September Callups With The Welsh

0:00Welcome to the Roto Wire fantasy baseball podcast Jeff Erickson here. I am here with the great Chris Welsh fantasy pros and in this league podcast, he and the bogman have been doing pods forever baseball and football multiple sports. I love listening to these guys. Love jumping on podcasts with you guys. Chris, welcome. How are you, my friend? Erickson is great to see you. I'm doing fantastic. I cannot believe the baseball seasons coming to a close. You know, I'm a prospect guy living Arizona. So like I am starting to dive into the Arizona fall league and if people people probably follow me for that to some capacity because that's going to be maybe our last bit of baseball. So what I'm doing is I am grasping as tight as I possibly can, Jeff, to every little ounce of baseball, to talk baseball with beautiful people like you to think about the Arizona fall league, to go to every single fall league game until we are in the drools and the grossness of whatever legal, you know, stuff we're going to have to deal with next season and will there be a season. So I'm

1:01great and I am just trying to blinders to all that negativity. Amen, brother. I am in the same boat with you as far as that goes. 100% that way. And to that point, like I see articles out there all the time talking about progress. All they sent this offer. We all know that their BS offers. The breathless reporting about these offers at this point in time mean nothing to me. So I'm just like, I'm kind of just, you know, I'm just kind of dismissing it right now. Yeah, the offers don't mean anything. That's like silly. What I always laugh is like when you see, you're seeing the notes that are coming out. It's like, well, here's a PA want, here's an MLB want. I do think it's slightly encouraging. It's coming out over the last week or so that there is like a relative agreement on having like a floor, like they can kind of agree with that. And the terminology of like a cap to the, you know, unlimited spending, like they're going to have to come to terms with that. But there seems to be some agreement on some other spots, whether it's going to be allowing older players to get a free agency sooner to have less arbitration like some of the little underlying

2:02things are starting to get there. There's just one major hurdle. And it's going to be that salary cap. And if they can figure that out, you would hope that can avoid a big major push against baseball. Because I'll tell you just last thing on it. Like three months ago, I had two different people that are connected to people inside of baseball tell me the exact same thing. And they had said that there was no expectation that there would be significant games missed at maximum. April would be missed. And they would be back in in May. That is completely, a tone has completely changed since then. And everybody is now super fearful that there is going to be this major push. But we just don't know. So I'm hopeful that they can get all the other little tiny things out. And they can just be hyper focused for a couple months on whatever this cap situation is because like baseball is doing great. Like people like we're getting more fans in there. It's the worst time. You've got crazy great young stars. You've got minor leagueers that are coming up blowing the gates off. It's the worst time to stop baseball. And especially put a dent in by losing like three months. It just I really hope they give a hard look at that before they go too hard into the cap.

3:06Never put it past baseball to anti market the game like they do. It's astounding to me. I mean, it's you're right. I love the players in the game. But no, the dialogue is evil dozzers and all that. And that's all. You know what? It's it's always been that way. It's not just now. It's not just the dozzers in their work around. It's not just Mark Walters. It's not just that. Remember the Yankees were going to break baseball. George Steinrener was going to break baseball. It's never broken. It's it's I mean, Alex Rodriguez. I remember the contract with the rain. I was going to break baseball like every time. There's always something that's going to break. No, the only thing that breaks baseball is baseball. They're getting in their own ways. The PA and actual baseball and said that the only things that are stopping baseball and its growth. And you just got to really hope that there's a hard consideration into yes, we need to have this and we need to have that. And this is good for the game. But the game is good for the game. It being played and people watching it and consuming it. And this this this conversation is going to be us in like three or four months. This is going to be us in January and February being like, we just need to play the game. And you know,

4:08I hope we have more positive. That's why like I am so blinders to like the end of this season. Prospects, AFL playoffs. I just we need to really, really enjoy it before some of the, you know, juice is going to get taken from us with with this season. Indeed. This season, let's talk about I'm going to be light on the news here because this is going to be more prospect centric today. But quick note on that by the way. So this is I'm not you know, as I call it the Roto R podcast, I didn't call it the Roto R. Prospect podcast. James Anderson has moved on to baseball America. I am thrilled for James. I can't wait to see what he does over there. It's impossible to imprate replace what James has done. He's the best for a reason. I just saw that by I mean, I roughed you in that. But like I saw that news. There's huge news and I text him right away. That's it's a big deal. Yeah, it is. It is. So I'm going to be doing Prospects Center podcast. I mean, I hasn't it has to take to call out the Prospect podcast. We have a plan in place to try to, you know, fill James's huge shoes 15 years in this in the company. And he

5:11you amazing work. And he's going to do amazing work at BA. We're going to keep doing amazing work. We hope you're at Roto R and hopefully you keep tuning in with us. Before we get into our topic of the day and it's going to be September call ups and some specific players. I want to talk about your diamondbacks. Now your dynamics because you're in Arizona. I want to I don't know. I forget. Are you hardcore diamondbacks fan or okay. Yeah. Yeah. Hard. Let's talk about them. In probable season, they are winning the third wild card over the Padres right now. I came into this season pretty negative because of the pitching on the diamondbacks, the starting pitching, knowing that Burns was going to be there. They resigned Zach Galen and what that's turned into was exactly as low as our expectations where Merrill Kelly hasn't been great. That rotation, not good. It is not a good rotation. Here they are. They've had the Kettle Marta madness and here they are. They're winning the third wild card right now. Yeah. I mean, it's impressive. It's resilient that they're able to do what they're doing and they did get reinforcements. You know, it's funny. The rotation actually didn't go into the season hating the rotation.

