Brendan Gawlowski Prospects Chat: 3/10/26

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello everybody. If you haven’t had the chance, my Braves list went live this morning. Last week Eric and I knocked out the Mets as well, and we’ll continue our trek through the east with the Yankees next.

Brendan Gawlowski: We’ll then be pivoting back west. I’ll be in Arizona with Eric starting tomorrow for 10 days.

Brendan Gawlowski: And away we go

DF: If you were drafting #1 today, who would you take: Eli Willits, Liam Doyle or Josuar Gonzalez? I know the Board has them in that order, but there is an awful lot of buzz around Gonzalez that makes me wonder.

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll be in Scottsdale very soon to take a look but I’m hearing the same thing re: Josuar.

Mike Lommler: While watching the WBC have you seen any guys who aren’t real prospects but have a tool that makes you think, “Hey, that’s pretty cool”

Brendan Gawlowski: Just impressed with the guys from Czechia and Nicaragua etc. battling against elite players in an electric setting. Very cool life moment.

bob: Thanks for the Braves list, and great timing it up with a JR ST start! What levels will the various shortstops (Lodise, Southisene, Gil be assigned to if you had to guess?

Brendan Gawlowski: Southisene at Augusta. The other two we’ll see. I talked to their farm director for the piece and for a lot of players he’s of the mind to let them play their way onto various rosters this spring.

EccentricATLFan: Loved the writeup of the Braves’ system (maybe not so much the depth of it, of course), but the last few lines of Caminiti’s summary especially caught my eye.  Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by “going ahead and projecting him as a no. 3” if you were with a team vs. your projection as a Fangraphs writer?  (Not trying to be nitpicky or anything, just curious about that part.)

Brendan Gawlowski: With the Pirates, we’d put the grade we think they’re eventually going to be; here we’re doing it more from an asset value standpoint.

Brendan Gawlowski: So, if I thought Johnny Complex was going to be a 55, I’d turn in a 55. But that same player here is probably a 40+ FV

Francisco: Do you think either Jonah Tong or Luis Morales have ace potential or are they middle of the lineup guys?

Brendan Gawlowski: Morales does. Tong could burn very brightly but I don’t think I’d go that high.

Mitch: Hey Brendan, do teams use internal projections systems to “project” how prospects would do in the majors? If so, does it influence their decision making at all?

Brendan Gawlowski: Yes. They all (well, most, anyway) have internal projections and monitor what third parties are projecting as well.

Sirras: Who is the prospect you’ve most changed your opinion on after seeing them in person?

Brendan Gawlowski: Ralphy Velasquez

Opifijikl: Do you think that as soon as a prospect is projected to perform slightly better than a replacement level player at the MLB level they should be called up if there is a roster opening?

Brendan Gawlowski: No. Tons of guys project to add value now. Konnor Griffin would have last summer in some kind of bench role but you wouldn’t ever bring him up to pinch run and cover short after you pinch hit for Triolo, ya know?

Scioscia: You were already among the more generous reviewers of the angels farm system this go around, will the performances of Ramirez, Aldegheri, and Victor at the WBC help the perception of it across the board?

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t think it should.

NFP: do you have a rough key of the A1 A2 B1 B2 C1 C2 etc. scale? it seems semi common, but I can’t find a definition for each of the grades

for that matter, what’s the difference between a 45 and a 40+ and a 50 and a 45+?

Brendan Gawlowski: It can vary a little bit, especially since some teams will use A1 and A2 and others will just have an A; same with D1/2 and just D. Roughly, your A’s are 70’s and 80’s, your B’s are anything from a 50 to a 60 depending on your scale, your C’s are 40’s and 45’s. D is depth/replacement/up-down depending on how you do it.

Brendan Gawlowski: Here, the 40+ and 45+ are usually meant to indicate upside within a tier. A way of further separating the best 40’s and 45’s, etc.

