An All-Time Meltdown and Braves Farm System Check-In

00:00:21
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to episode to one zero of the Hammer Territory podcast. I am your host, Brad Rowland, coming to you on Thursday afternoon, and normally I am joined by a co host, often let'd say most often by Scott Coleman, but for the intro, I am here by myself. I will have a guest joining me momentarily. It is Gorea Vedak of Battery Power at PHJA Prospects for a really fun chat actually about the Braves Farm system that was recorded last night, So the vibes is a little bit different than it would have been today, but Gore is awesome. That is still relevant right now. It's a well deserved, well needed check in on the minor league system and you want to stay tuned for that. But the big league club has to take the lead on this podcast. It probably was going to have something of a topper to the show with about what happened today no matter what, but it will be a longer, more detailed, more frustrated, more maddened discussion here at the top of the show because of the all time meltdown catastrophe. Whatever word you want to use, it's probably appropriate for what happened to the Braves on Thursday afternoon and entering today. Before today, Atlanta had already lost ten of the last thirteen games, including the last three games in a row. Vibes were pretty rough around the Braves already. If you are a recurring listener to the show, you already know how we feel about this. If you're a new listener, please subscribe to our podcast. We cover the Braves twelve months a year. We're always here on the podcast. We're on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, etc. Just search Hamber Territory, leave rings and reviews. We definitely appreciate you listening and watching the podcast always, but if you're new, I recommend listening to the shows from Sunday night, Tuesday Night and Wednesday Night with myself and Scott and Sean Coleman Steven Tolbert talking about what's been maddening for the Braves, struggling being unable to score runs. It's been a fluctuation between trying to be level headed and give context like we want to do as a podcast, but also the frustration and the boro line existential crisis stuff of what's going on with the Braves in recent days. But all of that was trumped by what happened today, so Atlanta looked to be on the way to a badly needed win on Thursday afternoon. Now I would have come on the show and said, hey, it's one game, but winning is better than losing. Essentially would have been my take the Brace. I just had a harmless end to the game. But that did not happen. They were up, if you miss this, somehow, they were up ten to four in the ninth. In fact, it was ten to four with one out in the ninth Inny. So all the Braves had to do was get two outs before they allowed at least six runs and they failed to do that with their bullpen. And it's just an unbelievable set of events. I'll talk about this probably again later in this discussion. But the Braves, according to the people at ESPN Analytics, which are not infallible, but they have a win probability kind of graphic play by a play, pitch by pitch, and they were giving the Braves a ninety nine point nine percent chance to win this game. And that isn't one hundred And we saw that on Thursday afternoon, so before the meltdown and the complete meltdown that it was I would have told you, and this is still true now that the offense actually had a good day. The theme of our podcast, I would say, overall the last several weeks basically has been the offense has not been good enough this year. We all know that the pitching staff today, notwithstanding, has been good enough. It hasn't been elite, but it's been good enough a lot of the season. The offense decided to have a good game today. They scored ten runs. Everyone in the lineup had at least a hit, They had three home runs, they had five doubles, and again they lent it by six. And well, again it is true the pitching has been better this season than the offense by a lot. That was not the case today. Now I will say they got through seven innings allowing three runs in this game. So the trio of Holmes, Bummer and Dale Santos are innocent on this one, as are the guys like Pierce Johnson, del Lee, etc. Who did not pitch it all today. Pierce has been really good this season. All that stuff. I do know some fans like Scott Blewett Number one the Joe, write themselves today about what happened here. But also he was in the role today that he's probably supposed to be in. I know we often get calls for him to be a high leverage but that's era based stuff. He has a four point eighty one fifth coming into today, and I think he's probably a back end of the bullpen, like not one of your better guys level of reliever that was on display today. And then, of course we'll get to Iglesias in a moment. So blew It allows a solo home run in the eighth, no problem, still a bid lead, a big lead. He starts ninth inning, that's also still fine. The Braves were again up by six, so you want to try to save the bullpen a little bit, especially with a long trip to San Francisco happening on basically today going into Friday. All fine and again ninety nine point nine percent win probability. After blew It gets the first out of the ninth, but then he allows a home run, a walk, a home run and a walk to the next four batters. So you want you've now allowed three runs, you have a you have a runner on and look, the Braids are still in control of the game. I want to stop right here and say Scott blew. It was bad in this game. It was a disaster. But when he left the when he left the mount, the Braids were still big favorites. They were no longer ninety nine percent favorites by any means, but they were still in control of the game. There was one batter on base, sorry, one winnerund base and a three run lead. When you're bringing in the guy that you are paying to be your ninth inning closer or lady to believer, how do you want to put that right? Sall laces. Yeah, he's had a terrible season. We know that already, but it got worse today. Just to kind of give the snapshot of what transpired when the places came in, I'm sure you would have watched it. I won't, won't We cut every pitch, but immediately a double, an infield single, a PopOut, then a single, a double, and it's eleven to ten. It's that simple. Now, if you want to give any level of grace, and I know that nobody does, and by the way, that kind of includes me at this point in time, if I wanted to stay on brand, I'll say I would point out the Diamondbacks got quite literally four hits in the ninth inning that were nowhere near the strike zone, like hilariously ridiculous hits, including the infield single that kept their run alive, because look, if they get it out there, they probably end the game. All those things. I'm also not going to stay on brand in the way that I normally would hear. That's all I'm going to say about that. It was unlucky to some degree. It was variance, but like Glasis, is not earned the benefit of the doubt this season. That's the simple version of why it's like hard to go down that rabbit hole to say, oh, he did this, and I know we do that. We like to give context, I believe strongly in the process elements of baseball. It's a random game, yes, but you do get stuff from data and all that stuff. The right Syglesias now has a six point seventy five ERA and a five point six six fifth This season, he has been bad, flat out bad, unlucky A little sure if you want to say that whatever still bad and today was actually the actual rock bottom of what transpired here again, double single, pop up single, two run double, and it is in the blink of an eye eleven to ten. It's like watching a slow motion car crash on it in a movie or something like that. It's like, Oh, as soon as the second home run happens against Blewett, I was like pit in stomach, like, oh, they're not going to do this, are they? And they did it. The Braves actually