Austin Tatious

Interesting that Marco grades as a 70 in terms of arm. I’ve only seen clips here and there so I’m not qualified to comment, but he looks very athletic with how he moves around back there. Good agility and quickness from what I can see.

No worries but makes me feel better about being fairly close to Spencer’s. You guys are so good you could grade the rest of us.

I feel like Spencer, Joseph and Bieder are the answer key and I check my work against them.

Jacob MisiorowskiJesus MadeLuis PenaJeferson QueroCooper PrattLogan HendersonRobert GasserBishop LetsonBraylon PayneMarco DingesBrock WilkenBlake BurkeLuke AdamsMike BoeveEric BitontiBryce MeccageJosh AdamczewskiColeman CrowTyson HardinLuis Lara

Great to see Pratt coming on!

Great stuff as usual Spencer. Cant get enough of content like this. The other thing with Adams is he historically could swipe a good amount of bags. It’s quite freaky for his Paul Bunyon type physique. Quero’s arm drop off has to be disappointing for the young man. If he still has a 55-60 arm, that’s still really nice but has to be hurtful for him to no longer be an 80. I am glad we are reluctant to trade off prospects. You have a guy like Adams who wasn’t at the top of our list and a lesser organization may have dealt him. We’ve been wise to let it play out with him and many others. He’s only 21 now so he’s got a good chance to be in the show at a fairly young age. 23 ish.

Sounds like a karate chop.

Catcher is such a grueling and unforgiving position that I’d treat the position closer to a job sharing situation. Suppose Quero and Dinges keep emerging. I would develop them both and not trade either. One catcher would catch no more than four times per week. The other would get the rest. You’d keep them fresher longer but also extend quality years. You’d get one starting 105-110 games and the other the rest. DH and other possibilities could get both plenty of ABs but without grinding them down.

Need Durbin here because Ortiz is on deck. Puts extra pressure on Durbin.

Our drafting and foreign signings have been so good lately (knock on wood) that any type of picks at the top wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t think anyone had Payne pegged last year. If I had an inclination, it would be to grab one of the college corner outfielders with an advanced bat in the first and then come back with an electric arm or two in the Mis, Meccage type mode. We’ve got some electric talent at the lower levels already but maybe the one thing I wouldn’t mind getting is an advanced corner OF with extra base pop but a good hit tool. The kid from Wake seems to fit. The kid from Texas A and M is highly regarded but he seems to have holes in his swing at 6’6. But you could get an Aaron Judge type, you never know. I’d love to see a consistent middle of the order OF who isn’t far away.

Some of our guys are leveling off or having ups and downs. One guy who is pretty consistent is Burke. Very sweet stroke. But man you’d like to see him lose weight. He’s very flabby at a young age and that’s not good for the long run in terms of injuries etc.

There are some quality prospects at lower levels too. Tyson Hardin, Meccage, Bishop Letson and some others look like they’ve got very good potential. I’d probably put all three in my top 20.

I would love Josh Smith or one of the other Ranger 3B types. Someone like that could get you a couple of years while prospects percolate up the system. It might take a couple of quality prospects in the Wichrowski, Black, Lara zone. But this is a huge need. Prospect over-valuation in baseball is as bad as draft picks in the NFL. The football teams act like 4th or 5th round picks are gold nuggets and then most of them barely contribute. Brewers traded packages for Yelich and others and essentially gave up nil. The left side of the infield is a problem and can hurt again next year and the Brewers have been too cautious upgrading. Perfection is the enemy of competent. You can nitpick any player who is a good target. Meanwhile, we’ve seen ineptitude. I am happy to see Durbin come alive. He’s very likable and can be a sparkplug. But he is a second baseman masquerading at third base. I’ve posted several times that I think Ortiz is way better than he’s shown but the past couple of months are just factual on what he’s capable of, and this has been ongoing since the last part of last year. Smith-Turang-Durbin would be far more logical, going 3b, Ss, 2b with Ortiz in a utility role after resetting at Nashville so he can calm down and get some coaching. Sure, you can nitpick everything I said. Here is a problem with this guy, etc. That’s not the analysis. The question is can we do better than we have, and have a bridge organizationally as we wait on some of our prospects (who will also need development time at the MLB level too).

If Priester emerges as a solid back end starter for several years, the trade for him will be vindicated.

Now they are listing Hall as the starter? Did something change?

At what point do you look at swapping Zamora for Ortiz? If Siegler could get more work at third, you could dream on him time-sharing with Durbin since Siegler is a switch hitter. But at least Durbin is a developing rookie showing signs of life. Ortiz has seven rbis playing everyday and a sub .500 ops. Dalbec is trickier. He could bring some needed RH power but with Mitchell coming back soon, I’m not sure you can find him a roster spot.

The 40 man roster creates limitations. Tyler Jay is another guy who could easily be up here. But they’d have to release a guy like Peguero who is on the 40.

Alexander will be sent out soon when DL Hall is activated.

Offensively, we’ve got a number of guys who are falling short of expectations. Hardly anyone exceeding. Hoskins. Turang. Bauers. Collins from a low bar. Most of this category isn’t even here for the long haul Maybe a couple meeting. Contreras. Frelick. Injuries put Mitchell in the questionable category. The upside is tantalizing if he can solve the K’s. Its frustrating.

Hopefully Carlos is new and improved over his lackluster results from last year. He’s got a new approach and has been superb at Nashville. He’s not a physically dominant guy but he may be able to be a major leaguer in some capacity. Hopefully long relief at a minimum. But he’s drifting toward make or break time lest he get passed by a number of other rising arms in the org.

Lara has been flying a bit under the radar but he is coming along.

Not just the arm, he looked very athletic.

I loved Rose as a player. But he had every chance to get reinstated. He decided to live his life like a seedy character and he couldn’t see the big picture. Instead of living in Vegas and attending card shows and signing memorabilia for money, he could have made millions and millions in baseball. He did it to himself. If he played his cards right he could have come clean, expressed contrition, changed his ways, etc. Basically make it impossible for baseball to not reinstate him. He did the opposite of that. As for Joe Jackson, he apparently was given money that he didn’t seek out. He didn’t seem to participate in throwing anything. He had more hits in the 1919 WS than anyone had in any series until 1964. I believe his defense was fine too although there’s some vague accusations of him not being positioned correctly in the field, leading to some triples. I don’t think he was ever convicted. There was a gambling scheme developed by others, he was given money, but he didn’t throw anything based on the data. He was an illiterate guy born in 1800’s South Carolina and was ignorant more than anything else.

We are wasting time with Alexander and Payamps. With some of the pitchers coming back soon, they both G2G.