Brendan Gawlowski Prospects Chat 3/31/26

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody

Brendan Gawlowski: Just a little housekeeping to start… I published the Rockies list yesterday, kind of a weird/volatile system, pretty interesting and a little better than I thought it would look going in.

Brendan Gawlowski: I covered the Cooper Pratt extension here. It appears y’all are already having a party in the comments there.

Brendan Gawlowski: Upcoming: Eric is rolling on A’s, I’ve started up on Rangers.

Brendan Gawlowski: And, most pertinently for this chat… I watched Jonah Tong’s start last week in prep for the avalanche.

Brendan Gawlowski: Let’s get to it.

Guest: Hi Brendan, thanks for doing this! I was excited about the Colt Emerson signing, and figured he’d immediately take over at short–but Seattle now seem to be intimating they want to keep him down for a while. I realize he hasn’t had many games at AAA, but it’s hard to believe they’d sign him so quickly (when they didn’t have to) if they thought he needed further development at Triple A. Any chance this is just lip service, and he’ll be up soon?

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s not the typical timing for these kinds of deals but, assuming Crawford is back soon enough, there still isn’t an obvious spot for Emerson on the field yet.

Big Sally: Rece Hinds has hit a ball 119.6mph, showed 98th percentile sprint speed last year, and threw a ball 98 mph from the outfield. One could argue he has 3 “70” tools. Obviously the swing and miss is an issue but he cut his K rate to 25.9% last year at AAA. Thoughts?

Brendan Gawlowski: The swing and miss is still an issue

Big Sally: Was the fact that he wasn’t pulling fastballs really the whole reason why FG team as a whole was down on Sal Stewart? Couldn’t that be a part of his approach? Dude has absolutely raked at every level and shown good ev’s and max ev’s.

Brendan Gawlowski: I reject the premise. He was 34th on our list and has a 55 projected hit tool. We love the guy.

John: I read your report on Sandro Santana last week. Over the winter, he was projected in relief. Do the recent looks change that? With what he’s shown lately, what’s his upside now?

Brendan Gawlowski: He’s walked over 5/9 throughout his minor-league career and hasn’t started in a couple years.

Brendan Gawlowski: I think he’s a nice pitcher and the trajectory is promising but he’s almost certainly a reliever.

Alec: Overreaction time: Kevin McGonigle is already the ___-best hitter in Detroit’s lineup. Third?

Brendan Gawlowski: For this year? That seems about right. Carpenter is a weird one to rank with the extreme splits.

Guest: Is AJ Ewing the future cf for Mets or more a 4th or 5th of?

Brendan Gawlowski: I think it’s going to be very hard for him to get in the lineup for a team with New York’s resources.

josh: Hi Brendan! Looking at the Rockies list prompted two questions about fielding projections. 1.) It was mentioned Ethan Holliday could stick at short but he was listed as a 3B, so my question is how good/how much improvement at SS would he have to show to change that projection from 3B to SS? is just being a 50ish at SS enough? and 2.) Inspired by Condon being listed as a LF, What goes in to projecting a guy for one corner OF over the other? Thanks, I’ll hang up & listen

Brendan Gawlowski: Good questions… For Holliday, the body and actions looked great this spring, his odds of staying there are up relative to my look last summer. I still think it’s more likely than not that he grows off the position but I’m less convinced of that by the day. Part of the equation, at the end of the day, will be contextual. If he’s a 50, that’s enough to play SS in most organizations but theoretically he could still need to slide if there’s a 60 at the big league level.

Brendan Gawlowski: Condon — usually arm strength is the big separator. Sometimes contextual factors overwhelm that. In Pittsburgh, for example, where left and left center are huge it’s important to have a really athletic defender in left.

Eduardo: José Fernández got the call in AZ. Could he overtake Arenado?

Brendan Gawlowski: Not for a while

Kate: What are the odds Zach Cole hits enough to be not just a solid platoon guy, but an everyday guy?  Gotta be less than 5% right?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m skeptical, I don’t think he sees the ball well at all.

