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Eric Longenhagen Prospects Chat
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Eric A Longenhagen
12:02
Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by the site to chat.
12:03
There are a lot of good questions in the queue already so let's get right to it...
Tacoby Bellsbury
12:03
FanGraphs is having a nostalgia birthday today. What are your best memories of working here, and what do you feel like is your best work?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:07
Next June will be my *10th* year here. I have memories that predate my actual hiring, I remember discovering the site in college via my then-girlfriend (another former IronPigs intern) who was on it first, I remember walking along Tempe Town Lake when Kiley and I first hopped on the phone to talk about working together and how natural it felt right away. I laughed so hard all the time with Carson and that's how it is when everyone from the site gets together at an ASB or winter meetings....
12:11
I really feel lucky to work here and I'm glad it's going well for David, for the site, and for those who have passed through and moved on to other things. I think the most impressive thing that can be said about David and this venture is that people have left and yet the site rebuilds and grows and improves without wandering from the north start that David (and definitely Meg) are navigating toward.
12:13
Meg is nuts, and the stuff she does on the daily is freaking incredible. She basically got handed the keys to the site out of left field when Carson left and just had to pick up the baton and run with it after getting this bomb dropped on her at Thanksgiving (I remember because it was dropped on all of us, it put me on tilt that whole weekend) and she just did. She shovels coal into the site every day.
12:15
As far as my own stuff, I think The Board is pretty cool. I wrote Cuban defector history in a hardcopy hardball times  way back when I started and I loved that. I should probably compile a "Best of" scouting report album or something.
Guest
12:15
is benge making a good case to be a 60?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:17
It means he'd have to sustain something in the Randy Arozarena territory here to hit that grade. That's a little more than I'm comfortable with, I think.
An Open Mook
12:18
Any new thoughts about Kristian Campbell?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:18
Let's all take a peek at his expected stats really quick...
12:20
These are super weird and much, much different than last year, and that would prime me to do a deeper comparison with last year's look on film.
12:23
What's going on here with the huge drop in hard hit rate? Is there a temporary physical problem, like an ailment or something he's dealing with? Or was this guy's swing never really sustainable in the first place? The full-armed effort it takes someone to swing the way he does could be tough to sustain all season. One of the things about Campbell was, "I've never seen a swing like this before (Yuli maybe?), is that good or bad?"
12:24
Now, he's so young, and the context of his development (this is only Campbell's third year of high level baseball) rings true to me, so I wouldn't panic, but also i'm curious where he's not slugging now that he was last year
Jason N
12:24
Are the Padres any good at development?  I read a lot about how they’re turning these under the radar castoffs into great trade chips, but it also seems that they rarely have their own non-premium draftees pop while they’re in their own org.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:26
It's a good question. I think you can be inclined to view it in a couple of different ways, one of them is the way you put it: Teams trade with the Padres and take their prospects all the time, therefore the Padres have made good prospects and part of that must be development.
12:28
Of course, teams are also always looking for undervalued players who they think they can improve. In fact I've had scouts ask me who (in college and pro) is *not* good at development because they'd like to scout those teams/schools with that in mind, and hopefully unearth under-performing players there.
12:29
Mostly what I think is at play is that the Padres front office's threshold for what they deem as an acceptably good player is higher than most other teams.
12:30
I would contrast this with Baltimore, specifically. I'd guess that the talent range Baltimore considers to be commensurate with a marginal player and what San Diego considers so are pretty different. The Padres aren't trying to platoon like the Rays are, ya know, they want B role players and above at every position.
Guest
12:31
whats up with this Kendry chourio kid, is the command as good as the bb% ?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:34
He's good, sitting 94-96 all year, really fast arm, really direct line to the plate, throwing fastball strikes, love the changeup projection. He's a little undersized and his delivery is more violent than you like, the fastball shape isn't great, he has more of an in-zone breaking ball usage right now without obvious ability to locate it for chase, so there's stuff to work on.
40+ type for me
Guards! Guards!
12:35
If you have a player who makes terrible swing decisions, how much can you improve it?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:37
Research from a sabermetric era ago suggested it was a relative constant for all but a few guys, usually guys with long big league careers who have an uncommonly long amount of time to polish this. With changes in tech, virtual reality stuff (I'd call the Trajekt a form of vr) has created a new hitting prep environment for hitters and I wonder if that will have a meaningful impact on this going forward.
T.J.
12:37
Any under the hood stats to get excited about with Juneiker? Kinda surprising he was the breakout star of the Guard's AZL team.
Eric A Longenhagen
12:39
Just exceptional feel for contact, like comfortably plus in terms of overall and in-zone contact, hard hit data is surprisingly high, in the MLB average range. Lotta well-struck grounders and liners, definitely a downhill bat path guy right now.
Lord Thunder
12:40
Can Jonny Farmelo be labeled "injury prone" at this point?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:40
Nah because the injuries have been very different, it's not like he's had consistent foot or hammy issues.
12:41
Could the lack of reps have already had a meaningful impact on the pace and trajectory of his development? Yeah.
Guest
12:41
hear anything on the likelihood Wetherholt debuts this season?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:42
I haven't heard anything specific but once the calendar allows for guys to be promoted while still retaining rookie eligibility next year, all bets are off.
Chase Mybroth
12:42
Best DSL bat?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:42
Josuar
Travis
12:42
Nice seeing you at Disneyland a few months back ;) Do the Padres now have the worst farm system ever?
Eric A Longenhagen
12:44
Hey dude! You should drop your email in another question so we can communicate after this. No, they don't.
12:45
At quick glance it's the mid-2021 White Sox who do.
Jonny
12:45
Ryan Clifford = Lucas Duda? Or better/worse as a major leaguer?
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