Dodgers Blue: What was your earlier opinion on Mike Burrows and has it changed at all over the last year or so?  Looks like a great pick from an 11th round draft slot!  What are some of the pro’s and con’s the Astros can expect from him?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ve liked him dating all the way back to his AFL stint in 2021… If memory serves, we gave him a pretty good grade on the ’22 Pirates list, too. The pro is that he could be a mid-rotation starter. The cons are that his slider is just okay and that his change is a boom/bust pitch… It’ll miss a lot of bats but when it hangs, they bang.

Wallyworld: Love the Mets writeup.  Do we think AJ Ewing has PCA-lite type skills?  Maybe little less power/little more speed?  His profile seems exciting to me

Brendan Gawlowski: I have him and Nelson Rada together in my head.

Crabcakes: Do you think amateur scouting has gotten significantly better in the last decade?  Seems like I don’t hear nearly as often anymore about some guy who was a 17th round pick making good in the majors.  Maybe the ease of sharing video and quantitative data means fewer guys slip through the cracks?

Brendan Gawlowski: Did you see all the pitchers on the Mets list?

Brendan Gawlowski: Broadly, everybody is getting better at everything. Dev, scouting, etc. There are still opportunities all over the place.

Tacoby Bellsbury: What voices formerly of the public space do you most miss seeing?

Brendan Gawlowski: KG. Him, and more specifically his podcast with Jason Parks, was my inspiration for going this direction in life.

Francisco: Does Moises Ballesteros get enough playing time to be relevant this season?  What do you think the future holds for him?

Brendan Gawlowski: I think so, but I don’t know exactly how they’ll deploy him. Imagine they want to get the bat in the lineup soon, though. He performed last year against a ridiculous run of good pitchers.

Sirras: Is Ralphy Velasquez going to become a shorthand here at FG? (For any number of things)

Brendan Gawlowski: Not to be confused with Richy Valdez, who I’m afraid seems to have been typecast.

Mario: Ralphy V — 1b only or can he go to corner OF?

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s worth a try in left. If it doesn’t work it’s not going to be from lack of effort.

Big Fan: The Braves have now lost Joey Wentz too.  I know both have development left, but how soon could Ritchie and Fuentes be ready to contribute?

Brendan Gawlowski: Braves sources were very excited about how Fuentes has looked this spring. My instinct is Ritchie is ahead but neither are far away. I expect they’ll both make starts.

Sonny: Pitchers have moved max in game velo at a faster rate than hitters have raised in-game Max EV. Who is the hitter Ben Joyce who will pop a 125?

Brendan Gawlowski: Oneil. Dude got jacked this winter.

Lord Thunder: If and when Leodalis De Vries becomes a big leaguer, what position is he most likely to primarily play?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll say short but the “fit” part of the equation is a little murky. I don’t love Wilson at short but teams in the recent past have been a little reluctant to move a (sort of) established guy for a prospect.

Big Fan: What can you tell us about the dev strengths and weaknesses in the Braves organization?  It seems like they’ve done well with pitching development, but I don’t hear them mentioned with the likes of the Guardians or Dodgers.

Brendan Gawlowski: I didn’t come away from that list thinking that they have a standout ability. Which doesn’t mean that they don’t do some things well, they seem to have a new big leaguer every year, which counts for something… But there wasn’t some super obvious edge like Milwaukee’s international scouting group, or Tampa’s pro acquisition, or Toronto’s strength and conditioning.

btownfritz: Any thoughts on Kade Anderson’s first couple spring outings?

Brendan Gawlowski: Looks good, looks like a quick moving pitching prospect.

Meatloaf: One of FanGraphs’ scout sources IDed Jackson Lovich as a pick to click this year, but he’s not on most major publications’ Yankee prospect rankings and he was selected near the end of last year’s draft. What might have made him stand out to this scout in particular while not standing out to most publications?

Brendan Gawlowski: A live look probably.

Your Name: Do you think being around a bunch of elite hitters for a few weeks could help Oneil Cruz?

Brendan Gawlowski: No.