JK: I am personally a big fan of abolishing drafts and having all players as free agents, and I believe you are too. Would you have any advantages given to bad teams in this situation? Cap on signing bonuses, number of players allowed to be signed, etc.

Brendan Gawlowski: There’d be a limit on roster sizes… I’m open to getting creative and giving teams at the bottom of the standings an earlier window to sign people or something like that. I haven’t thought about it a ton, it’s a pipe dream in any case.

5 Run Homer: It’s weird that Sal Stewart’s full name is just Sal

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s weirder that your name is 5 Run Homer

clydethedog: What numbers would Ethan Holliday need to post in order for red flags to subside? If he can stick at short is it just cutting down on K’s?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m less concerned about the numbers at this point, I want to see how/if the swing changes.

Brendan Gawlowski: If he shortens up and then still strikes out a ton, we may have a problem

Brendan Gawlowski: We all need to mentally prepare ourselves for the speed bump with him, I’m pretty sure it’s coming at some point. I don’t think anything changes until then, and we’ll see how things go when it comes.

drplantwrench: do the angels have any reasonable catching prospects? if logan continues to look bad, what do they do??

Brendan Gawlowski: A couple of very good defenders in Quintero and Flores. I was going to say that neither is super close, but we are talking about the Angels

Go Mariners!: Laz Montes is such an intriguing prospect and you project him as a middle of the order but flawed bat. What are you going to be watching to see if he can develop into that projection? K Rate? What else?

Brendan Gawlowski: Swing and miss in the zone.

Brendan Gawlowski: Also curious to see if he shortens his move. He has a huge start to his swing and he’s not a guy who needs to do that to generate big pop.

Tacoby Bellsbury: A la Kerry Carpenter, who are some dudes with massive splits who we should be watching out for as platoon standouts in the coming years?

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t have a great response right now but thanks for the article idea

SuperWill: For the Rangers list coming up – Maxton Martin and Paxton Kling seem like guys with some MLB tools. How do you like these guys?

Brendan Gawlowski: Maxton Martin is so similar to his brother it’s a little scary

Tim: I see Spencer Jones is picking up where he left off at AAA: good looking surface stats, 38.5% strikeout rate. How big a sample do we need to decide he really is what he is?

Brendan Gawlowski: He/NYY/whoever his future employer is will be trying to shave that number until the day he retires because if he can the upside is enormous

Big Sally: You can reject the premise but its a fact that FG was way lower on him than everywhere else before last season. Eric said he didn’t pull fastballs and that made him question whether he could handle premium velo

Brendan Gawlowski: Should he direct his apology to you, to Sal, or… ? What do you want here?

Gronch: What are the odds Bo Davidson puts up an above average (say, 3 WAR/600PA) season within his team control years? It seems the Giants have some outfield prospects who might be big leaguers (like Harber), but it is harder to see impact potential the way they have in the infield with Level, Hernandez, Josuar, Eldridge

Brendan Gawlowski: He could do that, has big fans in the org

Jake: Who is your favorite long term among River Ryan, Gasser, Christian Scott and Snelling?

Brendan Gawlowski: If you told me he’d stay healthy, River. Scott also looked really good before he blew out.

AL Central Casting: Will Mick Abel’s control/command gains from 2025 stick enough for him to keep starting, or is he destined for the bullpen?

Brendan Gawlowski: Every reason to keep giving him chances to start

Gronch: Re: Cooper Pratt, do you read the extension as a signal that the Brewers think they can get more power out of him?

Brendan Gawlowski: Not necessarily. Clearly they think he’s very good, but it may just be ‘we think he’s a plus shortstop who can hit’

Guardian of the Ephemeral: What’s your take on Ryan Johnson at this point? In some ways it seems he could be the first of a group of SPs to break through and give the Angels a nifty lil homegrown rotation. On the other hand, it’s the Angels.