6:13They you had Galen, you know, the Galen's second half. Everyone forgets how dominant that second half was last year. It looked like he returned August hit and we was just like old Galen. So you had Kelly coming back. You had Galen. You had Ryan Nelson. You take a big step up. If Brandon fought can get fixed. And by the way, fought was like the best pitcher for like two months. Yeah. So there were some positives. It was the bullpen. It was always the bullpen. And it's just been this combination of those battling each other. And like I think Corbin Burns coming back and he went three innings. He you know, looked as solid as you're you're going to end up looking. And I was at Galen trying to work his his way back. But it's the resilience only word that you can put to it because it doesn't really make sense. And I think this Padres team, you know, they found themselves in the second half. They're offense. I mean, because that's a team that has the best bullpen and baseball, Adrian Morion. You win a strata's healthy. You got Mason Miller. They've got a serviceable rotation that ended up adding pieces and Casey Mies and Robbie Ray to be just be really dominant. But it was the offense. Merrill found themselves. Tatees got the ball in the

7:14air. Machado started to go. They're a complete team and that they haven't overtaken the damage. And then the damage backs at this point is interesting that the damage backs have done this with the Ketell Martaise stuff and Andrew. I think what's going to end up happening is this is going to come down to the final game of the season because this team played they play in San Diego. The final series of the season is Diamondbacks and Padres. And I don't mean to be the negative Nancy on my own team. But I just think everything is going to come to a head. I still don't think the rotation's good enough. Their bullpen is wonky. Corbin Carroll just got banged up. Ketell Martaise still there. I think there are too many distractions into the day. I think final series Padres end up taking it. I hate it as a Diamondback fan. But I think it's what they need for big change because I also personally believe I think Ketell should be gone. I think and I love Ketell for so so long. But I've had enough of it. He controls all of this with the money that's attached to it. But I think a break a break up would do everybody well for this team. I think it's something they'll consider whenever they're allowed to next season. Because also one of the guys not to keep

8:18laboring on but they're sending it was actually announced today on the Arizona Fall League. They're sending out Demetrile Crescentis if you want to talk about prospects here. And why that's interesting. They're sending him to the Arizona Fall League as a second baseman and he's going to get more work. That's a potential replacement for him. Demetrile Crescentis is a really good, complete player, power speed combination, good batting average. Like that's a guy that they might want to have that finishing school touch on to know that they've got an option if they did decide to move off from Ketell. And I think if the Demetrile X lose and don't make that wild card spot, you will see wholesale changes. I think Troy Levello be gone. I think you tell him our tail be traded. Their jobs are contingent on the Demetrile X taking that final wild card spot. I was just about to ask you about Levello because people don't realize how long he's been around for Arizona. He's been around for a long time. The bullpen's a mess this year. It's almost always a mess with him. And I don't know if it's his fault. It's his fault. He is like, I've been doing a lot of CBS sports HQ him on their lot. We'll talk a lot about the Diamondbacks and Ketell. And I just

9:19every time I kind of say the same thing, I go, Ketell or Troy Levello is a was a players coach, but that players coach turned into a Ketell Marte coach. And he in that same vein, he just has that old school of like, I just want to let guys lose their job too early. And they, you know, just because this guy's good, I don't want this guy to lose it to injury. He just gets too locked into these guys. And he give opportunities to guys like Kevin Ginkgole. And he just sits around too long. He's I think he's too, he's a great person, great human being. He, I think it's tough for him to make the really hard, tough decision that would hurt a player from a player perspective. And he gives special treatment to Ketell. He continues with players. It shouldn't be on the team. And I think at the end of the day, like he's just an awesome person. He's just not meant for the managing for the Diamondbacks. So that's just my personal thing. Yeah. That trip to the World Series bottom extra years. And fairness, I mean, they're competitive team. They're never a drag anymore. And so that speaks to it there. But at the same time,

10:21you know, if you've seen some like prospects stall out under him a little bit, I feel like Jordan Lawler, they've messed around with his career in a big way. I think that's one of the, I think that's a mark against him the way Lawlers, you know, he's they've been unlucky with Lawler's health, but they've also moved him positions, jerked him up and down. I don't think that does well for a player like that of his sort of stature. It definitely has taken, it takes a long time for them to figure it out. Look at Brandon Fought. Brandon Fought led the minor leagues and strikeouts a couple years ago. He comes up to the majors. He's got this like, you know, sinker sweeper combination. And he got blown up and he had home issues. And then what did they do? They let Brett strong like move him on the mound to try to fix it. And it did for a little bit. And then it blew up every prospect down the line. You start to look at it. It's just years upon years of adjustments. They've got it. I mean, obviously Corbin Carroll is special. I think Gabi are moreno is special. But yeah, to your point, like injuries don't help the situation, but the management of these players, I think, is in question. And sometimes it's just like you need a change of scenery. So we're saying all this.

