep the job, even if he's gonna buried in the bottom third of that order for a good chunk of the year.

Yeah, I think he's gonna eventually just settle in as like a 20 homer infielder that hits, you know, 255, 260, solid OBP. But I don't think you want to waste the spot on a guy who's working towards that outcome in your shallower leagues. So not the type of upset I would want to go for there. And even in like the 15 team leagues, I feel good about the playing time, but I might still go for like a Brian Rookeo just because I think there's 15 steals in the bank there. I think with both guys, it's not clear what type of power you're getting

or what type of batting average you're getting. Yeah, you're right about Rokeo's speed. He's a little bit undervalued, I think, right now for deeper leagues. Reminds me a lot of Geraldo Perdomo from a couple of seasons ago, where it's everyday playing time at a position of need, a good enough defender to keep that role,

and those guys tend to just rack up numbers in the end, and it works out. Twins also announced that Chris Paddock and Simeon Woods-Richardson are gonna be in the rotation. Zebby Matthews, David Festa, option to triple A, real quick one for you on Paddock. Over under one month on his time as a starter for the Twins in 2025.

Under, yeah, easy. They gotta be done with this, right? This is three or four bad starts away from one of Matthews month on his time as a starter for the twins in 2025. Under, yeah, easy. They gotta be done with this, right? This is three or four bad starts away from one of Matthews or Festa getting that chance and then Chris Paddock reliever being the plan going forward. One more injury for the Yankees. They are having a brutal spring so far. Clark Schmidt, we got an update since I first put this on the rundown.

He's at least expected to be ready for his first regular season start. And I looked at their schedule and there's a little bit of schedule working in his favor, I think here. He was scratched from a start on Monday with shoulder soreness. The quotes are saying that he's not bouncing back from his spring outings as they'd hoped, which is pretty ominous. He did throw a 24-pitch bullpen session instead of that start on Monday. So you start to think about the math on this and the Yankees open with the Brewers on opening day on Thursday.

They have a rain day built in on Friday, so they're off Friday. They play again Saturday, Sunday, and they're off again Monday. So they won't need a fourth starter until April 4th against the Pirates. I think if they're willing to just use Stroman as their three as far as how they order everybody, go Fried, Rouda and Stroman, then they can get Schmidt stretched out enough

where it's not like a 60 pitch first start. It could be 75 or 80 and mostly normal as long as this shoulder doesn't keep barking. But you get beyond that. We talked about Will Warren and Carlos Carrasco last week. This Yankees team is getting woefully thin really quickly on the pitching side. This kind of seems like it's maybe turning towards like year from hell status for the Yankees. And I was talking with Tristan Cockroft last week on XM and he's a Yankees fan and he was even sort of saying like he didn't really like the idea of taking judge top three this year because he thinks there

There's a chance the lineup falls apart without Soto And now you've already you're dipping into the carlos carrasco like we're not even in april and we're already talking about carlos carrasco As an option for them. It's a scary situation I'm kind of worried about any other yankees that I have shares of i'm a supporter will warren getting a shot like this and i'd rather roster him than Carrasco or Stroman, but I also think there's a little bit of risk with a guy like Max Freed who's dealt with IELTS due to forearm issues each of the last two years and just signed a huge deal with the Yankees. So yeah, it's everything that can go wrong is going wrong right now for them. I'm fine with Warren as like a

strikeout flyer in deep leagues, but I wouldn't want to use Carrasco or Stroman anywhere. Yeah, really low strikeout rates for both Carrasco and Stroman and for Stroman the swing strike rate dipped really low last year too so it just doesn't seem like he's even the guy he was two or three years ago where you could at least stream him. Plus the park is a tough place to stream in general but a very difficult spring so far for the Yankees. Let's shift the focus over to some of the mailbag questions we got for today's episode. There were many of them, thanks to all of you for sending these in. First one's from BRG0008. How do you balance ceiling versus proximity in your top 100 as you put that list together?

You got upside for guys like Walcott and Jesus Made, and then you got to deal with older guys that have been knocking around at AAA. Jonathan Rodriguez was mentioned in the question, outfielder for the Guardians. So, what's your overall approach? How do you get that right or try to get that right when you're dealing with players at different levels

with clearly different ranges of outcomes? Yeah, I mean, obviously the best is when you get upside and proximity, but you run out of those guys fairly quickly. And so like in the case of Jonathan Rodriguez, I've got him just inside my top 100, I believe, or right around there, just outside my top 100. I think he actually has upside and proximity, at least in the power department. I mean, I don't think Rodriguez is going to hit for a high batting average per se, but I don't think he's going to kill you necessarily. I think it could be kind of a Matt Wallner type of deal with Jonathan Rodriguez. So like with him, I see some upside. Like a Jacob

Wilson is maybe even like a better example where like, I don't really see any upside with Jacob Wilson, but he's ready. he's gonna be playing every day. So you gotta rank him somewhere. I've got him like in the middle on hundreds. You're still chasing upside. I do think a lot of times the more underrated prospects are those close to the majors guys who aren't ranked highly, but actually have interesting tools like in past years,

like a Parker Meadows or a Matt Wallner. Like Caleb Durbin to me fits that bill this year where you're just, you're not going to see Caleb Durbin ranked very high on like Baseball America or Pipeline or whoever. You're looking at your sort of public lists, but Caleb Durbin has very relevant fantasy tools and I think he has opportunity. So you're always looking for upside. Sometimes you have to look for upside in a package that might not seem like it's coming with a ton of upside,

like a 24, 25 year old outfielder, triple A. Typically that's not your high upside prospect, but teams do still turn to those guys, right? And sometimes those guys have been working on things for years and something finally clicks. So looking for upside everywhere, far from the majors, close to the majors. Yeah, like a guy like Jonathan Rodriguez,