Brendan Gawlowski: Nothing new from the LAA list. Like him a good bit.

Andy: Saw reports this spring from Keith Law, etc., that Jesus Made put on a lot of weight in the offseason, and not all of it is “good weight.” Did you see him in Arizona, and does that raise any long-term concerns for you?

Brendan Gawlowski: I did not see him but Eric did and shares those concerns

The Actor for Al Pacino: Between Pratt and Emerson, we have a couple new datapoints in terms of very early extensions for players who haven’t debuted yet. In the case of these two, they have barely even played much above AA, which is why I find the timing odd. It seems like the teams could learn more while letting them play in AAA a bit as there’s no spot in the majors for them, and the price tag probably wouldn’t go up much at all. Thoughts specifically on the timing of the signings for these two guys?

Brendan Gawlowski: Chourio had all of six AAA games as well

Brendan Gawlowski: I agree it feels a little early

Guest: 2025 report Sal Stewart wasn’t in the top 100 and was rated a 40+ fv. The prospect reports from THIS OFFSEASON are more bullish on him. Literally only over the last 3 months has FG’s opinion on Sal been positive. But ok reject the premise instead of actually answering

Brendan Gawlowski: Do people come talk to you like this at work?

Brendan Gawlowski: I can see your IP address by the way

Guardian of the Ephemeral: Do you track extremely young MLB types who are developing in the majors? Or just stick with pure prospects? Asking because I am always intrigued by guys like Jordan Walker who debut, bork hard, then have to make changes in the big leagues.

Brendan Gawlowski: Try to cover all of it

Brendan Gawlowski: Walker is fascinating

Brendan Gawlowski: I think it was Craig Goldstein who was talking about the Cards and Walker/Scott in particular and he was just like ‘can these guys just trade batted ball profiles?’

FelninCelestan: Odds that Felnin Celesten develops into an impact player someday? Loved him since his signing but the injuries have been a bummer to see

Brendan Gawlowski: Lack of energy on the field this spring was a bit of a turnoff. Not the be all end all, backfields can be a grind. But, like, run dude.

Dan: The Indians are viewed as the premier pitching development, but are we reaching a point where Pittsburgh might be moving up the list given the collection of arms that have come up and the ones behind like Reinold Navarro and Seth Hernandez?

Brendan Gawlowski: PIT’s definitely toward the top

Big Buckston: Connor Prielipp didn’t make the top 100 this year. Any specific reason for the dropoff? He put up a career high in innings in 2025 with solid performance.

Brendan Gawlowski: Stuff/control a little soft. Eric did the deep dive on that and I just nodded along, so for more detail I’d ask him on Friday.

Crabcakes: Hit tool encompasses pitch recognition, bat-to-ball, and quality of contact, yes?  If it weren’t for the historical system where “hit” is a single tool, would you break those up and give guys multiple hitting grades?

Brendan Gawlowski: We did that with Pit, broke the hit tool into multiple grades. I see the rationale, think you can justify different approaches.

Ben from DC: What would you like to see from Crews at AAA to show you that he’s getting back on track?

Brendan Gawlowski: Pulling the ball with authority

War2D2: Brendan! Any update on when the Cubs list will be released? I’m curious if the Cubs have enough in the minors to make a move for Joe Ryan or similar without mortgaging the farm. Despite how well Horton and Cabrera did in their first starts I can’t help but think they’re at least an arm (if not two) short for a team with deep playoff ambitions. Heading into October with Shōta and Taillon as your game 3 and 4 starters isn’t a recipe for success in my opinion.

Brendan Gawlowski: They have the pieces to acquire Ryan; Cubs list I’m not sure, it’s either on Eric’s docket after the A’s or it’ll slide behind some of the Florida teams he’s heading out to see. It’ll be him and James, I believe

Oaktown Blues: I know Eric is handling the A’s prospect list, but do you know when it’s coming? Is it up next?