11:23If the Dynamics makes some crazy run like they did a couple years ago in that World Series run, which is kind of similar to this, all will be forgotten. But I just don't think that's going to be the case. Time of extra really fun story. But I think the Padres are a fun story. And that is they're just battling just a boxing match. And it's going to come down to that final series. And I think we're going to see a wholesale change in what the Dynamics look like next year. And it's tough to compete in the National League right now too. It's a loaded league. One more Dynamics note, Corbin Carroll. Not going to be in the lineup again today after being scratched with the lower back issue. So he's going to have imaging on Thursday. Yeah, when they go back to air back to Phoenix that. This kind of stuck out of the blue to me. But then I looked and saw what he's done lately. It hasn't been great in the second half of the season for Corbin Carroll. No, you want to know a really scary one. Bogdani, we're just looking at this. Go and look at Jake McCarthy compared to Corbin Carroll and McCarthy is someone they jettisoned off this team. Yeah. And since the Colorado Rockies, if you look at from a fantasy perspective, McCarthy has Corbin Carroll in three of the five Roto categories. He is beating him

12:28in the he's destroying him and batting average. He's got stolen bases. And I want to say it's the runs or RBI one of the three of the five categories. It's not just like by a little. Like he is dominating from it and Jake McCarthy's having a great season. And even I like as a Corbin Carroll, you know, lover, like he's just he doesn't look like a first round pick. And if you're going to end up, you know, we're kind of in that space where we're starting to look at like who are first and second round. You know, is Julio a first or even a second round pick with the 2020 season? I think the same thing has to be said about Corbin Carroll. You love the speed. You love the triples. I'm not even sure he's a second round player, which will make the third round of fantasy really fascinating. But it's a little bit disappointing of a season. The injury is always kind of lingering. But when I did the McCarthy versus Carroll thing, I was like, wow, that kind of really opened your eyes when you step back and think of the first round talent of who is Corbin Carroll to what he's actually producing. We've had the the the canonical meatball draft that I always refer to my friend Rob D Pietro Corbin Carroll went 2.2 Julio went 2.5 for what it's worth. But

13:29do you think if that you did it right now? Do you think that would stick that they would both be mid second round? Because you guys did that like three weeks ago, right? I wasn't in it. But I think, you know, it's so funny because last year I remember looking at their results and see, oh, that's going to change. That's going to change. Remember, we either got hurt like the day after the that that draft happened. That was like one example of a guy that, you know, automatic huge change there. There's so much that changes in just a week or two, let alone six weeks. So it's kind of wild. I think, Carol, I mean, just this back thing, I'd like to find out we'll find out more tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, if it turns out there's something pretty significant there. I mean, that could skew both ways if he gets it fixed and you've got a long off season to heal it, then maybe it's just that he's back to being a first rounder. But I mean, that was the same thing everyone said about like a shoulder and then you're kind of coming into this year. Last year, it was 3132 with a low batting average. I guess I'm just asking you based off of what you saw in the results of the meatball, would you take Corbin, Carol in the second round? Do you think he is deserved? I might. I might. I would. I'd say back into the second probably still. I mean,

14:30the the speed upside is still huge. It's just, you know, how good you know, good pitching is going to be in the second and third round next year. I was just throwing this out here. Everyone gets focused on like, Hey, where's Jacob? Is Rowsky go start looking at the second and third round of pitching. I know people don't want to take it early, but you are going to be littered with incredible names with from chase burns to Nolan McClain to Yamamoto. The like, I think the second and third round, if you have to make the decision between a Yamamoto and a Carol, I just don't know if you can trust Carol along those lines anymore. But I mean, and that's like a bigger, wide discussion about it. That's also how you're wired to draft. If you're willing to take a second round pitcher, then yeah, Slip-Lin Yamamoto, Sanchez, Luzardo, Sale. Yeah. Seas maybe, although, you know, we're a little bit about the Seas velocity chase burns in the third. Sure. Sign me up. I think I could be on board with that there. Quick note. Oh, quick, Fantasy football note, by the way. This is breaking news. I know you do football. Rock hours. He is underwent a meniscus trim

15:34yesterday in Dallas and is expected to miss a game or two. This is Adam Schaeftor reporting this one here. So got banged up again and just, hey, that's going to, that's going to break some drafts. If you've got a late draft or if you're in a tight end elevated draft, that means your elevated scoring draft. That's going to be pretty significant there. Just want to throw that out there. Also, I had I got to show coming up soon where I was going to ask, who is what's the least watchable game this weekend? Is it the Jets game or is it going to be the Raiders and Dolphins game? And it now might be that Dolphins Raiders game of Bowers is out. So that's going to be a rough one to watch. I mean, Jets is going to be admitted or we'll see about that. But yeah, I think Miami can't stop anybody. So I think it still will be more watchable than Jets Titans. Jets Titans might be just a study in sadness. We'll see about that one there. We are brought to you by the good folks over at circa. If you're playing in the circus survivor contest, that news might have significant implications for you there. Circa Million eight and circus survivor are going big for the 2026 football season with $30 million in guaranteed prizes. Cash in this football season

16:39in Las Vegas with three circus sports contests. Entries starting at $1,000 with no rake. Circa Million 18 weeks of points for action. 128 ways to win. Winter takes home $1 million. Circa survivor pick one winner each week. Last one standing wins 20 million guaranteed to the winners. Circa Grandissimo a massive contest with $100,000 entry enter a Nevada play for many where $30 million guaranteed visit circus sports dot com slash contest for details. Also, if you don't live in Nevada like most of us, you need a proxy for after you leave to help me make your picks. I use a football contest dot com Maddie and Tony have been great for me for the last four years and that I am in both survivor and Circa millions as far as that goes. My guest here, Chris Welsh, is it the Welsh on Twitter? Also in this league podcast with Ian the Bogman, I also have Fancy Pros. Let's talk here about September call ups inspired by the Lazarus Montes Homer that I think just landed last night. I already wanted to talk about him. Let's jump right