I think he's a little bit of both proximity and upset. Yeah, I threw Rodriguez's name in there as a sleeper on our AL Central team previews because they're looking for power in every corner. The Cardians, I didn't love the Josh Naylor trade for them, not because Josh Naylor is this impossible to replace player in general, but for them. You go out and sign Carlos Santana like the same day or basically announce those moves at the same time. I think you're giving up immediate power, you're taking on that downside,

you're sort of partially blocking Kyle Manzardo, even though you've got the DH spot, so you can have Manzardo and Santana in there together, and it's like, you just can't, as an organization, you can't seem to develop nearly enough power bats, and by making first base and DH more crowded, you're taking away the possibility of both John Kenzie Noel and Jonathan Rodriguez being in the lineup together, because you're taking away the possibility of both John Kenzie Noel and

Jonathan Rodriguez being in the lineup together because you're not really going to fit both of those guys in that outfield with Kwon and Thomas there, right? So I felt like that was just an annoying decision. I don't know if that reveals something about the Guardians process or maybe if we're collectively higher on Kyle Manzardo than they are or undervaluing Carlos Santana's veteran leadership and defense or what exactly it is. But they continue to be a team that the way they handle position players is both confusing and frustrating to me. Yeah, I think they were probably just scared of holding Naylor too long. Like they're so cheap, you know, they're not going, it's not like they were gonna extend Naylor or something.

Right? So he's such a weirdo in terms of his body type. You don't see guys that look like him age well into their thirties. Like it almost never happens. It's usually like a late twenties peak and then they kind of fall off a cliff. So I'm guessing that they just didn't want to get stuck

holding Josh Naylor when he started showing signs of decline. And I'm sure they also really liked Slade Shikoni who they got in that deal He's just a very guardian Z type of pitcher but I agree with you your overall point though because you're really kind of limiting who can break through as An everyday player for you among your young players when you bring in the Santana and you already have Manzardo there So I love John Kenzie, Noel, and I love Jonathan Rodriguez, but I am aware of the fact that they both probably can't break out in the same year.

There's an outcome where neither of them is good enough to play in the big leagues consistently. Like that could happen too. Maybe they're playing a little bit of defense against that, but I just wish they could see the ceiling a little bit more, see the ceiling my way at least and give those guys the opportunity. I look at Noel especially like what's this guy gonna learn going back to triple A he's

already played 203 games at Columbus like there's nothing triple A pitchers can do to John Kenzie Noel that will help him get better against big league pitchers so maybe his playing time is pretty safe and we're gonna have to wait a little longer than I'd like on Rodriguez, but yeah, you're looking for cheap power. I think either one of those guys are capable of providing it. It's the season to shop new styles, electronics, and definitely a holiday trip,

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Because their belief in us transfers to self-belief and reminds us of all that we're capable of. We all need someone to make us believe. Hashtag, you got this. I think I really want to hone in on something you were saying, referring to players like Parker Meadows or even this year like a Caleb Durbin type as guys that don't necessarily pop on prospect lists, but they find their way into a role that's just important for their team. Meadows being a center fielder, I think that's sort of a key hack. Or even just being able to play any position well defensively. Over the time I played fantasy baseball, I think analyzing defense has become a bigger part of the job because it's so important

in forecasting playing time. And as I mentioned earlier, that's where I think there could still be at least a small edge if you can do it better than other folks. One of the questions we had came from Grant, one of our longtime listeners, and it was kind of like the second part of the first question where it was like, who could make a surprisingly large impact in 2025? As it turns out, I think the more than last times we had you on a couple of years ago, you pointed Grant to Michael Harris, a head of Harris debuting younger than expected in Atlanta and he had an immediate

impact he's been a great player on a per plate appearance basis ever since getting the big leagues really quickly. So basically Grant wants you to try to pull that off again and give him another Michael Harris if possible but I think that's the general like theme of what everybody's looking for this time of year the guys that will either get to the big leagues faster than expected and hold their own, or guys that will have a massive leap skills wise that haven't really shown us a lot of evidence that that's coming just yet. Yeah, so I actually came up with this name before you went in and threw in some notes there. And I think we kind of started with the same guy, Luke Keyshaw of the twins.

To answer this question, like it doesn't really help for me to say like Sebastian Walcott, right? Cause he's my number one ranked prospect. I think he's very underrated by the industry, but like you can't go trade for Sebastian Walcott at any sort of a reasonable price. Cause whoever has him probably agrees with me

and thinks he's great. But Keyshaw, I think you could see him ranked anywhere on lists. Like I don't know where he's ranked by unlike the big top 100s and stuff. I assume he's on all of them, but I'm sure he's kind of all over the place. And, uh, he just isn't sort of a buzzy name. I think the stats are fantastic. Like it's really hard to find any real flaw in his game statistically as a hitter. He's also going to run quite a bit. I just think he fits our game perfectly. He reminds me a lot

of Matt Shaw from what I would expect him to do production-wise. I think he actually compares favorably to Travis Bazzana, the number one pick from last year's draft as a second baseman for fantasy. So like Luke Kishel, I think the price, the price and the sort of upside and floor seem to kind of align for me with him where I think he's probably a pretty good buy right now. Do you think there's generally a point on the list like right now, Keith Law, a month or so ago was on the show and he just said it was harder than ever for him to round out his top 100.