Brendan Gawlowski: He’s shooting for a Friday publish

Brendan Gawlowski: Sometimes these come out a day or two later than we’re targeting for a variety of reasons but it should be next regardless

Astros Fan: In the past, you mentioned that you and Eric sort of have ownership of the prospect lists you each do, using the other as a sort of cross-checker. Is the process/dynamic different for the systems James reviews?

Brendan Gawlowski: Just depends

Brendan Gawlowski: Almost every list has a couple guys we want a second opinion on

Confused: I know it has already been written but help me understand the Pratt extension.

Brendan Gawlowski: Brewers see a regular, $ figure isn’t so high that they can’t stomach it if he busts, and even if he’s just ok they make out about even.

Jorge: Who are the three Braves position player prospects you are looking forward to watching most this year?  The high draft picks like Southesiene and Lodise or the intriguing later round guys like Cody Miller and Connor Essenburg?

Brendan Gawlowski: Essenburg hit the sweet spot for me of a toolsy/interesting guy with so little on tape that I’m really curious to see what this looks like

Brendan Gawlowski: Gil is fascinating too right now

Kate: I know it’s only one game, but if Zach Root can hold the stuff he showed in the futures game into the season, is he a Top 100 add?

Brendan Gawlowski: I know he threw strikes in college but that delivery scares me and I want to see him do it for awhile before we put the Big Numbers on him

Syndergaardengnomes: JONAH TONG DAY!

Brendan Gawlowski: CJ Edwards day

Your Name: RE Abolishing Drafts: I don’t think roster size limits would be nearly enough. Alabama football pre transfer portal had the #1 class for like a decade straight (even though there are roster limits) and won a bunch of titles because of it. I don’t know why MLB would turn out any differently.

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s interesting to me how talent has spread more evenly now that we’ve gotten rid of the salary cap

Rankings: Re: the Sal Stewart obsessive, don’t you guys usually say ordinal rankings matter little compared to future value on The Board? And position and ability to play it affects value, too?

Brendan Gawlowski: The ordinal ranking is just more sensitive in some spots than others

Brendan Gawlowski: 16 v 6 is pretty big; 86 vs 106 not so much

Billy G: Any ideas why it seems baseball is so much bigger in Taiwan than China? Relatedly, excited to see where the A’s Taiwanese pitchers land on their list!

Brendan Gawlowski: Let’s crowdsource this; I don’t know but am interested

Andy: The Top 100 writeup for Ralphy Velazquez suggested he could be up by spring. Is it fair to say he might be a slightly more athletic version of Sal Stewart? Is his bat as advanced as Stewart’s seems to be?

Brendan Gawlowski: Minor point — I wrote “could be up as soon as this summer,” just want to level set that expectation a little bit.

Brendan Gawlowski: They’re not the first two hitters I’d think to link together but I’m expecting them both to be very good

Tacoby Bellsbury: Sal Stewart or a bowl of Skyline Chili?

Brendan Gawlowski: This is officially the Sal Stewart chat. Tongian levels of questions about the guy today

Guest: “You know I can see you IP address” as if I said something out of line or insulted you. I simply called you out for being dismissive honestly kind of a jerk. “I reject that premise” as if you’ve always had glowing reports on him when clearly something changed over the last year to change your opinion on him.

Brendan Gawlowski: I wasn’t even here last year, man.

Mr. Burrito: When scouts see a player grow in talent — or, if not talent, the clear results — from one year to the next, how big an impact does that make on the overall ranking, etc.? If I were a GM I’d rank that “skill” — the ability to improve from year to year — as a super valuable asset.

Brendan Gawlowski: you’re talking about aptitude, and it’s huge

Brendan Gawlowski: A tangible way to say someone has good makeup

E: Do you still have hope bryce eldridge can improve his in zone contact rate enough to be a force?