17:43into Lazarus Montes. How high are you on him for next season? What have you seen so far out of him? I love Laz. I have a video on my phone. This is I get people either roll their eyes or love it, but like I live in Arizona. So I'm around the spring training complexes and as a prospect person, like I have video of Laz before he made his major league debut on the back fields of the mariners taking swings and I have a good relationship with them. It's amazing seeing him at this major league level. And I've always been a I've really been really big on him from fantasy perspective. There are holes in his game, but you also can see the excitement. It's kind of like Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones, I feel confident of saying I have been the highest on him forever for better for worse, by the way, whether it's a good or bad thing. Because I can get infatuated with extreme skill sets regardless of the negativity. So just as an example, Spencer Jones always had this tremendous tremendous power ability. He also freakishly could steal. But he had huge hole in his swing, big strikeouts and stuff. And people had to come to terms with that. Laz is kind of similar in

18:47that he's I mean, now we're getting to see actual stuff of max x velocity of 116. You know, you're getting to see a 22% barrel rate right now. But the negatives are carrying over from the minor leagues to here. One is the strikeout rate, which he you know, he's maintained in the miners, but it's 47% right now. The more important one to focus on is the zone contact rate. He'd really put up like low zone contact rates in the miners, but you know, he just dominated. It's like 58% so far in the majors. So like that is a little squirrely and a little worrisome. But I've got a lot of high hopes for him. Because I think it's a solid organization for him to work through this. I also was kind of comparing something that only a cruise did was only a cruise that kind of opened up his swing a little bit or opened up his stance. And that has given him ability to, you know, just kind of like reach and get into the zone a little bit more. And I wonder if that last is super locked off. I think it's like a one degree angle. I wonder if in the off season with whatever that looks like, if they would work through maybe opening up his stance a little bit more so he

19:50could cheat a little bit more and get to the ball a little bit more. I say all of that because I'm big on him. Like you're seeing, you're seeing the huge hard hit numbers. It's got a 21 degree launch angle, a 22% barrel. Like you see these awesome extremes. Can a 230, 35 Homer and hitter live in fantasy? Absolutely. He can't. And I think that's who Lazz is going to become as he grows a little bit more super young guy. Love him. I'm worried about the contact rates and those are the things that are going to hold him down. But I do think it's something that he's going to be able to improve on. How long do you think that improvement takes? Because you know, I think that's the follow up is do you draft him this year? I mean next year in 2027, do you wait another year? Does it take a little while to get for him to get it? As I, you know, trying to predict when these guys break out is tough, but you know, the break, when it happens, you got to be there for it too. Honestly, I would say this is a little bit more of a long-term place. This would be one of those examples of a guy that like I'd probably try and to buy some time next year. I'm generally worried about time missed. Like Lazz is a player because here's what we know about this lockout potential

20:54for next season. If you're not on the 40 man roster, you get to play a minor league season like normal. So those guys aren't going to lose any playing. The only thing that's going to be different is when spring training comes around, they're not going to be hanging out. Lazz is going to be hanging out with Julio and hanging out with Randy or Rosarena and those studs. They're going to just be doing minor league camps, but then they get to play their season. A 40 man guy, they are locked out of going to the facility. They are locked out of any team-based things, any training like that. So they've got to do this all on their own. So do I trust that Lazz is going to be a guy that is going to go into like crazy. I'm not sure a big swing analysis stuff is going to happen in this off season. And it's also kind of a hitter suppressive, it is a suppressive part. Not kind of. It's a massively hitter suppressive ballpark. So what I'm worried about is there isn't enough time for him to make those big adjustments. So I'm probably not going to be a big buyer on him next season, but I'll be a guy want to buy into for the following season because I think his talent is way too extreme. But I will say this, if it's a super short and season, these are the type of guys that can get hot for a month

21:55and a half and then the league can't catch up to. So he might be really interesting later in drafts. But I would say like in a vacuum, I'm probably not going to have a lot of interest next year. It would be the following year. Yesterday in the the Roto R pod with Fred Zinky, we talked about some of our mistakes from this upcoming year. And one of them for me as a recurring thing is I don't take enough of these. What could go right guys, whether it's O'Neill Cruz, a guy you just mentioned. Even up at the highest levels PCA, but it's litter three, you know, the super one super great tool, but one super thing that holds them back, you know, Spencer Jones might be that guy for next year too. I feel like I need to take more chances on players of this profile. Did you take James Wood was one of those two? I felt like it. James Wood. Yeah. Yeah, see that's the tough part because I think I was a James Wood guy and I kind of moved away from PCA a little bit, but that was the battle. It was like which one, you know, PCA, I mean, they both kind of like historically had horrifically bad second half, but it was like who was more prone to be able to make that adjustment and it felt like,

22:56you know, James Wood is a guy that didn't need to have big, heavy pull numbers or anything like that. He's just crazy strong like he's an all fields type of player. And I felt like he was able to hit lefties and stuff that that was a guy invested in, but to your point, I do want some of that volatility. I want to draft my teams with some of that high variance volatility, but little did we know both of those guys would work out. So yeah, I agree. That's something you can always work on in fantasy. It's fine. I mean, you have to be able to hit, but that would have been one of those guys. I was a James Wood guy not as much a PCA and look how silly we look now. PCA might be going, you know, one one or one two next season. It'll be one one. I'm pretty sure it'll be him, you know, because I think because of the the judge health profile, the show, hey, health, health, trial profile while we're being fair. I mean, I think that's, you know, that's enough to put me in favor of PCA. Even over a like if you can use him as a hitter and a pitcher over Otani. I think so because I mean, the the pitcher thing is we've seen isn't guaranteed. You know, you know, he's not going to pitch in the playoffs. It's going to be, you know, we'll see again,