Big Fan: It seems like the Braves draft and IFA strategy has changed in recent years.  In the draft, they were college-heavy in 2018-2019, then pivoted towards arms, before prioritizing position players last year.  On the international front, last year they seemed to spread their bonus pool around more, rather than go big on 1-2 guys.  Is there anything we can read into the seeming changes in strategy over the years?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m gonna nitpick the premise — the Braves last IFA class was still pretty top heavy. Tornes and Reyes took most of it.

EccentricATLFan: Also, probably fair to say at this point that the Braves really like their pitchers adding splitters and working a ton with their breaking balls (especially given tendencies under AA of “take the breaking ball and start throwing it harder” with quite a few pitchers).  How do you generally feel about their dev team’s ability to bring about command/control improvements?

Brendan Gawlowski: They’ve gotten a couple guys to throw harder too. Baumann and Ritchie are both interesting in that regard because, for different reasons, neither seemed all that likely to do it (or at least in Ritchie’s case you might have expected it to come earlier than it did).

Brendan Gawlowski: As for the last question: not great. They take a bunch of guys with good command/control already, seems like the questionable strike throwers mostly stay that way.

Mario: do you know what it was about Gavin Lux that led to a 60/70 power scouting report, that we might watch out for with current prospects?

Brendan Gawlowski: This question is in here every week. Short answer is that scouts/evaluators are trying to predict the future and sometimes they get it wrong.

Inspector Houlihan: Gawlowski!  I’ve seen a lot of gumshoes in my day, but you’re out of control!  Now you’ve got yourself sideways with that double-crossing dame!!

Brendan Gawlowski: Hello Inspector

Pedro: Brendan:  who are some prospects that are a bit under the radar/not hyped and could contribute in 2026 for an American League team?  Thanks in advance

Brendan Gawlowski: I smell a fantasy baseball question… I’d keep an eye on Khalil Watson

Mario: how will all these LAD OF Prospects ever make the roster before Teoscar leaves in 2028?

Brendan Gawlowski: Perhaps they’ll make someone else’s roster

Geordy: What about your live looks on Ralphy Velazquez changed your opinion of him?

Brendan Gawlowski: Pre-game work was really impressive; strangely, approach is sometimes easier to observe in person and his was/is really good; seeing the changes in his body from ’23 to ’25 as well.

Brendan Gawlowski: I saw him when his numbers weren’t great so I wasn’t necessarily expecting him to light me up, and, well. He did.

MooseCaboose: Who are you eager to see live this spring?

Brendan Gawlowski: myself in the sunshine. Want to see Yolfran/Yandel Ricardo out in Surprise… Roldy Brito, of course… The Giants ACL team from last year… Want to see which of the AZ pitchers in the 10-25 range or so has ticked up.

MooseCaboose: What’s the next pitch clock? (Change that leads to a better game experience)

Brendan Gawlowski: Good article idea

Mike Lommler: What sort of stuff do orgs do to try to improve command? Do they have drills to try to improve proprioception, etc.?

Brendan Gawlowski: Various things to measure how often a pitcher can hit a particular spot. If you walk on the backfields you can see the old ‘string strike zone’ or the ‘nine ball zone’ thing.

Brendan Gawlowski: To actually bring about a change, you might need to tweak a delivery. Reps help too.

Crashed Scion: re: Lux, didn’t his breakout coincide with the juiced ball year in 2019?

Brendan Gawlowski: Slug jumped from .362 to .514 from 2017 to 2018. Probably that year? Tiny bit before my time.

bOb: With the MLB draft having so many rounds, do teams generally take the best available player or are they drafting a specific position, etc…?

Brendan Gawlowski: Mostly best player available. You still get the occasional ‘we’re taking this scout’s kid’ at the very end.

Brendan Gawlowski: And of course the end of the first ten rounds you’re often trying to sign priority small-dollar players to make the math work on the guys you took up top.

Slew(Seattle): Any chance Daniel Espino ends up a starter? Is it stuff or durability that would hold him back?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’d be surprised, there have just been so many injuries

ThatGuy: Between Brody Hopkins, Jackson Wiggins, and Jarlin Susana, who is most likely to stay a starter? Which of them is most likely to come up this year?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll say Hop and Susana for the first question; Wiggins scares me a little bit.