Brendan Gawlowski: Absolutely

Bruin: What does this colt emerson extension do for cole young’s outlook? Prepping for JP Crawford walking and an infield alignment of Donovan-emerson-young-naylor or a sign that young could be getting moved? If latter, for what?

Brendan Gawlowski: Well, Crawford and Donovan aren’t signed for the long haul and Young still needs to prove he can hit.

Brendan Gawlowski: Emerson was going to be part of the equation regardless so the extension doesn’t really change much

RWFTF: From the unassailable Wikipedia:

Baseball in Taiwan is a major sport that is often characterized as the national sport (Chinese: 國球). It was introduced during the Japanese rule era around 1897 and gained popularity over time, culminating in some successes of Taiwanese teams in the Japanese system. The sport remained popular following the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan despite the Kuomintang (KMT) government’s deliberate policy of removing cultural links to Japan.

In the shifting international environment that eventually led to the ROC’s departure from the United Nations, the KMT government used baseball as a tool for nation-building, pouring massive resources into the sport in the hopes of forging a stronger national identity. 

Big Buckston: I watched Ryan Johnson’s first start yesterday, and my Cubs fan wife raised her eyebrows as I explained his path to the Angel’s rotation (MLB bullpen straight after draft to domination as a starter in A+, to now an MLB rotation). The only thing more herky-jerky than how the Angels have handled his development is Johnson’s delivery. Can you think of a prospect who’s had this much role/level whiplash so soon after being drafted? Just a bizarre sequence of events

Brendan Gawlowski: Cannot think of another guy who went college-MLB-A+-MLB, no

E: How quickly to do think ryan sloan could move if everything goes perfectly for him? Or, is there not really any way seattle does anything other than using this year to build him up innings-wise?

Brendan Gawlowski: Sky’s the limit here. I’ve generally been skeptical that he’ll get to Seattle in 2026 for a variety of reasons, but if anyone has the talent to force the issue it’s him

Bruin: do you think franklin arias could be up in 2027? supposedly made raw/game power gains this season w/some bat speed adding and more focus on airpull

Brendan Gawlowski: Could be, yeah

drplantwrench: oh a quick google search showed that baseball was banned by Mao in 1959 too, so baseball leagues werent formed until 2002

Pop: Were you shocked that Jhostynxon Garcia didn’t make the MLB team? Seems like he is better than people on the MLB team

Brendan Gawlowski: No, given the outfielders they acquired this winter, not surprised.

Brendan Gawlowski: He’ll get run eventually

E: What do you think gets river ryan a chance in the dodger’s final rotation spot? Would it need roki’s control woes to come back around or an injury?

Brendan Gawlowski: You’ve nailed the two clearest paths.

DJ: Have any of the first week of Triple-A pitching performances caught your attention?

Brendan Gawlowski: Condon. This will be his first time as a pro he’s been totally healthy for an extended run. Off to a good start.

RAH: How surprised are you that the Brewers wanted to lock up Cooper Pratt? How risky do you think this deal is for the org, considering prospects fail, and he doesn’t seem like a no doubt league bat?

Brendan Gawlowski: I was surprised, interesting idea/timing. Six million/year isn’t going to kill any time but, yeah, I’m a little surprised they signed up for that risk.

Sarah: Does the increased likelihood that Jesus Made ends up at 3B push down his FV at all? Are you buying that this weight addition is a negative long-term?

Brendan Gawlowski: I want to see how it all looks on the field. It’s by no mean’s a linear equation, but often the things that push guys down the spectrum lead to more power in a way that, if it isn’t completely balanced, tends to have a compensatory effect

Resolution: Looking for some optimism here – seems like a lot of Rockies prospects have a long swing – Carrigg, Holliday, Veen, Beck; is this something that is more ‘fixable’? Nothing is easy but this seems more manageable than ‘poor pitch recognition’ or ‘lack of discipline’

Brendan Gawlowski: Swings can be tricky to change. Timing queues or when to start can be relatively simple adjustments. You can shorten the path but finding a way to do it that’s natural for the player isn’t easy.