bleue a ten to four lead with two outs, and by the way, when they got the out that they actually got off of that, they were still by They're still up ten to eight, and then a place this allows the single and it's ten to nine. So they had two more chances to get in out and they just could not get another out. Everyone is making the rock Bottom references. It happened on the broadcast, it happened in the postgame show, it happened on Twitter. For people I totally understand that I would probably do the same. The hope would be it doesn't get worse than this, because look, this is one of the worst losses that I can recall during this run for the Braves in the last seven years. Now. Obviously there are playoff defeats that are more crippling, more painful because they're playoff losses. Everything is magnitude all that stuff. Expectations are breaked in. But as far as like vibes, given where they are right now in the standing is given. This is their fourth loss in a row eleven of the last fourteen, and to do this on top of everything else when you actually did score some runs today, and the way it unfolded is that it's really at all time meltdown, like it's one of the worst losses you'll ever see any riger season context. So I don't even know what to say, like it doesn't mean the season's over, but I don't blame anybody for feeling more that way by the day. I said on this show with Scott Coleman, my normal co host, on Sunday, we both said independently, without kind of running by each other, that we had never felt worse about the team this season than we did at that moment on Sunday evening. Well, guess what, folks, The Braves are zero and three since then, with two unbelievably maddening losses like Wednesday's loss looks quaint now compared to Thursday. But Wednesday they blew two golden opportunities to score runs and maybe win a game that they probably should have won. On Wednesday, and that was a bad loss, but it wasn't this. This is way worse than that. You're up ten to four with two outs to go and you can't hold the lead. So yeah, I mean the season. I am very pros based, level headed people that listen to my other work about other teams, and I cover the Hawks and people know that I feel this way. I mean, I'm out of things to say at this moment in time. It's an absolutely hideous result. The Braves, as I'm speaking to you right now, are two games behind the Nationals in the standings with one hundred and one games left in the season. So the optimism, if you want to find it, and I don't think people want to find it right now, would be that the Braves are a positive or one differential team and there's one hundred games left in the season. But I'm looking at the current wild card standings right now, and the Braves would have to pass one, two, three, four, five six teams to even make the third wild card spot. And it's June fifth, So hideous vibes. Everyone's maddened. I mean today it speaks for itself, quite honestly. I mean, there are varying levels of degree of freak out you could have. I understand that, but I would hope that people as a whole cannot agree much. I would hope that people can agree this is one of the worst losses you'll ever see, and we'll stop talking about it now. So from here, the Braves are going to San Francisco and then Milwaukee for a two series road trip with a lot of travel. The first game is a late night on Friday against the Giants. Both the Giants and Brewers have been pretty good this year. Not great team, but still very good teams, better than the Braves have been so far this year. So some real challenges on the road, and we'll be covering it as we always do. So if you made it this far, number one, please stay tuned for Gore. If it's an awesome conversation that was I feel bad that that's going on this episode now, but it was the way the schedule broke. I wanted to share it with you, and obviously that's maybe a little bit better vibe than the rest of this but we'll be covering it all. We don't go away, so please subscribe, tell your friends, and before I bring in Gore talking about about the system in a second, it is first time for a player spotlight segment brought to you by Arena Club. All Right, I'll dive into some more specifics in a second, but I want to start by saying that as of this recording in early June, Chris Sale has been the best player on the Braves roster this season. He doesn't always lead in all of the wins but replacement stats and Matt Olsen does in Baseball Reference, for instance, but I will say Sales been the best player on the team on the whole. Obviously Akunya on a per game basis, perhaps the Chris Sale has been tremendous and he is the guy right now. If I were to guess who's the most confident player that I could project to make the All Star team when the entire league comes to Atlanta at about a month for the All Star Game, that player would be Chris Sale. And as we all know by now, I think pitching has not been the biggest problem for the Braves this year. It's actually been pretty okay or better on the whole. And after a slow start that was always partly due to bad luck, I thought, with some BADBEP stuff, et cetera, Chris Sale has been unbelievably good in the recent past. In the last seven starts, he's thrown forty five and a third innings with sixty strikeouts to only fourteen walks. He has a one point three to nine ERA over that sample size and a FIP about two point four. So he has been absolutely lights out in those seven outings, just dominant, and even more ridiculously even when the last couple of starts for Cress Sale. He may not win, they say young again this year. It would be awesome, of course if he does keep this up and maybe get some run at the top of the league and through that lens. But he has been utterly awesome again, and even when he doesn't give on support. I mean even in a game like there was earlier this week, where if a Brave's lost, still give him a chance to win. And honestly, most guys pitching on a night like Wednesday that Braves will have not had a chance to win. But Sale has been tremendous and he is our Arena Club Spotlight player this week. Also, we have a new slab pack to Rip and you can watch that with us on YouTube right now from our friends at Arena clubs, and here we go with that, and ultimately we are going to pull Roman Anthony from the Boston Red Sox. The outfield prospect arguably the number one prospect in all of baseball right now, twenty one year old outfielder, just a tremendously talented guy, looks very ready for the big league. There's a big debate happening right now as to whether he should be up already in Boston. And a big name, so a very nice pull for us and a very valuable poll for us. I have to say, Roman Anthony is a big name. I know it's not a brave but if you also want to our friends of Arena Club have a buyback program to where you might be able to get the car of someone from Atlanta's roster as well or in addition to Roman Anthony. And of course Arena Club is a fantastic partner for us. And right now you can get twenty percent off your first slab pack or car purchase by going to Arena Club dot com slash foul and use codefoul that is Arena Club dot com slash foul codefoul for twenty percent off your first purchase. I'm joined again. By Gore of and look, it's not a great time for the Major League club, as you and I are talking to say the least I would have wanted to have you on anyway. This is not only because the team is struggling on. To be very clear about that, you've been on the show before. Hopefully you'll be on the show again after this, but uh maybe not. Coincidentally, I suppose like people were maybe cleaner, really stuff, et cetera. I am too, honestly, not that we're punning. I'm not punning at least I would say, not pane of a season that'll be separate. I'm not gonna make talk about the Major Leak Club right now, un once you just desperately want to, it's not it's painful. So we don't have to do that on the show. But I appreciate you being as always.