Big Fan: I noticed the number of Braves prospects who could be in play for the Top 100 a year from now.  Is that an unusual thing  with this system?

Brendan Gawlowski: Didn’t really stand out to me, to be honest. Caminiti is a layup if he stays healthy, seems like they’ll have a similar of number of guys jockeying for the list as your average bear.

Brendan Gawlowski: One other stray thought on them: One place the lack of depth shows up is that I didn’t love a lot of the 40s… Like, they grade that way, but there were a bunch I rounded up on even as I was debating ‘should they just be a 35+?’

Wallyworld: Obviously nobody is Aaron Judge and any comparison is insane, but is the Justin Gonzales hype real?  Obviously he needs to lift more, but is that unlocking a totally different player at his size?

Brendan Gawlowski: I haven’t dug on him personally but Eric’s note from last year — “He’s a stiff, maxed-out athlete with a funky swing” — does not seem particularly Judgian to say the last.

Prospectus: Can you forecast a (small) handful of guys in contention for no. 1 overall prospect in 2027?

Brendan Gawlowski: Josuar; De Vries; Clark; Rainer; Peña

Brendan Gawlowski: Wild how two of the top three didn’t make the list at all last year. Crazy game, this.

BobHausen: What is the trait that gives a player an extra chance or two in an organization?  Power, Speed, defense, etc…?

Brendan Gawlowski: Hit tool

Bone: Thoughts on Christian Moore’s trajectory… short and long term?

Brendan Gawlowski: Think he can be an everyday second baseman.

EccentricATLFan: Thanks for answering my questions!  One final one: Since you mentioned how “there isn’t a safe bat in the entire system”, do you see them going position-player heavy with their first few picks in the draft given those concerns (especially with someone like Burress or AJ Gracia), or could you see them going pitcher-heavy again (Bolemon seems like a good fit, at least on paper)?

Brendan Gawlowski: They take best player available regardless of fit. For them, where they normally draft, they often feel it’s a pitcher

Lord Thunder: Since he’s older than his draft peers, do you see that affecting what level JoJo Parker plays at for most of this  season?

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t, I expect he’ll start at Low-A and if he hits he’ll move up.

Brendan Gawlowski: Jays like to keep their top guys, even college ones, in Dunedin until it gets warmer up here in the PNW. Yesavage didn’t need A-ball but they didn’t want him pitching in a misty 40 degrees in April.

Opifijikl: Have you gone to a MiLB game and noticed any noteworthy managers or managerial decisions? Someone said the WooSox manager was a “rising star” a while ago, for instance. Not sure if that is possible or if it is totally deferential to a front office.

Brendan Gawlowski: It’d be more for how they work with people than anything tactical. Most minor league games are scripted, with some tiny maneuvering in close and late situations.

Brendan Gawlowski: Sometimes you can get a feel for that watching pregame work. I had that vibe with Brent Lavallee

Tom: You mentioned Bryce Rainer as a potential #1 prospect. His power data is crazy, and it seems like he had average contact with good swing decisions, so why do many write ups question the hit tool? Is it mechanical, or struggle with a particular pitch type? He seems like he could be a monster.

Brendan Gawlowski: Swing is a little long but I don’t think it matters when you have that kind of bat speed.

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m high on him.

ranchard bartlett: Should we care if Justin Gonzalez is “maxed out” if he’s hitting the ball 117mph in MLB spring games and throwing 98 from the outfield, after hitting .281/.363/.390 in 357 PA as an 18 year old in one of the worst offensive parks in A ball?

Brendan Gawlowski: The “stiff” part scares me more.

Brendan Gawlowski: Just about every system has a guy who can hit a ball 115+ and a bunch of them never make even the HM section of these lists. Not saying that Gonzalez is in that bucket, but ‘ton of power really young’ is not in and of itself a ticket to the big leagues.