23:56we'll have a long, long nuclear winner. So we'll see what happens after that. Anyways, I did trade for Laz Montez in XFL that leaked that we draft at first pitch, Arizona. We have a, it's a quasi somewhere between a keeper and a dynasty league in that we do have salaries, but guys we get as minor leagueers are plus three guys as opposed to plus five. That adds up really quick. Yeah. I traded away a fully priced price Harper for Laz Montez. It's I wasn't going to win this year. Feeling pretty good about that. Okay. Yeah. Well, I'm guessing that money was quite high on Harper too in the 30s. And you know, I'm going to have Montez at what four dollars next year, probably plus three every year after that. I'm good with that. Well, and Randy's, I'm Randy's likely gone. Randy, I think is if Randy was a Rand is a free agent. So I think that's going to be the move where he moves on. And then Laz is just going to have that, you know, again, for whatever it is, he's going to have that outfield or if they want to DHM spot. So he's going to have a full run next year. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah, and let's face it. I mean, they, they were he should be it should nothing should be holding them back as much as I love Dominic

25:00Canzone as much as I like the first half of the Luke Rayleigh experience this year. We're not going to hold it back. I love Canzone now. I think an outfield of a Julio Canzone and Laz works just fine. Yeah, it does. It does. How's Laz is defense, by the way? Not great. He's a big boy. He's going to have to, he's going to have to trouble trim down a little bit. I think you're going to lock him in as a left fielder like he's more of a liability than anything else. But I will say like he is a better athlete than kind of given credit for. He is definitely trimmed down over the last few years. That would be the thing. Like I would really, really hope take these two things into the offseason. Work on being able to up that zone contact percentage and just let the things come to you and then become a viable defender. Like they're going to need you, they're going to need you hardcore for that. And that's probably going to be a big key to him being able to stay on the field if he's struggling with his map. Exactly. All right, let's move on because you know, wouldn't win any friends if we only spent the whole podcast talking about La La La La La La La Montess. It's got P and I always

26:00used to say you don't have been friends with Salis. It is referring to Fernando, Fernando Salis. However, Ethan Salis, maybe you would win friends with Salis here. Big, you know, he's ridden the prospect roller coaster quite a bit. You get the call with the potters. I don't know how much he plays during the stretch run. But what a turnaround season for him. Yeah, I mean, and like from from a this season perspective, I just I actually had some high hopes. I just don't anymore. Obviously he's not getting the run. I do think he's the best defensive catcher on this team right now. And I hope they give him a little bit more run. But you know, the thing that held him back for so long outside of it injury, it a really bad shoulder injury that just ended last season. And he was actually supposed to play in the Arizona folly after that and then didn't to just rehab. And in that period of time, he was able to find the bat because the bat was a thing that was always missing. There was no power, no batting average whatsoever. And he hit 296 so far in the miners this year. 10 homers, 17 stolen bases. Because again, he's just a really solid athletic dude. And that he found

27:03the bat. I think that's the big key to change. So for future, I am interested in him not this year, not in picking him up. If someone's trying to make a run, I think there's a better catcher on an NL team that would be focused on if I'm doing that in the prospect world. But Ethan Salis, apps in a two catcher league next year, they have been waiting for him to come up. They're always turn styling the catching position. If that bat continues, I think this is a really, really good spot. And I think he's one of those like 10 to 15 homer, 15 to 20 stolen base guys, you know, those out of position stolen bases you're going to get. And I think you'll have a full run next year. Because like I said, his defense is going to keep him out there. So this little adjustment period, I think is absolutely key for him again. This off season is going to be super important. But I'm going to be a buyer of Ethan Salis for next season for sure. I am too. The organizational history of the Padres and some of their prospect catchers is weird though. They've kind of pet, I don't know if it's pet go or if these prospects are perhaps overrated in the first place, but haven't quite reached their ceiling. No, I mean, and the problem with the

28:03Padres is of recent is like they, they breed them to sell them. You know what I'm saying? Like they bring up these guys, they work them through. And then like I, it's funny. I just recorded, it'll be posted on my prospect one show where my Arizona folic prediction show. And something that's really interesting about the Padres for years and years is like I kind of think the Padres are out there taking prospects, putting them in the limelight so they can sell them. Ryan White, not to go off in a tangent, Ryan Whiteman is a prime example of this is a 22 year old outfielder who played almost the entire year at low A lead minor leagues, I think in stolen bases. He should have been pushed and they should have been more aggressive. Why were they not more aggressive? Well, because he's going to have this monstrous run at a lower competition level and that helps the trade value. I'm not saying that's what happened. So develop mentally, I guess what I'm pointing at. Develop mentally has been really weird for the Padres over the last couple years because they trade everything off and they don't get to really finish the job and they do find some of the struggles. But Salis has been kind of the one constant. They put a lot of attention into him. So I really think