I think he's got Kishel at like 62 on that list by the way so he's in and he thinks that the bat will even play if he has to move to left field which is pretty high praise and they can the scouting world for anybody's bat if it plays in left field that's good. I just wonder like are we looking can we really find players beyond the top 40 or top 50 even that will have that kind of impact? Because I try to remember where you remember where Parker Meadows was ranking on your list before he broke through to creep up into the at least the back half of the top 100.

There's the great feature where I can chart that up for any player. And I'm doing that right now. So Meadows Meadows didn't get up into the top 100 for me until like the end of 2023. And then he got up into he was in the top 50 from basically October 20, 23 till he graduated. That's right. The chart, the chart is there, even if it's not showing up automatically, you can click on it and it actually shows up. So yeah, so you can find these players even outside the top 25, top 50 range.

They exist there. With Keishel too, it's like if the twins have that banged up core that we were talking about earlier and they need to find a way to make good on a really disappointing 2024, and they're doing it on a tight budget. This is a team that's been very quiet. Aaron Gleeman has written about this ever since they added Carlos Correa.

They have done very little as far as adding payroll. They tried a few things that were smaller moves and they had that massive fade last season. I could see a world where it's not just Keishel getting the chance to. Emmanuel Rodriguez could play in the big leagues this year. Could Walker Jenkins play in the big leagues as maybe like a late August, kind of like the Gunnar Henderson, Corbin Carroll timeline we saw a couple of years ago? Is that actually in play where all three of these guys are in the lineup together before

this season is over? I do think that's in play. They have a lot of outfielders. You know, Emmanuel Rodriguez is really unfortunately kind of trending towards being one of these guys that we just sort of have to mention the injury history with. He's kind of always missing time. I think he would have debuted already actually in the majors if he had just kind of had a normal injury history as a prospect. So definitely tracking Emmanuel Rodriguez's durability this year, but if he's

just healthy, like if he gets over this and doesn't re-injure anything, I do think we see Emmanuel Rodriguez this summer. I think he's on the 40 man too. And then Walker Jenkins, he's definitely trending as sort of, you know, could finish the years in a one overall prospect, could, you know, come up late August is now the time when teams can promote guys and just keep them up and not play them so much that they exhaust their prospect eligibility. So that could happen with Jenkins. And then, yeah, Keyshaw, I think he probably is up this summer, like as early as maybe June.

Like they're really high on him. I think Brandon Warren, who covers the twins mentioned to me that that's basically Keyshell's spot at second base like once once he's ready if it's Brooks Lee if it's Edward Julian if it's Willie Castro they're gonna move somewhere else and Keyshell will be the second baseman so there is a scenario where all three of those guys are up you know I don't think they want to kind of kick someone like Trevor Larnak to the to the side or Matt Wallner to the side either. So could be a challenge to make all the pieces fit there. But that would be the thing that like all three of them playing at the same time. I don't know if

there are enough injuries that could could make that happen. But I think they're all in play to to be up this year. And maybe it's more of a this season didn't go well, their sellers the deadline, and then there's just more roster spots available. that's the way they all get up there together too. It might be hard for a contending team, Twins team, to make that trifecta happen all at once. What do you think about Colby Thomas? I think Eno and I have kicked that name around a couple of times and Max Muncie came up last

week and we were asked about the A's third base situation which is a lot worse than I had realized with Gio Urshella and Luis Urias playing there but do you see Colby Thomas as someone that could be like a steady contributor in year one? I mean it's an extreme fly ball sort of approach, maybe a little bit of excess swing and miss especially against top level pitching but does this actually look like a profile you would try to stash away in a 15-team league if you thought he was going to get an early season look? So since my last update, I updated it January 15th, my top 400 rankings. I feel like I've gotten a little bit lower on Thomas and a little bit higher on Muncie. And so like I think Thomas was kind of borderline top 50, Muncie was borderline top 100. I think Muncie is clearly a top 100 guy to me now.

And then the only issue with Thomas is, you know, I think Nick Kurtz is kind of forcing the issue a bit sooner than expected. Their first round pick from last year's draft first baseman gets a Jim Tomey comps. So if Nick Kurtz is up, let's say he's up in like beginning of June and then they move Tyler Soderstrom to DH a good chunk and they find a way to move Brent Rooker to the outfield, then all of a sudden that's Colby Thomas's spot. Maybe they don't find room for all three of those basically DH first base types and they have to keep DH and Rooker and maybe

maybe Sederstrom loses out or maybe Kurtz doesn't come up. But as I'm sort of envisioning Nick Kurtz making his push to the big leagues, I think that that kind of could take a spot away from Colby Thomas, even though they don't play the same position, because I think either way, they're both trying to replace Seth Brown on the roster. Yeah, there's like three people that we're trying to cram into Seth Brown's roster spot right now. And I think it speaks to the A's maybe hitting on a couple of things that maybe weren't in place a year ago. I mean, Kurtz, they just drafted, of course.