Mr. Burrito: Do super strong farm systems have “org guys” who are better than the “org guys” in other systems?

Brendan Gawlowski: They might have a little more upper level depth, but not really. Org guys are definitionally guys who will not play well in the majors.

DJ: I’ve noticed the listed player heights on The Board vary from the FanGraphs player pages (ex. Hector Rodriguez is 5’8″ on The Board and 5’10” on his FG player page). Is there one that might be the more reliable of the two?

Brendan Gawlowski: 99% sure it’s the player page

Karl Hungus: How would you rate individual tools in terms of importance?

Brendan Gawlowski: Hit; power; field; run; arm

The Actor for Al Pacino: Long-anticipated debut for Andrew Painter tonight. Projection systems for the season seem a bit tepid on him, with most projecting ~100 IP of mid-4 ERA/FIP ball for ~1.0 WAR. I live in Philly, and expectations are unrealistically high for him. Would the projection systems’ median outcome be a good debut season in your eyes?

Brendan Gawlowski: The Bat’s, sure. ZiPS, not really

Genghis Khan II: Looks like Devin Fitz-Gerald is starting in A+. Pretty big vote of confidence that he got that nod over the other WSH infielders. Thoughts?

Brendan Gawlowski: Aligned with your assessment

matt w: Can you elaborate on “It’s interesting to me how talent has spread more evenly now that we’ve gotten rid of the salary cap”? wasn’t sure which sport you mean here.

Brendan Gawlowski: College football. It’s not just that they can pay players, of course, the freedom of movement has also had a flattening effect

A Boy Named Yu: Assuming Kevin Alcantara doesn’t bomb this year, is it safe to assume he’s replacing one of Happ/Suzuki in the Cubs OF next year?

Brendan Gawlowski: I wouldn’t say “safe” until the Cubs actually play him

E: Going back to the roki control woes question, did you see anything in this most recent outing, beyond the surface level results, that gave you an improved feeling about his ability to throw strikes?

Brendan Gawlowski: No

Sirras: Assuming equal (translated) performance, are you more confident in a player transitioning from NBP, KBO, or AAA succeeding in MLB?

Brendan Gawlowski: NPB

A Boy Named Yu: Would an ‘org guy’ on the best farm system in the league be a top 30 prospect in the worst system?

Brendan Gawlowski: No

Wes: Do you get giveaway items when you scout at minor league parks? Do you have a bobblehead collection?

Brendan Gawlowski: I would feel bad taking one. Once I grabbed something I thought my wife would like

Brendan Gawlowski: And felt awkward

Brendan Gawlowski: Almost as awkward as I did posing for a picture with “Champ” the SWB mascot because my son asked me to

Dan: Trying not to be downer, but what repercussions (if any) would a lockout inflict on the minor leagues and development potentially? I read that minor leagues games were still played during the last lockout.

Brendan Gawlowski: Not much here. The 40 man guys would be locked out and miss out on some reps, but could still train on their own.

Brendan Gawlowski: The A ball guys would still be playing

Pirate Fan: What other Prospects then Griffin  for the Pirates do you think can make a impact this year? I’m thinking Jhostynxon Garcia and maybe Rafael Flores Jr? Just wondering what other Prospects are on your rader.

Brendan Gawlowski: Bubba and Barco are still elgibile so definitely them too

Brendan Gawlowski: Maybe Valdez?

Wallyworld: Okay….but if Jonah Tong faced Sal Stewart 100 times, what would happen? The people need to know who you particularly hate more

Brendan Gawlowski: If Tong gets a start against Cincy this year we should liveblog it

Your Name: I appreciate you discussing the abolition of the draft and league structure topics, even if we don’t agree. Perhaps that’s me being beaten down by my beloved Pirates having only 4 winning years since 1993.

Brendan Gawlowski: I deeply feel your pain. The losses wore on me, too.