00:15:09
Speaker 2: Oh, definitely happy to be on. Happy to be with the number one Hawks hater and Homer. Yeah, so thrilled to be with you, Brad. And more importantly, I'm thrilled that the Braves are in a rainde lay so we don't have to really even watch try and pay attention to that team.

00:15:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're we're talking Wednesday night in the midst of a rain delay. It's gonna run on Thursday, so there will be a podcast between now and that. You'll that you will hopefully have heard from Sean and Steven all those things, but hopefully nothing WI could be out of date. It probably should be. None of the big guns. I don't think a pitch you tonight for the system. We're in good shape at any rate. You were on the show back in February, and I have feeld that you were not super low on the system. Like not that anyone is saying this is an incredible system right now, but we talked about some guys you're optimistic about, et cetera. Some of the national reports have always been a little bit more mixed. I would say, pretty low on the brain coming into the season. Now. I know, like it's only been like two months of baseball, but I have to ask you ProAb before we talking about some players in the farm right now, how you feel about the system is it is it looking better? Is it looking worse? Like your overall like vibe check on the minor leagues of the great right now, vibe.

00:16:16
Speaker 2: Check is good to say it. Frankly, you know this system is pretty big, pretty improved from previous years. It's not in the heyday when you had Acunya and Ozzie and them in there, and it's just you wanted to watch every single day. But you know, at the same time, we're seeing a lot more quality play across each level. You know, the Triple A team Gwenett Stepper is not really too many prominent prospects outside of a couple of pitching prospects. But then when you look down, especially Rome Augusta and then especially the FCO in the Dominican Summer League that just started this year, there's there have been quite are this week rather not this year. You're seeing a lot higher quality of play. And it's not just the pitching prospects. It's the positional prospects that we've all been waiting on for quite some time with all of the graduations of Riley, of Ozzie and them. And what we're seeing is while it's tight, while it's kind of light at the top of the organization, we're seeing a lot more depth, depth accumulating throughout. You have your normal new wave of pictures lighting it up like your Brett Sears, your Luke Scenar that we see every single year player pictures coming out of No, we're not nowhere, but really taking that aggressive step forward. But what we're seeing, particularly this year, as opposed to previous years, we're seeing a new wave of position players really come into their own. We're seeing John Heel really put together quality at bat after quality of bat throughout each game. We're seeing, you know, it's not just he's having a good two weeks. He's having a good month, and we're seeing adjustments throughout. I just said John Heal Ambior Savares, he's putting together more and more quality of bats. While that was never his problem, you're seeing him being a little more aggressive, which was his biggest flag. He often was his approach was so advanced that he knew the strike stone and he wasn't going to swing at something even if it was a good pitch because it wasn't his pitch. We're seeing him be more aggressive and as a result, his batting averages ops have gone up. David McCabe, he's on a bit of a low. He's struggled a bit in the past couple of weeks, but he's really starting to this season particularly put it together, show hisself he's hitting for average, he's hitting for you know, menial power, but he's getting on base. Like David McCabe Camery we've seen most of this seasoning he's had like a four hundred OBP. So it's outside of him. Isaiah Drake, especially in the past couple of weeks, and and Brad I I implore you to take a look at his Baseball Reference page of the last two weeks if you need a small snippet. You're seeing him really have extremely good quality at bets and that's something that's always been a flag. It was he was super raw when when drafted, and you never knew what you were gonna get from him. But you're really seeing the work day in and day out. The twenty twenty four to fifteenth round draft pick Owen Carry has really taken the storm this year. He's provided at the age of eighteen, he hasn't played. You know, he's from New Hampshire. You don't get quality baseball that often. And to have someone come in at eighteen years of age and put together you know, an advanced approach, being able to recognize breaking pitches, not striking out too often, that's something that's huge. And then you know, on a lower level, nig Montgomery has provided. You know, he's completely a wild part. When he was drafted, we just knew he had big power. But we're seeing him make adjustments throughout the season, and while the finish result isn't quite there, he's still going to be hanging off in my personal top thirty despite you know, like a five hundred ops, because you can see those improvements. Then you have Eric partin And who has shown off his versatility for Augusta. He's played second, he's played right field, He's put together really impressive power from that position as well. And then you know a former kind of big on his international guy is called Carlos mount Verdon. He struggled a ton in Augusta this year, got sent down to the SCL already where he got some prime one on one coaching, and we're seeing again a better adjust you're seeing better at bats from him moving forward. So and then you know when you're able to, on top of that, add in a quality arm like Sedgwick Day, what was Cedric Day Grand Prix like he had Tommy John he sat all twenty twenty four, twenty twenty three, he was he was everyone was talking about it because of what he was proving he could do. He was a bit raw, but he was putting just absolutely incredible arsenal. He came back this year, he's lit up the FCL, he got moved up to Rome, and what did he do is in his debut five inning pitch, zero hits, two walks that happened in the first inning, nine strikeouts. So you're seeing a lot more depth accumulating. You're seeing a rise of positional prospects. While it is on the lower end, you know, in terms of age, their ceilings are still high and they're players that you can really think about and project over the next few years. It's going to be kind of this way for at least one more year, I would say, before we start seeing those positional prospects start heading towards double A, and you know, I think probably two more years before we see impactful positional depth. But in terms of where this organization was last year and years before, it is I had a hard time coming up with my top thirty. I put together a list two weeks back. It's not due until July because I know I'm going to be changing it. So it's a really good place for the braves to be in right now and especially the past like year year and a half, we're seeing a lot of higher end talent that there took wild cards on just to take chances. But the player development has been obscene. It's been fantastic, and honestly, it's making me a lot more invigorated about watching minor league baseball on a day to day basis.