Allen V: Was Ethan Pecko close to the Top 100? Or is he a 45 FV?

Brendan Gawlowski: He was one of a couple of Astros on the long list. Sullivan too.

Kirk: With guys who are on the top 100, but havent had their team list release yet, will their writeup change when full list is out if you guys see new stuff? Thinking of a guy like Josuar in Arizona

Brendan Gawlowski: Yeah, if something changes meaningfully that will be reflected. I could be wrong but I think Eric has either changed Lagrange’s or plans to based on something he encountered.

Brendan Gawlowski: This also means that there may be 50’s on future team lists who weren’t on the 100 last month.

Kirk Reuter: Luis Hernandez coming straight over the US and skipping DSL seems like a pretty strong statement from the Giants?  Especially considering they have had success with Level and Gonzalez playing there?

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s very exciting.

Sir Nerdlington: Is it more fun to scout in person with Eric or do prefer to have your own quiet look first? I guess it could be both…but you know where I’m going.

Brendan Gawlowski: I always liked running into him at the field… We’ll probably try to not do that going forward, though.

Francisco: Will Beavers or Mayo end up a more relevant player?  It seems Mayo should have a few months at 3b. not sure if Beavers plays everyday.

Brendan Gawlowski: Baltimore’s outfield situation complicates the path for Beavers a little but i expect him to be productive in some capacity right away. Mayo… Jury’s out.

5 Run Homer: Who would you rather have if you were starting a team from scratch: Jackson Chourio or Konnor Griffin? I know Griffin might be a generational prospect but Chourio’s done it in the big leagues and he’s just 22. How do you weight guys like these against each other

Brendan Gawlowski: I generally lean toward bird in the hand on questions like this.  Griffin is in the Wander Franco (heh) category though where you could justify making an exception

Guest: Not a prospect but will Julio Rodriguez hit another level and maintain?

Brendan Gawlowski: It’s in there. Gut is that this is who he is (which is fantastic, maybe a Hall of Famer, criminy) but I wouldn’t be shocked by a 9-WAR season either.

Guest: You seem very convinced that Tong is going to break.

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m not convinced, but pitchers in general often do, and high effort/smaller guys are not the safest bets in the long run. Doesn’t mean he will, definitely hope he doesn’t.

Tom Ricketts: Hey Brendan, who’s the best pitching prospect you’ve ever seen in person? What was it like?

Brendan Gawlowski: Eury Perez and it was absurd. A guy that big with so much body control, so much present stuff, and the easiest 99 in the world. Not fair.

Brendan Gawlowski: I saw him in Birmingham, he and the Barons starter matched zeroes for three innings and they played it in like 25 minutes.

Erick: the shape on painter’s fastball appears to not have returned yet even after the phillies said he worked to return to his previous arm slot this offseason. does this worry you?

Brendan Gawlowski: A little bit, in that it would be better if the other thing happened.

Stu: Hello, Brendan! Thanks for the chat. To what extent did you (or, from what you’ve heard, other scouts and orgs) take into account whether a player has strong off-field factors (extreme religion, politics, aggression issues)?

Brendan Gawlowski: Off field stuff can be a factor. Has to be pretty extreme for it to make much of a difference in how they’re evaluated.

Erick: follow up to the painter question, if you knew with certainty the fastball shape was not returning, would painter be a 50?

Brendan Gawlowski: Eh, I think the rest of the package is still really good. If you also could tell me with certainty that he holds up physically and keeps his velo I’d probably stick with it.

First to PGH: Esmerlyn, Termarr or Konnor?

Brendan Gawlowski: No inside info but I’d guess reverse order

Prospectus: Along those lines, I have seen a groundswell of buzz for another non-top100er – Edward Florentino.  Any chance he has a similar trajectory?

Brendan Gawlowski: Florentino was on the list to be fair. I would be surprised if he’s the top guy next year.