29:04he's the guy that can kind of break the mold of some of, I mean, Jackson Marles is on special thing too, but I think Salis is going to find some success. Yeah. I mean, I always, I thought Kepisano was going to be a thing at one point in time. He was going to be a thing at one point in time and you know, they just never quite launched like we had hoped. So those are the guys I was thinking of as part of that goes. The prospect that catcher prospect, I'm guessing you were alluding to is the next guy in my list, Leo Bernal on the Cardinals. He gets the call. He may not even be the highest rated catcher prospect in the organization. The Cardinals just loaded with them. But Rod Rigg is this probably the guy I think everyone's higher on than the prospect world, but they, you know, they have crooks also. I mean, Herrera is at least going to be off catcher now, but is Bernal the catcher of next year? Is he the catcher of the future? What are the Cardinals going to do? Catcher? Well, see, that's a great question of like, what are they going to, they're, they're ripe with just good players. Herrera moving off is interesting. You know, Randall Rodriguez, they moved him positionally around. I kind of wonder if they just want to create

30:06more flexibility where he, you know, is there a future where you have Herrera, former catcher at D.H. You've got Randall Rodriguez maybe playing first base and then they could just have a combination of like Bernal and Jimmy Crooks, you know, like, and then it would have been homegrown talent kind of across the board. Bernal, I do have interest in right now. For the last week, he's hitting over 400, really impressive, really impressive underlying stuff as well. He's not like barreling the ball at time, but he's getting in the air. He's got a 68% hard hit rate with an under 20% caper percentage, very small sample size, but like, Bernal is smashed in the ball and this was a guy who's in the airs in a fall. This is the cardinals actually traditionally send out almost all of their Jimmy Crooks has been out there. They love to see Pedro Pahas was out here. They send these guys out to get that extra work and that bat has completely changed for Bernal. So yeah, if I were investing in this season, long term, I think like, I would rather guys like Solis and I think Bernal is going to probably be in a, what would it be like a two-ketcher league. Maybe he's a second catcher if you can confirm full on playing time. I'm just not sure it's quite there yet,

31:09but he's super young. He's showing really, really encouraging underlying stats, especially the double digit walk rate with an under 20% caper percentage. I think there's a lot for Bernal and he would be someone I'd be interested in right now and then hold into next season to see what materializes with what they want to do with catching. You know, right now Rodriguez is not going to make the opening day roster next year. If they send him to the fall league, maybe that changes things where they have a higher timeline. I'm not sure that that's going to happen. So I think this might just be like a Crooks and Bernal back and forth and maybe that's going to work in favor of Bernal. Yep. And Rodriguez, maybe like you said, not being on the 40 man, it might be a guy that gets to develop more next year and then 20, 28. Boom. He's exactly. So be interesting. Let's stay with the Cardinals. Cooper, Cooper, Jurpee, you know, finally debuted in six Ks and four endings in his first start, you know, first round pick in 2022. A lot of people are excited about him for a while. What's your level of excitement for him right now? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a like a little bit monotone to it. This is another one of those guys. I'll just do

32:11this all the time. But like he was like many years ago, he pitched in the fall league and actually pitched in relief. I remember talking to him about it. And he was like, oh, they just want me to come out here and do this. And you know, he's got like a really, really interesting arm angle, which I think creates some deception. Love the strikeouts. If you look at like the map to, I mean, because it's like, it's like a negative degree arm angle. It is completely from the side. And he's got this really good movement profile that tunnels where it's like fastball. And then that cutter comes in and that sweeper comes across. It's just really hard to pick up. The other thing I don't love about him is, you know, so like a low fastball. It's like a 90s, 90 mile hour per hour fastball, sweeper changeup combination is solid. The expected batting average off of the first matchup was almost like 300 against the fastball. So you're stuck at a blow people away. I don't know if that's a guy that's going to go like really far into games and chalk up a whole bunch of strikeouts. But I think right now, well, the Cardinals have been doing and how they've been playing like, I think he's going to get opportunities. And I think if they gave him forennings, you're going to kind of stretch it out the rest of the way through. So I don't have a problem with

33:13it. But I do think he's just like a little bit volatile with what his stuff ends up actually looking like. But I think and with a small sample size, it might be hard for the league to make major adjustments to him right now, which could lead to success over two or three starts. But I like long term, this isn't like a guy that I'm like heavily invested in, especially into next, I mean, they give him a rotation spot. Maybe I want to see how he finishes. I'm just worried that the stuff isn't going to be, isn't going to hold long enough for him to be like a really maintained starter. Cheating a little bit on the call update, but I'd be remiss in not bringing up Walker Jenkins on the twins. Obviously, a highly ranked prospect everywhere. Start of the year hurt. What have you seen from him so far? Yeah, really good contact rates, better or better contact rates, at least if we're comparing against last, what did I tell you? Lazz was like in the 50s, think 58%. Even the Walker hasn't had like a tennis success, around 78% zone contact rate, which I'd love to see. He's not chasing whatsoever. He's not really doing much with it, but he's missing significant times, a 21 year old that just jumped into this. I think the hitting profile is

34:20going to take some time to adjust because it's like low barrel, low hard hit right now, but he's getting the ball in the air and he's not really striking out, like 23% of the time. So I think you're seeing some of the low volatility of him. I think he is much better than what's being put on the table. I'll say he might be a great example of a prospect fatigue player. Everyone loved Walker Jenkins. He got hurt. Everyone simmered down. He comes up to the majors to excitement, fiends. Think of it like caglione or cagmail last year. Cag's just hit like under 200, but then you looked and you're like, man, look at this elite bat speed. He had a couple things that you really love, but it didn't work out. Walker Jenkins is a smaller sample of that. I think Walker Jenkins is one of the guys that can be a 2020 guy next year off the shoot. So this is a guy that you know, for the rest of this year, I'm still buying into because I think he doesn't hurt you in so many spots. There were even like a guy like Montescan, but next year, I think he is locked into the lineup. And I think he is going to kind of show out. I think it'll look like the Wyatt Langford's and the not quite Cag's because Cag's is a 30 home run hitter, but I think he can