But Thomas's development has gone really well. Muncie's development has gone really well. And I think this time last year, I was very critical of the fallout from some of the big trades they had made. It hadn't been a window where the same front office had been in place for a long time was hitting, trading away the likes of Sean Murphy and Matt Chapman. You looked at the fruit of those kinds of trades

and you're like, this is not a good return. They got quantity, but they didn't get big leaguers. They didn't even get part-time big leaguers. Now they're starting to at least connect on some draft picks and find a good mix of guys that can be impact players. So you add that to a few development success stories and suddenly things do look a lot better on this roster. You know when I were talking about Soderstrom's bat

and he was pretty quietly a lot better last year. I mean, the underlying numbers, the quality of the contact are really good. Do you see an ability to sustain what he was doing in 2024 over a full season's worth of plate appearances? Is that actually a true talent sort of breakout from Tyler Soderstrom that we just saw? And is this also a bat that just plays somewhere even if Nick Kurtz bumps him off a first base? Yeah, I buy it. And the strikeout rate is what was really surprising.

Because obviously he was more productive as the season went on at AAA. But I think it was a strikeout rate under 20% over his last 150 plate appearances or so, which is out of character for Sadrstrom. And it's not like he was a guy who was like 24, 25, spending another year at AAA. Like he was just 22 and he's only got 100 games at AAA

under his belt or 110 games. So it's not like he's a quad A guy. And so for him to get that strikeout rate to where he did, I mean, we know the power's there. Yeah, I love Sadrstrom. It's just about making the pieces fit. I hope that the whole, we know the power's there. Yeah, I love Soderstrom. It's just about making the pieces fit. I hope that the whole, you know, still playing him at catcher thing,

I hope that that doesn't cut into his offense because, you know, maybe that was part of why he was able to take off is because he was playing so much first base, but yeah, I think the bat is definitely good enough to play every day for Soderstrom. They just have to find a place for them. I had a few other names I jotted down for today's show.

You can let me know if any of these guys are interesting to you. I have this developing minor conspiracy theory that Cole Young is going to debut for the Mariners this year. I think they need to start moving guys that are in that infield mix up, just to get a feel for how the pieces will eventually fit

as some of the more talented younger guys get there in the years ahead. And also think because they went so cheap this winter, there's going to be some internal pressure on that front office to find some kind of success story in that group of position players. Yeah, I think you're spot on with how they're going to push Cole Young. I actually had a like if I hadn't gone with Luke Keyshell for my answer, I had a different Mariner infielder that I was had a, like, if I hadn't gone with Luke Keyshell for my answer, I had

a different Mariner infielder that I was going to throw out and that's Michael Arroyo. But I do think Cole Young is definitely ahead of Arroyo and a much better defender. So I think we see him first. Arroyo just as a guy who's like a top 50 prospect who maybe isn't valued like that other places, power, speed, hate the ballpark. But my comp on Cole Young for a while has just been Bryson Stott, but with a worse park. And I think that's exactly what he's going to be. It's not going to be that exciting in fantasy, like from just where are you drafting him. But if you have him in dynasty, you'll be able to use him for a decade and it'll be very productive, just not like a star middle infielder.

But yeah, Michael Arroyo was another name I was gonna throw out as just sort of a guy to buy this off season. Yeah, I think it's just sort of getting out in front of Cole Emerson and Felney and Celestin eventually being a part of that mix too, just figuring out where do we wanna play these guys and can they all hit enough to play together

in the long run? I think that's the question that Jerry Depoto and company are going to have to answer. Going further down the list, I flagged a couple of names that you can throw anybody into the conversation you want. I was trying to answer the bad depth charts part of the questions that came in. I thought Jared Serna in Miami was kind of interesting because there's power, there's speed, who knows? Like they're so bad, anything's possible in that position player group.

Alan Roden's become a little bit of a bit on the show just because he just looks like he's gonna hit, man. Like he just, he's interesting. Eno was shocked when I said his name, like, who's that? So I felt good, I stumped Eno completely. And then a guy that I think you liked at one point in time Because he wouldn't be on my radar if you didn't write about him or have him ranked somewhere Tears so renelless in San Diego man, like I'm kind of intrigued I think there's a chance that he ends up playing a lot Maybe it's more backloaded toward the second half But do you have anybody outside the top 100 where the depth chart is so soft that you feel like the doors wide open for something?

Something good to happen for somebody. Did you talk about Serna at all with Eno? Because when we're doing our Devil's Rejects draft, I'm always keeping the queue populated with prospects I want us to consider. And at one point in the draft, Eno was like, I like Serna, let's take him. And so we took Jared Serna. And I agree with you, let's take him. And so we took Jared Serna. And I, you know, I agree with you, they targeted him in that trade. Like, I think they view him as a future everyday player for them. You know, he kind of gives me like Luis Arias type of vibes, just as

sort of a smaller, you know, second base, probably, although they might, they might try to shoot him in at shortstop. you wonder if he's gonna make quite enough impact to be interesting in fantasy but I think the the strikeouts are you know it's he's got that in check and wasn't old for the levels or anything like that so I dig the Serna call out the Alan Rodin one like he's you know my ears perked up as soon as he kind of got name dropped right away at the beginning of spring training by the GM. Like that's pretty rare. And when you have that from like a guy that's all statistics

and like not many people are writing about him, like true scouts are writing about Rodin. When you have the GM go out and name drop him, then it's like, oh great. Like, so these stats might actually mean something. I had a couple of names that, and with Ornelis, he's been around for so long, it's crazy that he's still like 23 or 24, whatever he is.

But yeah, I think the opportunity is there for him. I had a couple guys that I just wanted to throw out that they are in my top 100. Like you were talking about how Keith Law is having a hard time building out the top 100. Like there's really not anyone I really like that's outside my top 100 unless they're just years and years away.

