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Brendan Gawlowski Prospects Chat: 3/17/26
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Young GUardians
2:46
Cleveland has a lot of young fringy guys at the edges of their 40 man (Brito, Kayfus, Halpin) Who (if any) among these guys do you see as contributors in 2026? Do you have any favorites here?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:46
Kayfus seems most likely to get significant run but I suspect you'll see all three.
NYY
2:47
Where would present day tools Jasson Dominguez and Cam Schlittler land in the Top 100 if they were eligible?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:49
Let's see... Dominguez was a top 20 guy on our last list. The tool grades were about right, a tad generous on the glove maybe, I don't see him getting to fringe-average. So, he'd probably be a 50 and drop a couple dozen spots. Schlitter would be one of the top pitchers on the list.
J Hench
2:49
How long does it take to know if a change in mechanics or other adjustment is “working,” as opposed to it being a hot streak unrelated to the change?  And how long before a player or dev team decide something isn’t working and ditch it?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:50
Depends what the change is; do you have something more specific in mind?
Jonathan
2:51
I'm sorry, I want to vent. MLB teams are still aggressively cutting scouts, including a few I know. This seems incredibly short-sighted to me, and I say this as someone who does Computer Vision for a living. When a field becomes heavily model-driven (like baseball currently is), the biggest edge can sometimes come from knowing exactly where the model breaks. More concretely, the pattern goes: (1) everyone adopts the same sophisticated tool; (2) the tool is very useful, so it creates convergence; and (3) most competitors start optimizing toward what the tool can measure well. Scouts are your source of deep lived experience, and they're the ones most likely to recognize when the tool doesn't capture a specific part of reality very well. This isn't "experience is better/worse than analytics"; it's "experience helps identify the blind spots of analytics". Even teams that have a reputation for blending traditional/analytics seem to be falling prey to this.
Brendan Gawlowski
2:51
It's a little self-serving to say "I agree completely" but, well.
David
2:51
Have the spring performances of A's prospects Tommy White and Henry Bolte changed your assessments of them?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:51
No.
RH
2:52
Based on your knowledge of mlb and milb talent, how many MLB franchises do you think there should be?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:53
I don't know if there's a balance point. I'd like to see a bunch more teams for a variety of reasons, though. I'm not worried quality of play
Michael - FG since 2016
2:53
Eric referred to you as Beeg…. Not sure if that’s fair game.
Brendan Gawlowski
2:53
As you like
Jim
2:53
Is Charles Davalan a candidate to become someone who hits so much that he can't help but max the in game power?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:53
Good way to think of him.
Hoos
2:53
Wenninger or Christian Scott next met stud?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:53
Scott has the higher ceiling.
Oaktown Blues
2:53
Wait, you think Roman Anthony is an 80 now?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:54
Just saying that, in general, if you use an FV model like we do, we're going to be light on the 70s and 80s.
Robert
2:54
I'm a Tigers fan. I know you just did the Tigers list but is there anything about the system (or a specific player) that you think is interesting, or is there a guy you specifically like, or just some tidbit that isn't getting attention but pops into your brain. Thanks!
Brendan Gawlowski
2:55
When you're grinding on video you can kind of get in a groove where you're evaluating tools and writing.. When I popped on Bryce Rainer, the bat speed made me sit back and go 'whoa'
That was probably the most striking thing in the process with them. That and the whole 'wow, there are no pitchers here...' thing
Warren
2:56
Have you seen Roldy Brito yet this spring?  I've read that he looks bigger but maybe not as fast.  Would that be an improvement?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:56
I have seen him and he's still a burner
Naylor Sailor
2:56
Favorite spring training restaurant?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:57
So many. Ta carbon; Dilla Libre Dos; Veneto Trattoria. I could go on for a while.
Opifijikl
2:57
When you were a scout for PIT, how closely did you work with the development team? You mentioned that you "have to like prospects" in that fantastic article this spring, but do you shade your projection of players with knowledge of organizational proficiencies? Like, X player has some good ability but isn't very strong, BUT he's in a system like TOR that seems to build strength so he might shade up?
Brendan Gawlowski
2:59
Aligning pro scouting with dev is a sneaky tricky thing to do. Pirates definitely made a lot of strides in that direction over my time there, and there are individuals I should thank (shout out to Vic Black) who would take my calls/texts when I had random questions.
As for your specific example... Like Toronto, Pittsburgh is pretty good at building strength. I wouldn't expect a blue jay to have a lot of runway left in that regard, but an Angel might.
Sam
3:00
How are front offices using AI and machine learning outside of say, improving existing projections? E.g., are teams using biomechanics alongside models trained on high-speed video to suggest swing changes or identify players? Just curious where teams are at in this regard.
Brendan Gawlowski
3:01
If they're like every other company in the world, people from the non operational side are probably trying to overfit LLMs on people who don't really need them
3:02
That probably fell flat as a joke; short answer, I'm sure there's applicability but I don't have any insight on that
Insert Witty Name Here
3:03
Re: Jonathan - if you can show that paying scouts will save or earn money for the owners, then they’ll go for it.  It sucks for sure, but fairness doesn’t exist in nature.
Brendan Gawlowski
3:03
That's not how this works
Your Name
3:03
Thoughts on the extremely lax WBC roster rules? I'm not a big fan of Italy taking a spot from a team of actual citizens.
Brendan Gawlowski
3:04
In the long run we'll probably need to tighten the eligibility requirements. For now, I see making the field bigger/more competitive as a positive.
Guest
3:05
You put up a poll last week that showed that 15% of visitors to this chat were here for Tong content. What have you done to serve that market today?
Brendan Gawlowski
3:05
I'm way behind quota, you're right
Rob A
3:06
What traits are needed for a player to show higher game power than raw?
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