A Boy Named Yu: Do you have a good example of a player from the 80’s or 90’s that never really got his chance or was overlooked at the time, that would now be considered a really good player in today’s analytical landscape?

Brendan Gawlowski: Oooh, good question. Another good article idea. Not really a response to your question, but go look at how long Wade Boggs had to marinate in Triple-A. Someone with a similar profile, maybe with a 55 hit instead of an 80, without big power but with some patience

JD: Thank you for doing these chats. Your time and opinions are appreciated.

Brendan Gawlowski: You’re welcome and thank you. There are always a fair number of these in the queue, and they don’t go unnoticed.

Billy G: Did you play MLB Showdown? Seems to be having a mini renaissance with the sites showdownbot.com and showdown2000.fun

Brendan Gawlowski: I did, and revived it during the pandemic. Pretty good game, lot of ways to get creative with building a roster.

EccentricATLFan: So a couple of questions stemming from Zac Veen, his writeup, and his ABS results from 2025: 1) How much did his ABS challenge record play into any assessment of his pitch recognition or tracking, given how his record on that front was…not exactly stellar?  2) Are there any players where you feel that their ABS challenges are specifically designed to compensate in any way for possible holes in their profile?  (If it illustrates what I mean better, Veen’s challenges were all on the opposite edge of the plate or bottom edge of the strike zone, vs. Deyvison De Los Santos having his challenges more spread out alongside all edges of the strike zone.)

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t know how much to infer from being bad at challenges, but it’s definitely something I’ve noticed and taken into account and in places shaded down a little on a guy’s rec/cz grades. Also, don’t want to bury someone for it, perhaps it’s something they learn from?

Brendan Gawlowski: Second question, I’m not sure!

MJS: What’s going on, Brendan. When can us Marlins fans expect the updated prospect list?

Brendan Gawlowski: Late, ton of interesting low level guys, we want to give ourselves every chance to see them, including Eric in person. Huge system, major lift to write up, good chance it’s dead last

Guest: I’m not so sure the non-40 minor leaguers would play in a future lockout – for the first time they are all in the same union

Brendan Gawlowski: Fair point, I should look into that

Oaktown Blues: You and Eric have talked a lot about how the grade is far more important the the ordinal ranking on the top 100 list. What are the limits of this? Is the highest 50 on the list closer in value to the lowest 55 one spot above him, or the lowest 50 at the bottom of the list? My gut tells me a 50 is closer to a 50, obviously. That said, you don’t give out 52.5s, so there has to some sort of spectrum with a top and a bottom, no?

Brendan Gawlowski: Yeah, and it’s a little case by case. In some places one of Eric or I may have wanted a 55 and the other a 50 and we went with the more conservative approach. That hypothetical guy is probably closer to the 55’s than the injured pitchers at the bottom

Brendan Gawlowski: Or even someone like Waldy

Idiotic Failson: I find Chandler Simpson to be a fun baseball player. Not necessarily good, but a set of tools that I think are unique and potentially disruptive. Are there any ‘fun’ prospects you can think of off the top of your head?

Brendan Gawlowski: Roldy but he’s also good

Brendan Gawlowski: Carrigg is the full experience for better and worse

RWFTF: would it be possible to publish a schedule for org lists, even if it gets frequently edited? would save more chat time for people arguing about Tong and Stewart

Brendan Gawlowski: We’d have to schedule it out more comprehensively first

A Boy Named Yu: You get 10 pitches.  You can choose to pitch to Judge or be pitched to by Skenes.  You win if you get a strike past Judge or make fair contact against Skenes.  Which one you trying?

Brendan Gawlowski: Skenes. It’s probably not happening either way but it’s definitely not happening against Judge

jose luis: Kade Anderson and Ryan Sloan are both starting at Arkansas (AA). Who moves up first?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’d guess Kade

j: how long do you think Tibbs III would have to hit like this until he forces his way into big league at bats (I know he won’t keep batting 600 with multiple extra base hits every day but it is a fun question)?