But Sal Stewart of the Reds is a name I'll throw out and then Ryan Clifford of the Mets. Two of my favorite hitting prospects in the game. And there are two guys that I just always end up with whenever I'm doing one of these industry prospect mock drafts or something like that. So I know I'm higher than pretty much everyone on Sal Stewart and Ryan Clifford. And I think they're both going to just tear the cover off the ball this year. And I think they already have kind of earned more respect than they've gotten.

But I think this year is going to be huge for both Sal Stewart and Ryan Clifford. Yeah, you're a little high on both. But I mean, I'm intrigued as well for those, they look like they could be impact guys. And Stewart, I think, if you're worried about in-game power, like the ballpark, will eventually scrub that too. So that's kind of the extra little thing that I like about him,

at least as long as he's in the Reds organization. I didn't just come up in our conversation as when we were asked about specifically, this question came from Tuesday in the Discord. What is Chandler Simpson's realistic ETA for the Rays? I think the question also mentioned doesn't believe that Johnny DeLuca is much of a roadblock. Right, yeah, I mean, I think they wanna see

if Johnny DeLuca or Christopher Morrell are roadblocks or not. And if they prove to not really be earning the playing time they're getting early in the season then I think Simpson becomes a name. Like I think like we could see Simpson back up in mid-April if they just think they're getting nothing out of one of those outfield spots because at least with Simpson they're getting that crazy weapon on the bases and just putting the ball and play nonstop. So I really like Johnny DeLuca. Like I think he is underrated by many. I think he has sort of like a 12 homer, 30 steel upside if you really squint, but he's going to have

to just be better at the plate than he was over the full season last year. Obviously they're not going to just keep playing him if he's getting on base at like a 290, five clip and not hit for much power. But I think they think DeLuca can break out. I think he can as well. But I don't think they're going to just be patient with DeLuca and Morrell for months and months. Like this is still a race team that has good enough talent on its overall roster to compete this year.

So I think it could be really soon for Simpson if these guys are not performing, specifically DeLuca. You could go to a DeLuca-Simpson platoon right away if you wanted to do that. So it's kind of going to come down to just how well DeLuca plays, I think, earlier this season. I'm high on DeLuca. I think he's going to fine but if he's not I think we'll see Simpson right away. It's probably a world where you could have DeLuca and Simpson in the same outfield together too. Like that's not it's not impossible. So that'd be a case where Morell's not hitting probably if that plays out that way which would be bad for me. I've got a lot of Christopher Morell. I just think he hits the

ball hard enough like the Rays have such a good track record of making tweaks with approaches. And I think with Morrell, if I'm not mistaken, he crushes the pitches he should by Seager. He's elite in that regard. So there's something there with Christopher Morrell, even if there's not really a defensive position. The other question with Simpson that comes in is, who is this guy as a player? I don't know if I've seen anyone quite like him because the K rates not usually this low I mean the Billy Hamilton Roto comp would be the first place my mind goes cuz like who else could run this much

play good defense in center field and Like what could they do Billy Hamilton struck out a lot more than Chandler Simpson has struck out as a minor league player I think that alone sort of starts to break down the comp a little bit. And I just think like this era we're playing in right now is even better for a player like this. Free stolen bases for a guy that didn't need that sort of help, like that sort of maxes out the possibilities of how much Chandler Simpson

could impact a game. I don't think I've discussed anyone in sort of side text conversations more this offseason than Simpson. And if you go all the way back to the fall, all those conversations started with how good of a defender is he because pretty much all the public like baseball America, fan graphs, wherever like they were saying this is a fringe average defender in the outfield. He used to be a second baseman. And so I was texting with people like how good is the defense? How good is the defense? Because if he's just a fringe average defender in centerfield, then none of this matters.

They're not going to take the hit on power and defense. But then as we kept moving throughout the offseason, you know, you had people reporting on like late season Simpson defense and saying that it was better than fringe average and then he comes out this spring and he's making catches out there. So it does seem like he's gotten significantly better defensively and not that long of time, which is great. And I think he has to basically be, to me, he has to be a plus defensive outfielder for him to be playing regularly given the complete lack of power you're going to get from him. But if we assume that he could be a plus defender out there, then I think all bets are off just

in terms of what he could put up at the plate. Hundred steal seasons, I think, in play with him. But the question for fantasy, I think, is sort of how do you value that player? Like, do you put him into your valuation formula as, you know, 100 steals and a 300 average? I don't think you should do that because you don't wanna be using Chandler Simpson in your lineup for all 100 of those steals. You should almost put him in as like,

Chandler Simpson 30 steals and a good average, because if I start him for more than 30 of those steals, he's going to tank my RBI and my power so much that it's going to end up costing me. So I think just knowing how to value him and knowing how to use him, knowing that he's not just a leave him in your line of every single week, all season long type of guy, that's kind of how I'm considering him, assuming the defense has indeed come all the way around to the point where he can be a weapon out there.

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and it's just going to be impossible to get them anyway at a usage appropriate sort of redraft price so it could be a fun player for me to watch that is never on my teams. It's also hard to build around players that are heavily balanced on two categories like that. I mean the other downside if you can't just leave them in your lineup all the time, if you're relying on Simpson for more than just even the 30 bags, if he gets hurt, you're chasing steals at a bunch of positions and you only got one spot in your lineup that you can fill when he gets hurt too. So I just find players like this to be a little bit challenging to work with in general, the

most similar players, imbalanced players as a group. Let's move on to some pitching. Got the basically the exact same question came in from Matt looking for pitchers that could make an impact this year due to opportunity on the pitching side. I put a ton of names on the rundown, but open question for you, who did you think about when this question was on the sheet?