Guest: Dunno, seems like Tong has just somehow rubbed you the wrong way as a prospect. I just read the Braves writeup and it’s got me comparing Tong and Fuentes. Both had meteoric rises last year that ended with getting hit around in the bigs. Similar sized guys. Tong was actually better at every level, though he is older. For Fuentes, the writeup said not to worry about his MLB performance; but I remember you saying in one of your chats that for Tong, maybe his MLB performance is just reflective of his ability. I know you don’t like his breaking ball. There just seems to be a persistent narrative that he won’t last long.

Brendan Gawlowski: I get SO MANY Tong questions every week. I think it’s less that he rubs me the wrong way than it is that you/others were rubbed the wrong way by something I/we wrote.

Brendan Gawlowski: He was our 58th guy. That’s really good. We really like him. I really like him. I think there are a few risks in the profile. Which is why he ranks 58th and not 11th.

Mr. Burrito: Is AI going to help prospect evaluation in any meaningful way? If so, how?

Brendan Gawlowski: A lot of folks on baseball twitter are already showing their work on how LLM tools are helping them, so… yes? It’s not going to make a perfect prospect list but LLM’s might help organize data in a way that helps tech novices like myself draw different, and hopefully better, conclusions that I might have before.

My name: How close of an eye do you keep on college ball this time of year (obviously a lot of work going on for you)? Are there any players notably rising or falling up the draft board right now?

Brendan Gawlowski: Less than I’d like, one sneaky value add to getting lists done earlier next year will be having more time for college stuff before the pros hit their stride. So far Flora is the pitcher who’s lit me up most.

Lord Thunder: Is there a player on the horizon in the NPB who could generate Sasaki or Yamamoto buzz by coming over?

Brendan Gawlowski: Speaking of things I wish I had time for… paying closer attention to Japan and Korea. If you missed it, Eric and James put together an international list earlier this winter.

Big Fan: If John Gil maintains his range at SS, his profile reads like a guy who needs continued reps, but doesn’t need to make any fundamental changes.  Given the way the Braves can speed their prospects through the minors, could Gil be in play for the MLB team next year?

Brendan Gawlowski: The body transformation throws so much up in the air. A lot of it in a good way but ‘range at shortstop’ is more of a concern than I had before.

Opifijikl: What tools or pages on FG do you frequent most often? Also, what do you think are some underappreciated or underutilized pieces? Last year Mr. Becker suggested looking at the postseason odds daily late in the year, and that was a fantastic suggestion. Now I’m hungry for more!

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m probably the wrong guy to ask but I reference old lists, roster resource, and our splits all the time. That’s probably not revelatory

dave: The Braves media guide doesn’t list any pro scouts. Do you know if that’s accurate? It seems that with such a week system, they could’ve used alternative means of acquiring talent-indy and foreign leagues, trades involving DSL/FCL/ACL, that they currently ignore

Brendan Gawlowski: They cut their pro department a few years ago. Hopefully they revive it.

Alex: Third straight chat with this discussion point, but I agree with you on eliminating the draft.  Isn’t the answer to the Dodgers or another team hoarding all of the prospects the roster limits/shrinking of the minors that already occurred?  Kids aren’t going to sign with a team that has nowhere for them to play if last year’s signees are blocking all of the opportunities.

Brendan Gawlowski: Right.. I think you can only accumulate so much depth.

Aldo Rayne: Keyner battle: Who ya got between Benitez and Martinez and por que?

Brendan Gawlowski: Martinez but I reserve the right to change my mind when we do Marlins stuff.

Bonnie: What are the top 3 things you enjoy most about your job? What is the one thing you enjoy the least?

Brendan Gawlowski: Most: Seeing family more often; working with Eric, James, and Meg, whom I’ve been friends with for a while; getting a chance to have a global baseball perspective. Least: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the team dynamic and working toward building a better ball club.

Big Fan: Do teams not calculate the ROI on a scout?  It seems like if he or she only does one really good thing every 10 years, it’s a no brainer to keep them.

Brendan Gawlowski: These decisions are not always made by baseball people. More of a “cut x% of your budget, figure it out” thing.