00:22:00
Speaker 1: No, that makes perfect sense, honestly, and look, I always admit I'll do it again now like this is not my strength. You watch a ton more prospects, the guys. This is why you're on the show. I'm not an expert on this. Neither is Scott, neither of Steven me Rid Seawan, but I'm that kind of goes with what I've been reading number one from you and your colleagues and Battery of Power and also listening to your podcast all these things. But I got a little literally today. I mean I didn't, I didn't. I didn't tell you this ahead of time. We got a question today to the Hambith Territory account that was basically like, hey, what's up with all the position players in the system, Because I think people are probably again not intentionally, but like, hey, thinking about the future war right now, because the manage teams are doing very well and look a lot of the more prominent for lack of a paric term, famous prospects in the system are either pitchers or they're honestly the two, like two of the the only two position players that were like near the top of the preseason lists were Drake Baldwin, who obviously has graduated and we all know him now, and the Nacho Alvarez has been hurt. And almost everybody else in like top fives that I saw were pictures and top tens with very pitcher heavy and guys that we know and as we know from wall Drop to Camaniti to you know, Owen Murphy, all the guys, and we'll then we'll talk about and you know, I've read stuff. But also like it's encouraging to me to hear what you said about them being in the lower levels. I would always encourage people like I know, Guenette's like the closest things that you probably don't want to watch if you have one, if you have room for one watching experience and prospects probably shouldn't be Gwinette. I tell myself that too, Like you know, because Genet I look, I live in I grew up in Gwinnett County, like Gwnett's like Fly down the Street team. But if you're looking for prospect viewing, that's probably not the one of the system to watch. But no, I'm intrigued by that, and I think people are wondering about the Fisher players because pitching is volatile. We all know that famously. This is a Braves team that started the rebuild looking for pitching and then ended up with a bunch of position players. It's just very interesting how things work. And pittings more about kind always been more about bollatile and always will be more volatile. So having that kind of next wave, hopefully position players, is pretty exciting.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: It seems like, yeah, right now, June fourth, I have ten positional prospects in my top thirty. Now it could change, yeah, but ten as opposed to I think maybe three and in years past. And you know, not to not to tease too much, but everything I've heard about Diego torns down in the Dominican Summer League season just started on Monday, but from what I've heard in the off season, like he's someone that we really, really really want to watch closely.

00:24:27
Speaker 1: Not to make you give away all of the list that's gonna come out at some point this summer. I know you enough to know you probably have like a guy or two that you love on the diship player side. Is there a guy that you're falling in love with, maybe maybe more than anybody else's for perhaps it could be it could be the trending guy too. That's that's totally fine, but not to break up his name and we'll talk about it maybe later. Is I know you were like the smith Shavor guy this spring and that was actually looking really good quietly until what happened happened. But do you have like a guy that you're loving or maybe two guys that you're loving or no.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: Like positional prospects.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, while we're here, I will.

00:25:03
Speaker 2: Say I do want to I do want to guess up. Ambioris a little bit. You look at the box four, you look at his stats, and maybe they don't jump out at the page at you, uh, but we are seeing him start to develop more of that game power. He's got good raw power for short, he's got really good raw power a short, but we're seeing him start to translate out into game power. We're seeing him being a tad bit more aggressive if you go through some of a lot, more of his hits itself have come on like the first and third pitches somewhere around there. And as a result, he's becoming this like really intriguing positional prospects in that when Garrett and I and Brave, he's Braves m iob on Twitter. When Gary and I were talking about him just last week. One player that first really stood out to us in terms of like a comparison was Chris Taylor from the Dodgers, and we looked at his advanced stats when he was in the minors and they are, honestly, they're pretty similar. And when it comes to Davares, he is an elite defender at both second and short. So when you add in plus defense at those two positions, and then a player that's able to hit the ball, you know, maybe like two fifty to two sixty, clip won't be walking a ton. He'll walk about actually nonem we take that back. He'll walk like eight percent, eight to ten percent, but it'll strike out a ton. But also now he's developing that power like that is a top bend shortstop. If if we're talking Major League Baseball, and so like you look at the numbers right now and you're like, you know, seven fifty oh ps. That doesn't really show me anything. Don't always just look at the numbers, like seriously, you got it. You guys gotta go in and watch watch them play it. Watch them at bats. Who cares they can hit a home run, it doesn't matter. But if they're laying off breaking pitches, if they're able to recognize breaking pitches, if they're able to stop their swinging on the you know, if they're able to do zone recognition, like these are the biggest things. Numbers don't matter that much. And while they are the highest indicator of how good a player is, it's just when you that much younger, as it will use Tavars in this example, will just continue to use him. You know. He he's had three seasons cut short with injury. He hasn't had a lot of game reps. So being able to make those adjustments and showing that kind of adjustments that quickly like that, that speaks a lot to him about what he does during the game, what he does outside of the game. So he's one that I'm probably a little more high on than than other people. And then one that's like really really easy because I've I've been talking a lot to some international scouts and Diego Torrents, Like everything I've heard about him at sixteen years old, I was, can I can I can I call myself a dumbass on the show?

00:27:39
Speaker 1: Yeah? Sure, at sixteen hours, you just did. So it's fun at sixteen.

00:27:44
Speaker 2: Hours a dumbass driving to Walmart after practice. He is showing up before in games, he's getting in work, he's talking to coaches, he's talking to other players, and every single time you hear what coaches have to say it about him, like you're talking about quality at bats, recognizing breaking pitches, something that you don't do at sixteen. You at sixteen you see a fast ball and you hit it, and that pretty much makes you approve of like a premium top prospect. Right So him doing that at that young is like a serious green flag to the point that right now I'm like, I honestly can't wait for him to come stateside because I think next year he might be you know, top three for me.

00:28:23
Speaker 1: And yeah, a you know, people who don't know who he is, he was the guy I think he got like two and a half million in the international. He was the biggest pool guy they got this last class. Is that correct? I could be wrong because I'm bad at this stuff, but I think that's time we got it. He was the one guy could probably name from the international class if we're being one hundred percent honest. So no, that's that's that's excited that he's looking the part as someone always hearing, hearing the work, that he's looking the part as the guy who was the big ticket acquisition in the international class. I do want to ask about some pictures, and we'll get to that in just a second, But first we made a word from our partners.

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00:29:30
Speaker 1: All right, we could dive back in. I'm not trying to do this to tease you or make you relive this again, but you were the Smith shav Er guy in the spring. It looked awesome. I was encouraged by that. Obviously. We hope it gets back soon quickly, because I know you were in on him, and doesn't mean you wouldn't be. Now he's gonna be hurt for a while, but he'll be back. Was that what you think? What you thought you were gonna see from ads Bashav until he went down? What you expect because you were obviously again you're high. I'm on this show at the places.