The whole idea of like under the radar pitchers this time of year, it's just, that one throws me because it's just all I see on Twitter is just people trying to unearth Stuff with with all these pictures, so they don't stay underrated for long if they are indeed underrated You know Michael McCree V is just a guy that I thought I'd mention. I've been fascinated by him all offseason I tried to get you know to take him in Devil's rejects, you know, wanted nothing to do with it, which I understand. But I just think that McGreevey does not get enough credit for how many innings he logged last year,

just an insane amount of innings for a pitching prospect, 150 in the minors, 23 innings in the majors last year. So he threw more innings than most big league starters did last year, and he had a ground ball rate over 60% in the majors, had a walk rate below 7% at AAA and in the majors. And his slider, I think, is a plus pitch. So, you know, I know that the fast ball,

especially last year, was a low velocity offering, but I love Michael McGreevey. I just don't think there are many guys that can do what he did from a strike throwing standpoint and innings log standpoint. And he's just entering, you know, now is age 24 season. So I'm really intrigued by what McGreevey can do with like a full year in the rotation.

I'm guessing the reason you know, wasn't in it like the model likes the slider, but the model likes nothing else. It's probably like a 90 fastball, not 90 miles per hour, but like a 90 great fastball. And I think there's something happening with pitching right now that it's been happening for a while, but I think we're finding people and places that are defining this better.

It's having similar shapes and having true deception, like we're getting a better sense of what makes it hard for an opposing hitter to square up a pitcher. And it's not always the guys that have best stuff. It goes back into the multiple fastballs thing. Like if you had a four seamer, a two seamer, and a cutter, those all generally look pretty similar coming out of the pitcher's hand.

Those late movements, you're kind of guessing a lot more. And then you end up having a wider arsenal because usually you pair that with at least one breaking ball and then a change up or something, you have five pitches. And I think we're seeing deeper arsenal guys. Like something that was old is becoming new again. And I think because of pitch development

and the advancements on that side, breakouts can come from so many places now. I mean, you and I, we were hosting the Farm Fridays on XM a few years ago, and I think at the time, it was like when Joey Lucchese was new, there was one of the episodes we were talking about, a bunch of guys had been promoted, and they all seemed pretty similar at the time.

Like good minor league results, command first profiles, it was hard to discern, like we had a question about three or four different guys, and I think Bieber may have been part of this group too. He ended up being the best by far. But at the time we looked at it and we're like, well, there's not that much ceiling with anybody here. I think what's happening for me is my idea

of what a pitcher's ceiling can be is changing. I'm just more open-minded about a report that says back end starter, possible swing man. I can look at that and say, you know what? That's like the median outcome, but what if we get a better than median outcome? That happens. And I think it's more likely to happen now because there are different organizations and pitching labs that are out there that are just trying different things and may be able to take the things a pitcher does well and really lean into those strengths more effectively than they have in the past. So I'm much less quick to dismiss a player based on the reported most likely outcome

than I was a few years ago. Because we've seen enough guys come up with what looks like backend stuff who become twos and threes and they just miss more bats than expected because the command is that good and they just locate everything so well that opposing hitters are they're taking a lot of called strikes and there's just different ways to get there. One thing that's evolved with me throughout my years of doing this is like I just care so so much about proximity with pitching prospects. You know like Sean Burke is another guy like he just gets up to the the White Sox last year and they make him a better pitcher on

the fly because their best coaches are at the big league level. That's kind of where I want to find stuff is like who's knocking on the door of the big leagues or already has seen time in the big leagues and is going to help me right away because it's such a trap in dynasty leagues to spend significant resources like buying these buzzy pitching prospects who are multiple years away from the big leagues because so much can go wrong in that time. And there's these guys that are breaking out who are right on the footsteps of the majors and they're 24, 25, 26, you know, they're not that highly ranked, but like that's where the value is on the pitching prospect side of things. It's not rostering these.

Don't use your number five pick in your first year player draft on Chase Burns. Take a take a college bat and try to find your pitching prospect. Really, really cheap. That's kind of the way to approach it, I think. I think it's like try to find the next Spencer Schwellenbach. Like don't shoot for the top of the prospect list right away, because there's so much turn on that part of Liss anyway Because of all the injuries and all the surprising leaps forward in development that it changes really quickly

I got a whole bunch of names. I'll just run through a few of my favorites I think Braxton Ashcraft is pretty interesting because the Pirates actually have figured some things out on the pitching side and I think everyone's really focused and and this is even in the roto-wire outlook, I think too. Bubba Chandler and Thomas Harrington are very highly regarded, two guys that are ranked ahead of them. They are also upper level guys. They could, the order in which those guys debut

could actually be based more on who is on regular rest when the pirates need a starter more than it is on like pure merit. Like that's just how close they all are. And I look at Ashcraft like great results by control right low walk rates in the upper levels still plenty of swing and miss to go with it. I think Eric Lungenhagen has a 70 grade on that slider so he was actually a keeper in Devil's Rejects like one of the last guys we decided to keep this year and it might take a little more patience because of Chandler and Harrington.