Brendan Gawlowski: I do think that the way that scouts/data can clash (which is healthy and productive, imo) has led leaders to cut from one or the other depending on their own background. Don’t want a stick in the mud, so if you have to cut something, cut the guys/gals you don’t agree with

Sandwich: And here I thought least favorite would be answering 1281598023 questions a week about Jonah Tong…

Brendan Gawlowski: I chuckled.

Nils: You mentioned earlier in the draft the strength of Milwaukee’s international scouting group.  When evaluating a new signing by them (like Diego Frontago), do you question whether you might be missing something else they saw?  How early on do you start to see the results of a guy like Jesus Made?

Brendan Gawlowski: I don’t really see any of those guys prior to when they’re signed, so not exactly… And it’s not like they’re infallible. They give big bonuses to guys who don’t pan out just like everyone else. But they seem to do it less often.

A Boy Named Yu: I’m a big Nico Hoerner fan, and understand spring training results really don’t mean much, but has the ST success of Pedro Ramirez and Jefferson Rojas impacted the chances of Nico sticking around past this year?

Brendan Gawlowski: The numerical success Ramirez and Rojas have had in spring training games will not change the calculus. It is possible that, evaluated holistically, the Cubs have already changed their opinion on those guys in a way that makes it more likely they move on. For the most part though, teams aren’t going to draw strong conclusions at this point in the year.

A Boy Named Yu: Did Eriandys Ramon loose all his prospect juice after a crappy 2025?

Brendan Gawlowski: Lots of good Cubs questions in the queue and I will be in such a better spot to answer them a week or two from now — sorry! Check back soon

Ojay: What do you think of Genao? Long-term projection?

Brendan Gawlowski: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cleveland-guardians-top-45-prospects/

Mas Datos, Por Favor: Do the Braves have the worst farm? I generally don’t trust pitcher heavy orga to produce value given high failure rate on pitchers. My research shows even 50 FV pitchers fail to reach their assigned FG FV 80% of the time.

Brendan Gawlowski: Bottom five, probably, but I’d rather have theirs than Houston or San Diego

KeithB: Any reason why Cody Miller, Rayven Antonio, and Isaiah Drake were left off the Braves top 33 list?

Brendan Gawlowski: Miller — a little skeptical the hit/power balance plays, could easily be on the list next year. Antonio — secondaries are all pretty bad right now. Drake — his swing scares me, but of the guys who didn’t make the main section, there’s an argument he has the highest upside.

My name: Wha does professional evaluation of scouts by their teams look like? I have to imagine there’s a lot more going into it than just vibes and reputation these days. Was your boss meeting with you annually to discuss your hits and misses?

Brendan Gawlowski: I’m sure it depends on the team, in the same way that different businesses in any industry do their internal evals a little differently. It’s not a ‘you hit on this guy — good job!’ and ‘you missed on him — grind some video!’ kind of thing, though. More ‘here are some things you’re good at, here are some things that would help you get better’

Larry: If Kristian Campbell were still rookie eligible, what would be his FV and where would he rank among Red Sox prospects?

Brendan Gawlowski: I can’t speak for Eric but I would push to keep a 50 on him.

Sirras: Did any team’s farm system surprise you (for positive or negative reasons) in putting together this year’s top prospect lists?

Brendan Gawlowski: I didn’t realize how bat-heavy Detroit’s system was.

Guest: International signings – are teams wary about players whose bodies are filled out at 16 already? Seems like a lot of the big names signed who have not performed were man childs.

Brendan Gawlowski: Cost of doing business when you cut deals with 13 and 14 year olds in low information environments

Brendan’s wife: What are you making for dinner?

Brendan Gawlowski: Hopefully we can go get Thai food — looks over to the right —

Brendan Gawlowski: apparently I did answer her question though

Brendan Gawlowski: And on that note

Brendan Gawlowski: Think I’ll call it a day here. Thanks again for all the questions. I’m going to leave a poll on what you’d like to read more/less going forward in these.

Brendan Gawlowski:

Brendan Gawlowski: I’ll let it breathe here for a few more minutes. Have a good one, everybody!