00:29:57
Speaker 2: I was, I was definitely hot on him. Yeah, I think we I have still seen a small glimpse of what he can do. He still gets really excited during games, and he can get super frustrated, and then you start start seeing him overthrow pitches and everything's going glove side, and then it just becomes repeating, repeating, repeating, So like he still has some work that he can do to just kind of just remember who he is and how freaking good he is and how talented he is and just trust this stuff. No, I think I still think this guy is a limit for him. And everything i've you know, I've been able to interact with his parents on social media. I know what kind of family they have. They're going to do everything they can to make sure he's one hundred percent right physically and mentally, and honestly, I'm not even remotely worried. You think about someone that has stormed onto the scene this year and everyone was talking about, you know what, his Rookie of the year odds, and to have an injury like that is absolutely devastating, especially after last year he had the oblique issue, and you used to injuries start to mount and frustration mounts, and then you know, you don't know what's gonna happen then. But I think he's got the right head on his shoulders. I think he'll just put in the time and we'll see. I still think this guy is a limit.

00:31:08
Speaker 1: For him, and I know, you know it's but like it's not it's not good. I was. No one's saying it's good. But it's not a death sentence like it's it's it's an elbow. A lot a lot of guys. I mean, you might even know a percentage. I don't, but like a lot of pitching prospects, pitchers in general, have to have this injury at some point. It just it just tends to happen, guys.

00:31:28
Speaker 2: Human bodies aren't supposed to do right.

00:31:30
Speaker 1: Guys blow out And he's still he's super young, is twenty two years old. I've encouraged why what I saw and hopefully in a year we'll talk about him again, and you know, all all systems firing there. Look, it's kind of transition point. But between that injury and of course right on a Lopez at the majory level still being out for a while longer. We've been talking recently on our show about like how thin rotation is if anything else happens to anybody, and that includes Bryce Eller, who was even supposed to be there all these things, and were getting questions about, like, Okay, what happens if you get another in like who will be the next man up? What's the state of like if they have to throw some guys on the measure league club. And that's not not all about what minor league prospects scouting is about. It's about future stuff too. But in the short term, if they are competing again, I guess that's an if now, which is wild to say out loud, but if they are competing the rest of the season, and it can be bullpen names like is there anybody that you like in the higher levels of the system that like not to be Schwellen back level? But if they have to have the call this year, if they just need depth or need arms of the bullpen, who's on your list? It is like obviously Waldrof spent up before. He's probably the most prominent famous name of these guys. But if the Braves have to dip into the miners, who are you kind of highlighting for that?

00:32:40
Speaker 2: When it comes to pitching, the brains have done a great job just acquiring a large amount of arms that have that, you know, potential. Uh, if we're talking straight bullpen, you have someone like Domingo Gonzalez who is for seeing slider kick change. The main issue with him during the beginning of the season was he kept throwing his fast ball a little bit too high and not too high, but I had too much movement on it, which is crazy to think, but it was sinking down back into the zone and they've been working on making it a little bit flatter and as a result, he started to take off the season. He's a candidate for the bullpen rolling Munz Munoz, who's also on the forty man roster. We're seeing an uptick in command for him. He's foreseeing to seem slider change up. His biggest thing right now is keeping the ball in that upper third as well. That's like the main Let me just go ahead and prefaces by saying, pretty much everyone I'm talking about coming. The main issue right now has been working on that upper third, which is a really difficult thing to do, being able to attack hitters up high and get the ball by them. So that he's also working on that. You have someone like gian Carlos Lara who hit one oh three on the radar gun yesterday. His biggest issue has always been command, but we're seeing a small upticking command there. I really want to see him be to throw that slider more tour even more away from right handed hitters right now he's trying to throw it a little too far in and as a result, he starts to work a little faster, actually not faster, but he loses the mechanics a little bit and is time to home, which is really weird. Changes quite a bit when he gets a little anxious. So that's something that they're working on. It to be cognizant of Hayden Harris. Everyone's talking about his his era, what he's doing over in Columbus. He's got that insane forcing fastball that comes in at ninety one to ninety two, but it's got that vertical approach angle that makes it have a forty five percent with rate. His biggest concern has been that slider splitter. It's starting to get better. He's starting to keep fatters more honest. So he's another person that could be of interest in the bullpen. Dylan Dodd is another one that reinvented himself with the cutter. That cutter has helped him tremendously. He's able to throw it all parts of the plate. So he's another person that's that could you know, you want to see him, he's got starting experience. I would prefer to see him in the in the in the bullpen. Because he's found success there, I think it's paramount to just keep that going. If we need a starter, you have someone like Blake Bergholter, who is obviously he's just a few years removed from college. That cutter is living up to exactly what we expected that as a pure plus pitch. He's working on a kick change too. That's the new big wave, that kick change, and it's uh, he's using that grip now and it's it's becoming successful for him. He's another option in the in the rotation. I got two more names for you bullpen, going back to both bullpen. You got Ellison Joseph down in Columbus ninety three, ninety seven with his fastball. His big thing has been a slighter shape that's showing massive improvement over the past couple of weeks. So another person that could find himself in Atlanta over the next couple of months. And then lastly is a is a complete long shot. But we've seen the Braves that when they find a player that they like and they're that's on their list, they will do whatever they can if he if they show the slightest inclination that they can succeed, they'll they'll push him up. And that name is de or flintis at nineteen. Again, he's nineteen, Like, let's let's say that I don't see it happening, but he's nineteen. He has shown okay basketball nineteen ninety seven, splier seventy eight, eighty three, and then his splitter eighty five A. So those differentials and pitch types, different differentials in pitch velocity. His biggest thing is Kenny get that ball high in the upper third. The past couple of weeks he has so he's able to command three pitches with really good command to all parts of the zone. That's not something you see some pitcher do period. You really don't see it a nineteen year old. And that's why his stock has absolutely skyrocket and that's why the brains are so aggressive with him and moving up up to Columbus. He still has got work to do. But like in that oh no scenario, like, don't be surprised that he's obviously a big you know, he's made a name for himself in the organization and someone that the that the front office is watching, so like, don't be too surprised if something like that were to happen, but like, I don't really expect it.