But I think Braxton Ashcraft is pretty underrated. Yeah. And the reason I might be underrating him is I'm kind of betting against the workload. Like I'm sort of fading Ashcraft's durability and ability to hold up as a big league starter. But I'm not I'm definitely not fading the skills and You know that's one where I could be wrong on and like I think this is sort of his proof-it year as a starter like 25 years old gonna open the air at AAA and They're gonna want to see you know, can you throw a hundred innings for the first time? Can you maybe get up to 120 innings after throwing 73 last year?

So I think like if he can do that this year that's that's huge and all those skills you talked about will come to light obviously but he's just been he's been banged up for a while. Hasn't you know last year was a season high in innings 73 so that's the only reason he's not ranked higher on my top 400. Yeah so I'm looking for guys like that guys that haven't done it yet that have all the tools and just need time. The benefit of time could go a long way for someone like Ashcraft. The Brewers, it seems like just because you and I are in Wisconsin, we think about Brewers

pitching a lot. I think they're in that group of organizations that get the benefit of the doubt. I see people throwing Logan Henderson on the bottom of deep league rosters. I even see some love for KC Hunt. And one common refrain we start to see and hear about Brewer's pitching is that it's different. It's different. There's all sorts of, for lack of a better word, weirdos

as far as guys that are in that organization that either have one really nasty pitch or they have some funk or there's just something about them that's not normal and it goes into that hey weird is good like especially for for pitchers like it's tough to hit something you don't see very often so does Henderson or Hunt or anybody else in that organization sort of pop for you just because like yeah they don't fit the traditional scouting mold but it actually works because of things that people aren't

necessarily looking for. I'm glad you mentioned Henderson. I don't really know what to make of him man. Like he is such a weirdo and I feel like it's like I don't want to be a sucker that buys into like what he's doing but he's had just so much success. It's like, should I bet against the like everything I've learned about scouting tells me to bet against the six foot righty whose best pitches change up and doesn't really have a breaking point. Right. Doesn't seem to have a feel for spin, which the more I talk to people who know pitching kind of seems like an essential ingredient for being a big league pitcher.

And the right handed part is is huge, because like we, we've seen this kind of work with lefties much more often, but they just have really good command. They have a really good change up. But yeah, Henderson, he's one of those guys where if you're rostering him. Great. Like ride it out, see where it goes. I'm not enough of a believer to sort of acquire him right now or draft him in draft and holds.

But I could see myself being wrong because it's the Brewers. And like you said, if it hasn't been done before, hitters haven't really seen it attempted to be done before. Right. So yeah, he's one of the more interesting prospects in all baseball. And maybe it has a short shelf life. Maybe it works for a year or two, or maybe the teams in division that see a little bit more often start to pick up on it and it becomes less effective

I'm open open to my mind to that possibility as a one of the outcomes as well a few other names Miguel Lola came up when I was doing devil's rejects prep or their buddy JH and Gotta check his status and coming out of the weekend He actually left Friday's spring breakout game with right shoulder discomfort But it's another organization where I just kind of have some baseline trust that they either find big leaguers at a rate better than others,

or they actually do well enough in development to just squeeze as much as they can out of guys. 30% K-rates last year, mostly a double A, I think he made one appearance, a triple A. It's a can he improve the walk rate question enough to be a good big league starter question. I think with Lola I think he's in the perfect organization He definitely is a great name to bring up here because I I think I've got him

Probably ranked the highest of these guys. Maybe no Cameron might be higher But yeah, Lola's fastball like I'm a huge sucker for a big time fastball in the upper levels. And he definitely has that. And the Astros are one of those teams where so many times there's been a guy where it's just like, oh, he's probably going to end up in the bullpen. And they somehow turn them into a good starter for three or four years. So if any team can make Alola effectively wild starter, I think it's Houston. And I think based on how they've pushed guys in the past, like the shoulder thing probably slows that down a little bit,

but I don't think he would have spent a ton of time in the minors this year if he came out throwing strikes this year, but yeah, the injury. I also hate buying injured pitchers, so that might lead to him falling a little bit on the update here later this week. Yeah, we gotta see what kind of update we actually get from the Astros in that case.

But yeah, even 100 Brown, like look at 100 Brown's walk rates in the minors, always higher than what he's done during his time in the big leagues. I started to speculate on this over the weekend. I started to say, are they letting pitchers do things in the minors and then taking it away? Like in pursuit of stuff, are they saying, yeah, try to throw anything anywhere and we don't really care what happens to the minor leagues, the results don't matter as much, we don't care if we win or lose, we want your stuff to be as nasty as possible.

They bring you along, they get you in front of the big league staff and the big league coaches and the big league catchers and they say, okay, now we're going to simplify, now we're going to do stuff, I don't know, like the raise one target or we're going to at least give you fewer options, and maybe that's what it is. That's where it comes back to having the scouting eye to understand, is it really a command problem, or is it a decision making problem,

or something in development that's causing them to struggle with control in the miners when they're may actually not be as bad of a control problem as we think. And they've done it with a lot of different guys. Yeah, I think that's a good theory. I mean, Arigetti last year, Luis Garcia definitely fits the mold. Christian Javier, they've done it with more guys than than any other.

