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Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat
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Eric A Longenhagen
12:22
Has a chance but those took a hit this spring because his conditioning and velo  have backed up. Elite closer, like Aroldis Chapman or Edwin Diaz type guy? Nah. But a closer? Yeah he could get there.
Charlie
12:22
I’ve heard a lot about Brewers reliever Craig Yoho. What can you tell me about his outlook?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:22
Plus-plus secondary stuff, gonna be a good reliever. Wish he'd have broken camp, he's been hurt a lot and may only have so many darts in there.
Sadness
12:22
You're the only prospect writer I've seen write about Nasim Nunez of the Nats. If all he ever does is play good defense, get on base (walks a lot), and steals a ton, why isn't that good enough to start on some major league team? I feel like he was overlooked because he was a rule 5 pick, but maybe he's rightfully overlooked because his lack of power.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:23
His skillset is that of a defense-oriented utility guy. He might start for stretches here and there, but on a good team he's a defensive replacement.
Which is still great!
Maximo Acosta
12:23
Do I debut in the big leagues this year?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:25
If it's necessitated by injury, yeah. If X and Lopez are healthy all year then I kinda doubt it. Given the position the Marlins are in I'd think it's more likely they cycle guys on and off the margins of their roster all year searching for guys on waivers and such who can contribute, rather than start Acosta's clock.
Wood
12:25
Morning Eric! Any new info on Luiner Avila? Dude absolutely shoved in his first start this year. He had a 34% ball rate in the start.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:26
Assuming he's the same guy I saw last fall, has backend starter look to me. Good changeup, other stuff is either average or shade below.
Mr. Burrito
12:26
If my Dodgers do trade another pitcher for prospects (and I’m not saying they should, but it feels possible) what kind of return should they seek? Power? Other pitchers? Lotto pick youngsters? Future draft capital? This week’s swap of Duran for Ruiz feels like a necessary risk because of Rule 5 issues, but other moves won’t be so forced.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:29
They've tended to trade for newly-drafted guys, which makes a ton of sense given that then they have as much time to develop those guys as possible. It also keeps them clear of 40-man clog for as long as possible. Consolidation trades for stars, and piñata trades where you ship out talented-but-blocked guys like Michael Busch are what they should be doing, and are doing.
Sox fan
12:29
Thoughts on Kristian Campbell so far? What do you think of the extension?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:29
He's a stud and it honestly wouldn't surprise me if he ends up being the best guy from this rookie class
BP
12:29
early thoughts on this upcoming draft class
Eric A Longenhagen
12:30
I'm more enthused about it than some of my peers
TooDamnTall
12:30
I loved your audit articles from the past two years. It seems like two major recurring issues are projecting hitters abilities to handle higher level stuff and pitchers ability to develop new pitches. Do teams have any useful internal information on these things that you're aware of?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:33
Thanks. I think it varies how resourceful teams are when it comes to finding potential pitfalls, or their foresight about how they'll change a player once they acquire them. When we're talking about lower-minors hitters who might eventually struggle with MLB velocity, it can be challenging because they face so little MLB-quality velocity that there's virtually no sample screaming at you that it'll be a problem. There are definitely teams who know, before they draft or trade for a pitcher, what dev stuff they're going to do as soon as they get him.
Galen
12:34
What about Chase Dollander gives optimism that he will be one of only (if not only) Rockies pitching prospect to be succesful?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:34
Big stuff with movement that finishes in all four quadrants of the zone, pretty good command of that stuff, prototypical build and athlete
A.Y.
12:34
Esteury Ruiz seems to have strong EV's for his size, "simple" as turning it into pulled liners and fly-balls?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:37
He's already pulling it a lot. Chase has been his biggest issue.
Guest
12:37
In a dynasty league would it be crazy to take Josue De Paula over Roki Sasaki in a DMB projection league?  I always bake in pitchers will miss 1-2 years because of arm surgery.  It seems Sasaki has struggled a bit but not surprised by that... your thoughts?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:38
Trade down and take your guy. Get a haul for the Roki pick.
Guest
12:39
Kyren Paris had a pretty good spring/start to the year following a swing change. Is the swing actually better, or is this just SSS?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:39
Haven't seen enough of him to have a cogent opinion. A scout this spring asked me if I was buying in or not, which either meant his interested was piqued by what he saw, or he was being sarcastic about what the internet was buzzing about.
Guest
12:40
You sometimes see a prospect be touted as a good, or at least competent, defender, and then he makes it to the majors and he’s visibly awful. How does that happen? The most prominent recent example is Jasson Dominguez.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:42
Evaluating defense is hard unless you have the tools to do it properly. In Jasson's case, he missed so much time due to injury that one could have hoped he'd improve on defense with reps. But I agree it's still incumbent upon the analyst to say "but hey he sucks out there right now". Here is the final paragraph of my offseason report on Dominguez:
12:43
Where he needs to improve is on defense. Perhaps because he's missed extended time due to injury, Domínguez has sketchy feel for his position. His reads and routes can be wayward, and he looks uncomfortable at the catch point. He runs pretty well, but not well enough to play center field without good instincts and feel. The week of list publication, Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters that Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge will likely push Domínguez to left field, which is probably the best fit for him in a vacuum anyway. A more optimistic contact projection than a year ago outweighs what is lost from Domínguez looking like flub-prone defender, and he should be an above-average everyday outfielder and young, build-around bat.
a man has no name
12:43
any prospects that jump out to you in the NL west that may have floundered a bit in their first taste of the big leagues but could take a step forward this year? Kind of like what Heliot Ramos last year
Eric A Longenhagen
12:44
How about Hunter Goodman?
Wood
12:44
We got MLB bold predictions at the end of spring. What are your MiLB bold predictions this year?
Eric A Longenhagen
TooDamnTall
12:45
Do you you think your scouting results would be significantly different if you had team data on players, or that it'd be largely the same?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:46
Uh, I guess it depends what you'd give me access to that I don't already have. I imagine some of the biomechanical stuff, or other proprietary data that I can't even conceive of, might move the needle for me once I'm taught what to do with it.
Afterthought
12:47
Anything to Braxton Bragg? Was perfectly good in his first full-season (major caveat being 23 in low-A), 94-96 with sink, sweeper, changeup. Pretty good command, but concerns his fastball is too hittable.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:49
I have him sitting 93.5, funky low-ish release that becoming more popular, could probably stand to elevate more. Sweeper more average, changeup a little below with potential to be average. Swingman type.
Idiotic Failson
12:49
Can you give me like a 50th percentile outcome comparison for George Lombard (ie - if things go reasonably well he could be like x player)? Trying to figure out his toolkit.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:50
Trevor Story is probably a little too hot a comp for the 50th% outcome, but when I think "righty-hitting shortstop with lots of K's but big power" he's the guy who comes to mind.
Tim Beckham feels a little too light to be the comp, too volatile from chase, but in that vein.
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