00:37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's actually funny. I had a Hitten Harrison list to ask you about because he's twenty six years old and he's in he's in double as put up these great numbers and it looks great, and guys like you have it's not just numbers. Like again, I have to box for stout some because I'm not I'm not watching these guys like you are, which is that's why I raise my hand and say that. But I was like, whoa, this guy's got some stuff going on. And then you have a nineteen year old on the same on the same team, like and these seven years apart, it could be more different, and that's part of the fun of baseball in a lot of ways. But that was on my list, and man, night, like you said, it seems far fetched that a nineteen year old would be there, But wasn't he like a top fifteen guy coming into the season, even like as far as your system is concerned, maybe I'll oh, for sure, Yeah, yeah, so he's a he's a real prospect. The nineteen year old point says so interesting to say the least, I I have to ask you about Waldrop because he's they got people know and the guy that we've seen, the numbers are not pretty this year, tons of walks. Kind of the same concerns again on the buck score that we had in the past, But you've actually watched him more than I have. Is he any work close? Like if again, could he be in the mix that they need him or they still try to work some stuff out. I know there's there was obviously some overhauling to do with him, but you know this first round picks, who especially were big names, like people like where's this guy? They're looking at their watch, like, all right, where's where's Walter? What's going on?

00:38:33
Speaker 2: I am like absolutely thrilled to say something positive about him because I feel like I've been like so mean and I don't want to be right, Like a player evaluation and player projection is really hard to do and you don't want to be liken this guy sucks, right, But like you can take those few games at the start of the season and just like literally throw them away. He has completely overhauled his mechanics. What he's done is he's he's lowered his leg lift. It used to come all the way up towards his kneet and towards his gin. Sorry, now he keeps it more towards his waist. That when that's happened, when he finishes his delivery, he's squared towards the plate. What it was before is he used to be falling off the mound towards the first pace side. Now he's squared towards the plate. And what that what that's resulted in is a lot better command in his fastball. What that has done for him is the past year or two, hitters have been able to not even have to worry about his fastball. That thing was going to go here and here and here and here. They sit Splitter, there they sit Slider, and they're able to adjust to the fastball. With him being able to command that pitch and being able to at least locate it, you know, in the and the upper thirds and the lower thirds, it does not be cognizant of ninety five. As a result, that slider is now seemingly a lot slower, That splitter is a lot more dynamic, and we're seeing him go from five to six whiffs the game toward to towards eighteen to twenty a game, and while I don't think he's like quite there, because he can still speed up just a little bit, especially later in the game when someone gets on you're seeing him, you're seeing a picture like really take stock in who he is and evolve right in front of your eyes. And it's it's honestly really freaking cool to watch because like, it's not easy. Hey, this is what you've been doing your entire life. We're gonna change it and you're just gonna have to deal with it. And like it speaks to him his character too, to be able to be like, all right, I need to make these changes. And he's able to do it in a season during games, and it's not something that they worked on before the season. This is something that they saw in like week four and we're like, hey, let's make that change right now. He had I think it was like two side sessions with the abbreviated abbreviated wind up and he put into a game and now it's part of who he is. And as a result, we were seeing again more of his his whift rates gone up. He'll still struggle up runs a little more like three to four game. I don't care like him being able to repeat this and show, and and and like just prove that he is worthy of his raft slot and that he's not just some like flash in the pan. That's really exciting. And he went from someone that I had towards the back half of my twenty which thinks like absolutely bananas to even think about. Yeah, that's not a thing anymore. I really am a big fan of his adjustments that he's made. And while he might not have that you know, a upside that so many people want. I think he's now a major league pitcher, which is not something I had thought of him last year.

00:41:29
Speaker 1: Well, and yeah, I mean there's always been the thought too, because then he guys, especially because I think because he debuted already at the major league level, people thought that he was close to the ideas. That's just natural. I mean, I think if you're going from up myself in that category of like, if you're mostly a major league watcher in this first round pick, guy you know the name of debuts in twenty four, like you're thinking, hey, he might be back soon, you know what I mean. When he goes back down, you're assume he's gonna be back soon. And I'm glad to hear that optimism because I'm not trying to put you in a bad spot to be negative. We don't have to be negative on this podcast, but it's good. It's good to be a little We're allowed to be positive sometimes on the show. I have to ask you. This is kind of you probably already answered to some degree, but I was gonna ask you, like, guys who have changed their standing in your mind over the last two months. Maybe it's Walter, I mean, you just talked about that, but like, it's only been two months. I understand how much small civil sized that action that actually is, but it's almost that sounds crazy and maybe you can correct me. I feel like two months in the minors is worth more than two months in the majors in some respects, like you can kind of learn more. But even if I'm wrong about that, Like, who's changed your mind? Is there an example of that or two? And honestly, it could be negative if you wanted to be too, but I was thinking positive. But hey, if it's somebody that's like, hey, you're that you're worried about, feel free to show that as well.