Blanco Valdez, I think, as a prospect of tons of I didn't think I think Fraumber Valdez was going to make it as a big league starter. That was going to be too many walks. Hunter Brown was by far the most critically acclaimed of those prospects. And even he wasn't like a guy that was, you know, thought of as like a Jackson Jobe type, right? So the fact that they've taken four or five guys who I think on most public lists were maybe never top 100 prospects and turn them into mixed league top 40, top 50 starters. Like I think you have to look at teams

that have a tracker going to doing that and give someone like Ulola a bit more benefit of the doubt than you would if they were in another org. I know we're already at an hour, so I'll try to get us out the door here in a couple minutes because we've got other places we've got to get to. I'm sure Chase McDermott is kind of interesting. He's coming off of a lat strain this spring.

He nearly cracked your top 100 last summer. I was kind of looking at the prospect chart for him before we started recording. And you think about the way things are unfolding for the Orioles. This is also sort of a big time stuff, questionable control sort of profile. But if we assume any of the similar characteristics about Orioles pitching prospects that we were just discussing with the Astros as an organization, maybe there's actually a little bit of room for unexpected growth

for McDermott once he gets that chance. Yeah, he's just so old. That's why he's not that highly ranked for me right now. Like he's going to turn 27 during the season. This is a swing year for him, I think, in terms of is he a reliever, is he a starter, you know, behind Cade Povich, certainly, once he gets healthy. But there's strikeout upside for sure with McDermott.

One guy I wanted to throw out just before we go, Justin Robleski with the Dodgers. I think he was another guy I was trying to get, you know, to take and he wouldn't bite on him just because he's, you know, what, SP nine on the Dodgers depth chart or whatever. But I just think Robleski would be thought of and Landon Nack, certainly as well. These guys would be thought of as exciting arms that are ready to break camp if there were another organization. So part of the reason, you know, you can go after injured pitchers. You can go after guys that like have weird stuff like Henderson.

I think you could maybe go after Robleski just because he's so cheap because people just don't think he's going to pitch any time soon. Yeah, I really felt that fall with Robleski just because he's so cheap because people just don't think he's going to pitch any time soon. Yeah, I really felt that fall with Robleski and NAC was very inexpensive in Devil's Rejects and maybe you got to wait a month or two for the opportunity to come along, but you're going to feel good about using them in a league that deep if the injuries do bite again and create that opportunity for NAC with the Dodgers. Three names I threw on the sheet for 2026, Grant Taylor in the White Sox organization, Nester Herman in the Orioles organization,

limited workloads in college for Nester Herman. If he does well at AA, I think he's in a jump up prospect list just because it's just go out there and prove it I think for him. And then Jaden Haum in the Tigers organization, who I know is starting to pop on a few lists, I think Keith had him pretty aggressively ranked,

but the guy I wanted to ask you most about is just Grant Taylor. Because I think this could be pretty aggressively ranked. But the guy I want to ask you most about is just Grant Taylor, because I think this could be excellent stuff. And it could be another example where because there are some very intriguing prospects closer to the big leagues have been the radar a little bit longer with Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith. I think there's a little bit of an opportunity here where Grant Taylor is just overlooked because of a couple of names ahead of him on that organizational depth chart.

Yeah, I'm going to push him up my rankings a bit on the update this week. And he's tough because there's obvious durability issues in his past. But this is also the type of player like there was a time when like Jesus Lizardo or Walker Bueller were at the same stage of their development and had similar dominant numbers and tiny samples. So if you jumped in right away on those guys, you got them for a song and they went on to become number one pitching prospects in the game. So I think Taylor has that type of stuff. He has that type of small sample track record of dominance where he's doing all the stuff we want, like throwing strikes, multiple plus pitches.

So, yeah, I think he's a great guy to go after this season, but I'm sure whoever's got Grant Taylor is excited about having that. Yeah, you're probably not getting Grant Taylor as much more. is excited about having that. Yeah, you're probably not getting Grant Taylor as much more. Maybe you can get him as like a throw in in certain leagues, but you're not like targeting him and like building a deal around him because most people that have them know what's going on. They have them for a reason at this point. But I also think this year is going to be sort of a get right,

you know, maybe 80 to 100 innings sort of year. Next year, it's more like 130, 140. And then it's like 20, 27 before we're talking about Taylor as someone that can have more of a full-on starters workload but you're just kind of playing that long game. It's the somewhat inexpensive dart you can throw in a keeper dynasty league that can pay off if you don't want to go at the top of the board for pitching like we suggested a little bit earlier. Just a quick reminder before we go you can join our discord with the link in the show description.

James, where can our listeners find your work and hear your show? Yeah, do the Prospect podcast every Wednesday on the RotoWire Fancy Baseball podcast channel and then also rotowire.com slash pod. As I said, the top 400 Prospect rankings will be fully updated by the end of this week. I'll probably be finishing those while I'm in Las Vegas, getting ready for my high stakes

drafts but I am hoping to get the prospect rankings done this week. So, roadwire.com slash pod, you can follow me on Twitter, bluesky at real JR Anderson. Must follow, great prospect analyst, great friend of mine and James, good luck to you in the NFPC drafts this weekend too, enjoy Vegas. Thanks buddy, thanks for having me, this was a lot of fun. All right, we are going to head out for today. Eno returns on Tuesday, you can follow me on BlueSky

at DVR.beesky.social. If you don't have a subscription to the Athletic, theathletic.com slash rates and barrels gets you in the door, but yeah, rotowire.com slash pod, at least get a trial, try rotowire stuff out, they do great work over there. Spent a long time working there with James and the crew. So many tools that I use every single day, well worth the price of a subscription. That's gonna do it for this episode of Rated Barrels.

Thanks to our producer Brian Smith for putting this episode together. We're back with you on Tuesday. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.