Brendan Gawlowski: Fun thought experiment: If he stroked three line drives a day, how long does he have to wait?

Brendan Gawlowski: In reality, like almost everyone else, it’ll be a function of opportunity more than production

Your Name: “College football. It’s not just that they can pay players, of course, the freedom of movement has also had a flattening effect”

The freedom of movement has also destroyed the overall level of the G5. You can see it in college basketball too where the are now far fewer March Madness Cinderellas. I believe small market MLB teams are like those G5 programs.

Brendan Gawlowski: That’s the portal part of it, though. I agree that the portal is killing the G5’s

Brendan Gawlowski: But we’re not gonna have a portal in baseball

Ross Atkins: Do you have any thoughts on the Dub Gleed-Leo Jimenez trade (mostly the former)? What a name!

Brendan Gawlowski: Eric just pinged me about how we need to update the board on Dub and a couple other recent trades. So, no, but it might literally be the first thing I do when this chat ends.

Go Crew!: Would team built completely from the Brewers’ minor league system win more games than the Rockies this year? Seems the pitching would exceed Colorado’s output.

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t think so

Brendan Gawlowski: Among other things.. Getting competent backend arms like Sugano and Lorenzen is going to help a lot

Tom: What ZCon threshold would Spencer Jones have to hit in order for you to be in on him as an everyday guy?

Brendan Gawlowski: I would grade him as an everyday guy

Your Name: I think when talking about draft abolition you just need to state that you want the workers to be paid as much as possible, have as much free moment as possible, and do not care about team quality balance, which is fine. But I don’t see any way that removing talent acquisition guardrails doesn’t just lead to most money = best players = further stratification of the league.

Brendan Gawlowski: I do care about them getting paid… I also believe that scouting/acquiring talent is hard enough, and that opportunities to get to the bigs quickly would be valuable enough that removing bonus limits would not send all the top amateurs to the big markets. I also don’t necessarily think the Phillies or whoever is suddenly going to just throw down a ton of money on amatuers.

Brendan Gawlowski: I could be DEAD WRONG on all of that

Brendan Gawlowski: It would not be the first time I’ve posted bad opinions on the internet

Clarke: What are the odds Christian Zazueta is the best pitching prospect in the sport by the end of the year?

Brendan Gawlowski: Low but I admire the belief here

Steve V: are the Astros considered to have the weakest ML system currently?

Brendan Gawlowski: Let’s see how SDP grades out

BMK: Sorry I’m late. Quick question. I’m reading the book “Future Value” and they mention the Lewis Brinson Problem which is when a player is so naturally talented, you can’t actually know if they’re good or not until they’re in the MLB because everything else isn’t even a challenge. This is why Eric would put a 60 FV on Luis Robert Jr. My question is, why doesn’t this apply to Konnor Griffin, and his 65 FV?

Brendan Gawlowski: Sometimes you do so many things so well that you don’t feel all that risky

Guest: note to self- Brendan doesn’t like when you ask questions about older scouting reports and what may have changed about said player to change the report

Brendan Gawlowski: I actually like those questions and think they’re great, please ask.

Brendan Gawlowski: I just need to have been the guy who wrote it

Arathorn: What happened to Jared Kelenic?

Brendan Gawlowski: Struggled a lot with breaking balls.

Brendan Gawlowski: Puts a ton of pressure on himself.

Rob A: If the Dbacks see a future role for Jose Fernandez shouldn’t he be in AAA not MLB? Hard not to conclude they don’t see him as a possible regular.

Brendan Gawlowski: He probably isn’t a regular but I wouldn’t read too much into a march promotion

Brendan Gawlowski: sometimes you need a guy

Brendan Gawlowski: About to wrap it up. I want to leave you with a poll, so if you have opinions on this, please share

Brendan Gawlowski:

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll give it a couple more minutes, thanks to all have answered. Looking forward to getting to some of these ideas when we wrap up the lists.