00:42:37
Speaker 2: I think Harrison Waldrop is obviously at the top of that list because he made himself back into like a starting pitching prospect. First seat, I thought he was gonna be more of a reliever that relies on high velocity splitter. But like now he's a pitcher, and that's exciting to see, you know, some one player I wouldn't I wouldn't say that I was like low on them, but they weren't just really raw and you didn't know, like you really just didn't know if he was gonna hit mess And that was Isaiah Drake, And like he was drafted as a just a complete wildcard we don't need. Pure athlete, does great arm, amazing speed, one of the fast I've ever watched in my life, amazing speed, but we're like, could he hit? Could he do any of this? Like we don't know, And the amount of change I've seen in him in one season has been like okay, no, Like not only is he a legitimate baseball prospect, like he might turn himself into one of the best positional prospects for the Braves. And it's really early. Again, he's still super early in his development. I think he's nineteen or maybe twenty at right now, but like even then, like he's pretty new to baseball. New to this level of coaching, new to like this subtle dedication, and he's taken massive jumps forward, and honestly, I've been you know, I have been wildly impressed. I thought he's someone that you would pop up on lists, you know, when he's like twenty two or twenty three, things start to click. But now you're seeing a player that like, okay, maybe this is the brain's got something. You're seeing adjustments day in and day out, which is crazy, especially at his age. Another player like I already talked positivity about him, But John Eel is another one where like you saw the double plus speed, you saw the great arm, but he's looking like he can stay as short, he's looking like he can recognize breaking pitches, he has a developing hit sole, he's got great power for short. Now your mind begins to wonder, like what kind of upside does he have? And like coming into this year, those two players complete wild cards into being able to like talk about, all right, what's their high end? Like it's actually starting to get really excited and it's really cool to see players like that evolve right in front of you, and like it's not something you see at the very start of the season, but you see developing as they get more and more playing time, as they work more and more and more with their coaches. I have to say the Augusta staff, like, whatever they got Ruben Gottai, they got I think his Garret's name is Garrett Wilkinson. Those guys are cooking with fire, and uh, it's it's important. I would I just want to see these core coaches stay in this organization because you're seeing a very very very quick turnaround in terms of player progression and player development. I would say the Brave struggled with this the past few years. The past season and a half is completely different, and it's exciting, Like you don't know what's going to happen to these players, like now, players on the fringe, on the outside, like a junior Garcia, Like, let's get him to a gustle, Let's get him with those coaches. Let's see what actually can happen to them. So like it's I would say, those two are I think have helped the most with their stock. Ones that haven't. I'm not necessarily down on Lucas Braun, but he had a great twenty twenty four and right now he's just having command with all of his pitches, like it it's gonna happen. That's pitching is heart, so it's gonna happen. And then the other person is uh Is Luis Kwanet. But like, unfortunately for him, he got he broke his hand, he got hit in the risks by a fast law and like you can't, like there's nothing you can do about that. But as a result, he coming off a down year, he's losing so much time in his and his development cycle. And like it's hard when a prospect that comes in with that much punch. You know, he's supposed to be great hit tool premier athletes staying in center and now his stock started, it takes a hit and now he's out with an injury for a long time. How is he gonna respond? How are you gonna come back from a hand injury too? Like as a positional prospect, it's it's so difficult a hand and wrisk, so like it's tough to say, like I'm not like, oh he's off my top thirty or anything like that, but I used to hope that he would be in the top two, top three. I don't see him there anymore. And he's gonna, unfortunately, have to show like a lot more to be able to earn that back, because being able to come back from that kind of injury is going to be very difficult.

00:47:04
Speaker 1: I remember, not that we're about to do this again. I'm not saying that, but I remember during the rebuild, like spending a lot higher percentage of my time following minor league stuff for obvious reasons. Like we're talking, We're just talking about it more all the time, and I uh, I'm getting I'm trying to get back into it more. Like you know this, we joked about it earlier. But I do cover basketball, I do other things, and it's like I have to find time to watch some of these guys that I'm intrigued by. I have to adopt the prospect too. At times in the past, I've kind of maybe tongue in cheek, but like I've had like my guy system that I was like funny about but also loved. Like I was I was the twoky guy back in the day. I loved. It didn't work out for me, unfortunately. Ah, he still getting around, He's he's around, but it didn't work out for me.

00:47:43
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:47:44
Speaker 1: At some point, I'm gonna have to get your pick your brain about who my guy should be because I have to like adopt someone and I'm not smart enough to know who it's gonna be.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: So it's like, and what I do, Just do what I did my guy this year? Owen carry watch him?

00:47:59
Speaker 1: Okay, of.

00:48:02
Speaker 2: Dude, you have too much going on. Just watches that bath. Look at what he does. Look at his pitch recognition. Look how he hits for really good power at his age. Like you'll be You'll be extremely happy.

00:48:14
Speaker 1: All right. Oh and we talked about a little bit earlier. But I don't want to get away without asking this question because of again how thin it is. I know we asked this question kind of before. If I tell you that Bryce Elder gets a blister and he has to miss two weeks and the bravest and a starting pitcher, who would you want in the entire minor league system to start those two or three games in like a month, like, knowing that this could happen next week. I'm not saying it's going to happen. Is there anybody? I mean, it could be a boring guy too, could be somebody in Triple A, and it's not good. Whatever it is, Who would you want to see both like in your in your soul, in your soul and also with your head. You give me two answers if you want to, like.

00:48:55
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, it's going to be Richie Ritchie with the commands for Richie pure arm, talent. Okay, those are my soul.

00:49:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Richie's a guy that it's been on the Reddit for a long time. I think he's twenty one by me twenty two something like that. I mean, a real guy. He's in Columbus right now. Like that's a that's a realistic name, I know, but culture is like the one that I always hear is like the polished guy. But he's also older. Is he twenty four to twenty five?

00:49:19
Speaker 2: Like he's got a college twenty three, played at Auburn and really like it's been I really didn't think he was a starting pitching prospect, and then he's shown his secondary he's taking a massive step forward. I think he's obviously a candidate for that role. But again he's on on the forty man, so that goes a little against him. If I had to choose one that's already on the forty man, that's not Bryce Elder. I'd probably go David Daniels.

00:49:42
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Actually I was gonna ask you because he's not you know, the word prospect is probably not but he's twenty seven.

00:49:48
Speaker 2: But yeah, prospect, he's league. He's just like a pitcher.

00:49:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was eligible for this. He's in the minor league. He's not on a forty man that's actually good. That's actually a good point. And he's a guy that I have seen pitch, which is more than I could say for a lot of guys we discussed today. Okay, that that that qualified. I was looking at the Viral League, the league I look at the forty man roster. Yeah, I mean you got Michael Peterson, Uh, Nathan will Yeah, they're not that many excitingnagames.

00:50:18
Speaker 2: Nathan Wilds and David daniel that I think are going to be like the top two candidates because like.

00:50:23
Speaker 1: The NiFe starters.

00:50:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they both can survive in the majors, right, Like there's no doubt about it. But like, are they going to inspire you? Are they gonna make you like want to watch like Toronto team so much? Yeah, like five innings pitch, three runs?

00:50:38
Speaker 1: Are they a couple? Okay, this is gonna be It's gonna sound funny, are they the twenty twenty five version of Alan Winnen's is that is that?

00:50:44
Speaker 2: Is that?

