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Brendan Gawlowski Prospects Chat: 2/3/26
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Rough Gem
3:44
Do you think teams have too many, too little, or the right amount of minor league control seasons?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:44
Too many
Rusty Buntz
3:45
When scouting in person, how do you judge individual tools? Is it merely some guys having a certain “je nais se quoi” that makes your eyes light up?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:46
Mostly an experience/feel thing. Some present grades are more objective -- raw power and speed are the big ones. In theory you could do this with arm strength if you weren't giving weight to release/accuracy.
Farhandrew Zaidman
3:47
Asked Jay a similar question and he was....not optimistic. Rockies seem both meaningfully better but also on track to lose 100 games. What's a fair timeline for returning to 500 ball?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:47
We need to see how the new group operates from top to bottom. The pitching is so bad that it's hard to see them not losing 100 again this year.
Move over Judge?
3:48
What's your take on 2025 Nick Kurtz and how high is his ceiling now?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:49
That 2025 may have been peak performance and that also he could be a monster even if that's true. Like, several HOF 1B never had a 173 wRC+ like Kurtz did last year
Eddie Murray never had a 160. McGriff topped out at 162. Thome only topped 170 in a full season once. It's nuts.
BK
3:50
would love to hear who you think are the 3 most underrated systems and conversely a couple where you think are more over ranked.
Brendan Gawlowski
3:51
Not trying to be snarky, but if I'm the one rating the systems...
Dodgers Blue
3:51
Speaking of the Rockies, Chase Dollander had such extreme home/road splits - I know, all Rockies pitchers do - but for him a sub 4 ERA with a .200 BA while posting nearly a 10 ERA at home.  Where would he rank for you on a TOP100 list among all of today's young pitchers IF they each pitched at an equally neutral ballpark?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:51
I had him as a No. 3 SP and wouldn't move off that yet.
Tiger Fan
3:52
I recently started writing for a baseball site (a lot smaller than FG, but still fun). How do you balance writing what you care about with what your audience will pay to read?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:52
Write what you care about. Best path to writing the kind of interesting things that someone will then pay you to read.
liptowi
3:52
Does Bremner reach LAA this year given how the Angels promote their high draft picks so quickly.
Brendan Gawlowski
3:52
Barring injury I think so
Reed
3:52
Is speed connected to a hit tool grade or separate? Meaning if two hitters have the same hit tool but one is faster, is he expected to hit for a higher average or is that already baked-in to the "same" grade?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:53
Not connected. Tons of 80 runners post modest BABIP's
Not that there are tons of 80 runners, but you get my point
Auto ball/strike system
3:55
I understand we don't want almost every pitch challenged, but 2 or 3 seems really low considering the time it takes up.  How about 9 challenges, one per inning on average, and managers can use them at their discretion?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:55
Pass.
3:56
The success rate on challenges was under 50% last year. And in my mind, if you're not any better than a 50/50, why should you get to take a bunch of everybody's time with challenges?
3:57
My bias here is that I don't particularly care for review/replay in general in sports. I want really quick interventions and can live with missed calls.
Dodgers Blue
3:57
Are there enough positives in Christian Moore's game to make you a believer that he'll hold down the Halo's second base position for the next 8 years?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:57
That's a very specific time frame but I do like him and think he can be their 2B for a while
Big Sally
3:58
If you could pick 1 prospect in all of MiLB to reach his 90th percentile projected outcome, who would it be?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:58
Konnor Griffin. Let's aim big.
AK
3:58
I’m curious to know your thoughts on why the owners would want to eliminate low A. I understand it saves them a bit of money but it also could cost them some one would think. Like the Davis Schneider’s of the world would be released and therefore they wouldn’t have had the profits from people who bought his jersey. Is this not just a dumb move that hurts the future of baseball?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:59
If Davis Schneider gets released, someone else produces and gets their jersey sold instead. I'm as or more disappointed than you about the direction this is going, but that particular thing is not why this is shortsighted
Njoba
4:00
Strangest thing you've seen on a minor league baseball field?
Brendan Gawlowski
4:00
Lot of candidates, but the time one of Corbin Carroll's high school teammates spiked a pitch on the front of the plate in a way that carried it over the backstop sticks out
Big Sally
4:01
How many inning do you think Chase Burns throws this year?
Brendan Gawlowski
4:01
140? Suspect Cincy doesn't want a huge innings jump and his style is going to produce a bunch of five and dives anyway
Sands of Time
4:01
How often do guys get called up for a cup of coffee on out of contention teams because their team just feels like they've put their time in and they've earned the right to taste MLB?
Brendan Gawlowski
4:02
Rarely, especially with thinner September rosters. But it happens.
4:03
One way it can happen is like with Drew Maggi, where there's a very short term need and you don't want to put a better player on the 40 for whatever reason
Farhandrew Zaidman
4:03
bring back 40 man september rosters. I want to see my whole AAA bullpen collectively throw 13 IP, dang it!
Brendan Gawlowski
4:04
I loved old September baseball. And on that wistful note I should shut it down. Thanks for hanging out everyone, we'll do it again next week.
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