35:22legitimately be like a 2020 guy outstanding. Pinned that one down folks. We're going to make sure he's going to have a lot of use for us next year as well. We are on the Blue Wire Network. We've been there for about five years. Here are their ads. Thank you everybody for that brief pause. Thanks to the Blue Wire Network for hosting us. I'm here with Chris Welsh. Is it the Welsh on Twitter? Follow them over at check out out over at Fantasy Pros. You've got a live stream coming up here shortly after this one. What's that covering? Oh, we're this actually we have like a a real football channel that's like not fantasy. It's called the tailgate. So me and a fellow Erickson, Andrew Erickson are going to just be talking about some of the five biggest stories that are going to be going down in the NFL leading up and Brock Bowers is now going to lead that. So many hats, you and me, Jeff, you and I are very similar. We're football. We're baseball. We're kind of in the streets of a lot of stuff. So I will be just going from baseball and to football back into baseball today. Very good. Jonah Tongue, not really the typical September call up profile because we saw

36:26him last year. We saw him earlier this year disappointing season. You know, at least in terms of the rate stat your basic stats, what have you seen on Tongue when you've watched him? What are you looking for down the stretch run from him? I mean, you're looking for some consistency. I mean, that's the big I've never been like the biggest Jonah Tongue guy, but I mean, you know, this last start for him to get that strikeout right up. I think that was huge. He had seven strikeouts. He was walking very little one walk to seven strikeouts. You know, they're in runs or just kind of what they are at this point of the game. But I will say this for eight ERA on this season with a 3.67 expected ERA. So one thing I'll throw at you is think of Jackson Job. This is really interesting. Jackson Job when he first made his debut struggles. K-rate was really bad. Then he obviously got hurt. When he was making his kind of jump back into the minors before he got back to the majors. One of the things you saw was you saw this increased strikeout rate. You got a strikeout rate back up into like the 23 24 percentile range and that carried over into those first few starts. I wonder if that's

37:29kind of a similar path in that Tongue is a little bit better under the hood than what we've seen on this season expected ERA in the three and a half range. He needs to up his K percentage and lowers, lowers walk rate, but he's not giving up a lot of build contact. So that that has me encouraged is change up is really good. I think that cutter can be a lot better and the expected batting average against his fastballs 30 points lower. So it's not awesome of a season to this has been. I actually think he might be kind of a fun by low for next season in him getting a full season of run and making maybe making just a tweaker to a tweaker to a mid threes ERA and like a 24 percent K percentage makes him going from like a streamable pickup pitcher to a guy that you keeping your rotation. Yeah, I'm hoping it doesn't log too many innings here down the stretch run because I have him as a potential minor league. Keeper one of my inner only homeligs, but you know, I think once he gets just certain threshold, then I won't be able to do as a minor leagueer. Yeah, I think it's, well, it's 50. 50 innings should be that and I think he's at like 32.2. So I think you

38:30are. Yeah, you're going to be sweating out just a tiny bit, but I think you might be okay. Let's go lightning around with some of these players. Michael Aroyo, we open with a Mariner's Outfielder. He got the call. He's an Outfielder and a second baseman. Love Michael Aroyo. It's all going to be about playing time. It looks like they have played him a little bit since, you know, he got that call up. So that's what I'm going to be paying to. He hasn't really done anything, but he is a force on all sides of the field. So, you know, next season, total buy-in, especially if they move some of the pieces around. Yeah, I've got too many guys. Cole Young, Cole Emerson. I love him in the Outfielder. Probably not too much of a pickup right now, though, but if he does get regular playing time, I might look at him for a little run. John Peck is getting run with the Tigers right now. Didn't really see a whole lot of this coming from him, especially starting at shortstop. Do they not like McGonagall's defense at shortstop? Well, they were trying to move off in the fall. It was like they wanted to be at third bay. I thought he played like solid shortstop, but he does look more like a traditional second baseman. I think that would be the spot. They've also got other guys. I got Max Anderson who they never brought up. So I guess the long answers.

39:32Yeah, I kind of think they're not like infatuated with him as like the long-term shorting, starting shortstop. And they've got a guy in the minors. They're developing in Bryce Rainier, who might be maybe a future of that position, kind of a Cory Seeger light guy. So yeah, I think they want, I think they long-term probably want McGonagall's like a second baseman. Rainier, just down the road from us up down here in Southern California. Anything about Peck in particular? Yeah, I've actually been really impressed with him. Almost 14% barrel rate, hard hit rate in the 44% range. He's not striking out a whole bunch. Guys are going to have to learn to get the ball in the air a little bit more, but he's crushing fastballs right now. So I think if he's given the opportunity, we might continue to see maybe a little bit more on the counting stats sides. So I'm kind of speculatively adding him for this season. I like him over Michael Royo long-term. I clearly like a Royo over him. Adele Amador. He's been up and down. He is back up with the Rockies. So I'm getting picked up in a lot of leagues this past week in the NFBC. Yeah, and the reason behind that, he's got six hits in his last 18 at bats. And this is my favorite. He has one strikeout in that time. Like he is