00:50:45
Speaker 1: The computing it? Yeah, like I might see them start a couple of games but not exciting anybody, and hopefully get some outs. And that's fine, Okay. I just wanted to gaze because again, I don't I'm not trying to wish that anybody, but I think there's a pretty decent chance that someone is not someone's gonna have to make a start at some point. Well hopefully Lowpies comes back, but there's a lot of uncertainty there. We don't. Yeah, no more jinksing, I'm gonna stop talking about us now. But it's it's a it's a it's a concern that I have and look to end this on a high note. He's no longer really a prospect, but Drake Balwin looks freaking awesome, man, And I want to make sure we can talk about that for a second, because you were stolen the versuses of Drake ball when in February when we talked, that wasn't a huge surprise he was the number one guy, but man, uh I and this is kind of maybe goes against prospect. There's always a little bit of a tinge of like I gotta see it with almost anybody, Like I'm just like Scale, I played the percentages. It's not like a good It's just I'm a skeptic until I actually see it. And Ball when I was buying I was buying it, and you mentioned the quality of that bats earlier. It's about more than just the numbers. His numbers look awesome for me, Like even the first two weeks he came up, you're watching every plate appearance with a little bit more were emphasis than you might normally, and he's like one for sixteen, and people were like, what's wrong with him? I'm like, are you watching this guy? He looks like he looks like an absolute pro And not that it was like a huge smart thing that a lot of us said it, but it was like, guys, this is not a I'm not concerned about Drake ball when of course now he's going nuclear. Anythink surprised you about Drake? I mean, obviously we're all excited, but if he looked even better than we thought he might look so far, he looks awesome.

00:52:24
Speaker 2: So I would say, I mean, yeah, He's definitely looked better than than I could have hoped. I knew what he was capable of. You don't really get that many positional prospects like that. The only the last one I can think of, And it's like, Okay, Ronald as a prospers like up here right, Like yep. I listened to him one at bat his first year and I was like, holy crap, Like no, just the way the ball hit his bat, like the way yeah, everything was just the way it sounds, yeah, exactly exactly, and he's up there and so like Drake like he's he was up here for me. He did everything right. He knew how to hit, he knew how to approach each a bat, he knew how to call a game, he knew how to frame ak like he knew how to frame like at that age, with that amount of experience, you could tell he was going to be a success. I thought Floor was major league catcher for him, which is why I did not realize his stealing was going to be potential rookie yet. Well he could. I totally saw him potentially win a Rookie of the Year, but like nine fifty nine seventy ops, Like no, I didn't see that. I thought he was just going to be a really really good hitter and especially a really good catching hitter. But to this degree, not quite. I wouldn't have surprised me if he evolved into this, but this early, Like, no.

00:53:51
Speaker 1: We had to get to Drake because it's just such an awesome story. And absolutely, look, and there are some guys and I won't name names, there are some guys who come up and they get high and there's a little bit of concern for whatever reason, like and occasionally they fix it casually, they don't, they drop off whatever. I hadn't talked to anybody that's like worried about anything with Drake. He might not be this. I'm not saying he's gonna always be like all star level, which is what he's playing at right now. That might not be his baseline. It might be his baseline for the record, but we don't know that yet after a half season. But I don't have any concern at all now that he's just gonna be bad, Like there's pretty much that's just gone. Which for me by June fourth, if your rookie year, for me to be like not at all worried about that is like a pretty big state because I worry about everything. I'm a worrier.

00:54:35
Speaker 2: No, even like I'm not worrying something like that, even almost even thinking something like that is absolutely crazy. But like now I'm like, okay, what's his worst? Are they going to be like a seven to fifty oh ps? Like, oh no, which average catcher?

00:54:48
Speaker 1: A catcher that's like awesome. I have been. I always say this, and it's it's still true. Like the baseline catcher is lower than people think that. It is absolutely if you can hit, if you can hit at all, a catcher, like you're you're feeling good and the Braves currently have maybe the best catching duo in the league.

00:55:05
Speaker 2: It's nice to talk about. I'm gonna to take sorry last thing what people are talking about on Twitter and have a catching prospect, Like people are talking about Drake playing DH to get his bad.

00:55:16
Speaker 1: In, Like it's a as a as a catcher, as a rookie catcher, you're right or playing left field. I mean it's a testament of course, so so so have I we have on the show. But no, it actually is worth taking a half step back and saying, look, it is very unusual for a rookie catcher to be getting that. And yeah, part of it is that the Braves have a left field problem, we all understand that. But it's also because Drake looks freaking awesome to the point where the bat plays somewhere else. Like most catching prospects, the bat is not going to be like awesome at another position. It's they are good catching, they're good hitting catchers and good hitters, and they're not always the same thing. He seems to be a good hitter, you know what I mean, Like he's just a good hitter period.

00:55:59
Speaker 2: And that's he's a good hitter that place catcher.

00:56:02
Speaker 1: Correct. Well, Hey, Gore, if you want to add anything else about anybody else, feel free. If not, I appreciate you being here, and please plug all your stuff because we've kind of did it already. But please feel free to share where people can find you. It's masterful. I follow all the stuff and I try to learn little bits and pieces from you and Garrett and others. But where can people find Oh?

00:56:21
Speaker 2: I appreciate that, Brad. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter x at GVDAC I write over at Battery Power. You can find me there. I think it's like Thursday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday from my work there, and then if you're interested and specifically Braves Minor League Minor league development, you can follow my podcast at Peach State Prospects.

00:56:43
Speaker 1: People should be doing that Rose on Twitter for Twitter, I am a subscriber. Do I retain all the information note, but I do listen to it. It goes in my ears, hopefully I will. That's my way of learning about things in the absence of watching a ton of my league baseball. But hey, I'm gonna pledge to you right now, I'm gonna try to watch. I'm gonna try to watch on Carrie immediately, like maybe maybe right now I'm gonna pull up my my tools to get video in at bats and maybe we'll be able to do that.

00:57:09
Speaker 2: But I got you, man.

00:57:10
Speaker 1: Thank you again for being here. I appreciate it. Listen to Pete Prospects. Subscribe to that podcast. Remember our podcast, Hey Were Territory. Anywhere you find podcasts, follow, follow a core of and we'll see everybody next time.