2025 Prospects Thread

[GL_Storm]

Vosler is also 31 years old with 6 AAA seasons under his belt and 4 cups of coffee in the majors.

Perhaps getting called to the show and struggling a bit impacted the psyche of young Locklear. He also struggled a bit in his promotion to AA in '23 after tearing up Everett.

Maybe he was asked to work on something in AAA post his MLB stint.

Writing him off seems pretty premature given a career .280/.390 split in the minors.

I agree with this. Most hitters don't succeed in their first exposure to major league pitching and I'm hoping in spring we see a new swing that he can deploy with Tacoma.

This is why I am still intrigued with Mayo. Assuming he isn't a mental midget like JK we could be getting him at a major discount due to that tiny MLB sample.

Yeah, like I said, I don't hate him as a prospect. It's more about what you pay for him. He's #14 for MLB Pipeline but that's high and I would assume he falls on their next reranking. Baseball America has him at #29, which is more realistic and he may fall even further. Fairly or unfairly, these guys start to get a stink on them once they hit some resistance in the upper minors or the majors.

[DavidGee24]

23 years old, .801 OPS in 318 plate appearances at Tacoma, that's not someone you want to give the first base job to and oh by the way, the Mariner organization isn't exactly gushing about Locklear the way they did Evan White, which should tell us something.

Darren, eventually we'll break through and teach Vogie about how baseball works.

They gushed about his defense and rightfully so. The dude was remarkable

Which is great, and hopefully his bat comes around so that he hits like a top prospect. But if this is all he has to offer with the bat he'll end up like Evan White.

[Vogelbomb]

Dt, you need to stop looking at how these prospect gurus rank Emerson and Arroyo and actually read what their analysis is. We get it, you love Arroyo because of his pop. Great. Not everyone thinks like you do. Hitting isn't that black and white.

And another thing, stop quoting really long posts. It's super annoying for us to scan the site and have to scroll super far through the exact same post

[Bil522]

Dt, you need to stop looking at how these prospect gurus rank Emerson and Arroyo and actually read what their analysis is. We get it, you love Arroyo because of his pop. Great. Not everyone thinks like you do. Hitting isn't that black and white.

And another thing, stop quoting really long posts. It's super annoying for us to scan the site and have to scroll super far through the exact same post

I like it when someone quotes one of my posts, short or long, it shows someone cared enough or I screwed up enough for them to write a response.

[bpj]

Dt, you need to stop looking at how these prospect gurus rank Emerson and Arroyo and actually read what their analysis is. We get it, you love Arroyo because of his pop. Great. Not everyone thinks like you do. Hitting isn't that black and white.

And another thing, stop quoting really long posts. It's super annoying for us to scan the site and have to scroll super far through the exact same post

Yeah Dtrain, stop having an opinion and listen to what the prospect gurus write.

Whole lot of telling someone else what to do while you bitch and moan about everything everyone here does. No idea how Darren puts up with you always talking down to him without going off on you.

[D-train]

Dt, you need to stop looking at how these prospect gurus rank Emerson and Arroyo and actually read what their analysis is. We get it, you love Arroyo because of his pop. Great. Not everyone thinks like you do. Hitting isn't that black and white.

And another thing, stop quoting really long posts. It's super annoying for us to scan the site and have to scroll super far through the exact same post

Yes, I really should have reread what they dopes said about Kelenic and Ford a dozen times before forming my own a opinion or I would have missed how sexy they both look in a Speedo or how they took BP with a donut on their bat and other arbitrary nonsense that has little to nothing to do with hitting MLB pitching. LOL

I would have also missed how Kirby's ceiling is a MOR starter despite once in a generation control and a mid to upper 90s fastball instead of a Cy Young candidate.

And so sorry for the horrific strife you endured having to scroll "super far". lol Talk about 1st world problems. I will make every effort prevent this 2.7 seconds of extreme hardship from ever happening to you again. lol

[D-train]

Let's break down what he genius Keith Law had to say about Emerson shall we?

If Emerson had stayed healthy all year, he would have been close to the very top of this list, just based on how good he looked and how well he performed when he was able to take the field. The 22nd pick in 2023, Emerson went to Low A to start last year as an 18-year-old — his birthday is in late July — and hit .293/.440/.427 in 40 games, walking more than he struck out. The Mariners bumped him up to High A in early August, and he hit .225/.331/.317 in 29 games there — but still made plenty of contact — and then hit .370/.436/.537 as one of the youngest players in the Arizona Fall League. The bad news is that he played a total of 83 games between the regular season and the AFL, hitting the IL in April with an oblique strain, breaking a bone in his foot by fouling a ball off it in mid-May, and then leaving Arizona in early November after straining a hamstring. He’s played about 80 percent of his pro innings at shortstop and has shown the range and instincts to stay there, even though he’s just an average runner; if his propensity to get hurt continues as he matures, he may be better served moving to third or second, but he's so much more valuable at short that he’ll probably stay there at least through the high minors. He has all of the ingredients to be a hitter for a high average and OBP, with a short path to the ball, excellent bat speed and a strong approach for his age. He might only lack the power to get to the upper echelons of MLB position players, but he also has an extra year (so to speak) to develop that when compared to other elite shortstop prospects.

1. So he is injury prone but still the 5th best prospect on planet Earth
2. Just based on how good he looked
3. So he hit like shit but still made plenty of contact. Well that's good. lol
4. So 3 significant injuries in one season for a 18-19 yo limiting him to about a half season but Law still thinks that doesn't matter so he moves him up to top 5
5. So average runner, likely needs to move off SS greatly reducing his value, 1 HR per 100 PAs now having to play a power position but still the a top 5 prospect in baseball.
6. Acknowledges that he lacks power but still puts him at #5

[Donn Beach]

Geez it really pisses you off that Law likes a mariners prospect. I don't see why injuries should lower prospect status. You're going to claim he's already injury prone? And Law correctly points out that moving off of SS would impact his value. But I don't see where that's become a concern

[D-train]

My biggest issue is that given the huge number of prospects most of these guys don't travel around the country to watch every prospect play. A lot easier for them to just "borrow" the opinions of a few of the top analysts and then it just becomes group think. Zero doubt about it.

[D-train]

Geez it really pisses you off that Law likes a mariners prospect. I don't see why injuries should lower prospect status. You're going to claim he's already injury prone? And Law correctly points out that moving off of SS would impact his value. But I don't see where that's become a concern

Lol what pisses me off is when people refuse to incorporate new info and adjust their opinions accordingly. Law will hate Laz and discount Arroyo and love Emerson regardless of how 2025 goes. Book it.