40:33not striking out whatsoever. He obviously knows it's like a great environment. One of the lower chase rates, one of the lower whiff rates, 16% k percentage, 10% walk rate, great for points leagues right now, 11% barrel. I love it. And a 20 degree launch angle. So that means he is barreling the ball to get it in the air. And he's making some stuff happen with it, 29.6% pulled air percentage. So when he barrels and gets the ball in the air, he's pulling it. That is future wise going to equate to more home runs and he can steal bases. This is a nice little addition for Amador. And I think he's going to be a very nice late round guy to look at for next year. Ty Johnson got the call by the raise. Currently in a low leverage role. Is he going the E&C more career path here? Well, that's a possibility. I'm not like a huge Ty Johnson guy, but I mean, the path they've laid it out for the blueprint for us. It's like relief. And then it's like pseudo relief. And then it's opportunity for starters. I think they've got quite a few of those guys. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, nice the strikeouts in the early run here. But I think it might

41:35take a little bit too much longer. So he's not on my wheel for next year. I'm old or enough to remember when Ricky Teedham was a thing for the Blue Jays. It's been up and down and up and down. He got sent back down after getting the call in September. But is he worth tracking? Oh my god, do I love Ricky Teedham? And that's my I did a whole thing on him from the fall league of like how his pitch angle you could see when he was throwing fastballs to secondary pitches. And would that be a problem? And I think he's got electric stuff. This is a 100% a post hype sleeper. There's nothing for it this year. It's just like relief stuff. They're going to have to build him. I actually thought he was going to go to the fall league. I thought he'd go back to there as an o'folly to build him back up. I would love to see him stretch out. I think he will go in as a starter. He's got a really great change up. Good strikeout stuff. The numbers aren't telling us a whole bunch right now because the walk rate, but I'm a buyer of Ricky Teedham and for next year as a starter. Denzel Clark was once the A's center fielder of the future. It's now Henry Bolte and his reign of tear this week as I'm going up against him in DPR. Derrick Young Riper has him in mixed

42:36labor and has Bolte and it's just homework again today. I had three steels earlier this week. But this is about Denzel Clark. Is there any future left for him because Clark is super fast human great defender, but hasn't been able to hit so far. I mean, I think it's just a great defender. I just don't think the bats going to get there. The future of this is not even Bolte. It's true burrs. True burrs who they drafted. It looks phenomenal. Looks like he's the top three first-year player pick from this draft if you're doing first-year players for next season. I think he could be a fall league guy. I think he is the future of this position and there's just only so many guys they can get out there. So I think Denzel Clark is fun, but I think he's more of a defensive replacement. If he were to stay here, it's a really good environment. I just don't think the bats ever going to catch up. Fair enough. Let's talk a little reds on the way out here. There in, you know, try out mode here. Between Hector Rodriguez and Carlos Jorge, they've got a couple of guys manning the outfield. Rodriguez has been up for a while on his higher profile. Any sort of outlook on either of these two guys for you? Absolutely. In love and infatuated

43:39with Hector Rodriguez. Hector Rodriguez had one of the quietest great minor league seasons. He just, he's in on a lot of radars whether it's a reds thing or maybe it's a failure to launch with the well-being Marte. But Hector 266 right now, the five homers, the profile looks relatively solid. I want the strikeout rates to come down, but they hadn't leading off the other day. And I think that's a really tall-tailed sign of like where we might be headed for him. If he's going to be a lead off guy and he can get on base and you're going to be on base when Ellie De La Cruz comes up, that's huge. I think they love him. By the way, we talked about Lazus Hardhit, 115.2 max EV for Hector Rodriguez. So he is a 100% a person that everybody is sleeping on. If he gets the full run next season, 20, I mean, a guy can be a 30 30 guy. I don't know if he'll materialize that in the majors, but I really, really like Hector way over Carlos Jorge. That was the shot into the bay against the giants when they had to come back from the 9-3 deficit in the ninth inning. That was a key part of that inning there. That was one of my favorite hits of the year. Not a much of a defender,

44:41Rodriguez is the only problem. Positionally, yeah, probably a left fielder. Yeah. It's kind of like the Lovie. Remember, Lovie was a shortstop and then he had to play third base and then the weight was in issue and he's an outfielder. Hector kind of has that same, and by the way, those two are like best friends. They're always together on the Reds camp. They're kind of in that same vein, so the Reds have to come to terms with what they're going to do positionally. We have a longer discussion about what the Reds do with their young hitters. I'm wearing my Reds jersey, you know, my Joey, but I'm going Reds Dodgers tonight. But there's a lot of young Reds hitters that were supposed to be our Reds, supposed to be fun, and they have petered out. Two of them are now our Orioles. So, you know, it just hasn't went to Lovie's back in the minors and he's like persona non-grata in the organization. There's some good guys coming though. I've seen a ton of steel haul this year. Tyson Lewis, I think, is underrated. He slowed down this year and I'm a Justin LeBron guy who they drafted, who has come out just absolutely spoken hot. Yeah, all tooled out. James and I actually did a show and he had said he was like, it's the most me guy on the planet is Justin LeBron and it's

45:44working out. Justin LeBron, he's got some strikeout problems, but he was being talked about as a one-one going in the MLV draft like a year ago. We love Justin LeBron. All right, I love here and that. We'll see about what Tito does with these guys eventually. I have other, that's another longer conversation and you do not have the bandwidth for that right now. Go jump in your livestream. Chris, awesome stuff. Is it the Welsh? Awesome seeing a Welsh. Can't wait to see you in Arizona. Thanks for coming on today. Hey, lovely brother. Thanks for having me. All right Chris, Welsh everybody. Thank you for everybody for listening. Make sure to check out Rotawire. Use promo code YouTube 15 to get 15% off any Rotawire subscription. Have a great day. Evening everybody. Take care.