As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
Shea Langeliers continues to be the best hitting catcher of the second half of this season, posting yet another multi-hit effort, including his 26th double on the season. Langeliers' ascension next to Nick Kurtz at the top of this A's lineup has shifted how the future of this franchise looks. Kurtz currently has the highest wRC+ of any batter in the second half, but Langeliers is not far behind him, solidly in the top five, and from a catcher, that's about unheard of...well, except this season. Langeliers is just one home run and four doubles away from posting the first ever 30/30 season from a catcher in team history.
Two seasons ago, Hunter Goodman was exclusively seeing reps at first base or right field as a late season call-up for Colorado. Fast forward to now, and he now holds the franchise's single-season record for home runs by a catcher as he hit his 29th bomb against the Padres, breaking a tie with 2012 Wilin Rosario. This has been an incredible season for a guy getting reps at catcher primarily for the first time in his Major League career.
Though 2025 has not been kind to Brandon Pfaadt, he was very good against Boston, striking out seven across six one-hit innings. Pfaadt was still hit hard, but it's a different story when he's able to induce groundballs. Of the eight hard hit balls, six of them were on the ground. Pfaadt has had a handful of good starts this season, but it's been the blow up starts and inability to induce swings and misses that have inflated his stats. It's nice to see him show he still has some juice in the tank this late into a tumultuous season.
After missing all of last season, Brandon Woodruff's bounceback season coming off Tommy John surgery had been a roaring success prior to his previous three starts. Woodruff had been rolling after returning, running a 2.06 ERA across his first seven starts. Then, he hit a wall. Coming into this outing, Woodruff had surrendered 13 earned runs across his last 14.1 innings, and though a lot of bad breaks were the cause for some of it, he was getting hit hard. Woodruff did a much better job limiting hard contact in Milwaukee's win over Pittsburgh, and he added eight strikeouts on top of it for MLB's best team.
Sal Stewart has his first Major League home run! The Reds rookie was promoted from Triple-A as a September call-up, and in his first start at third base, he crushed a 412-foot bomb to dead center off of fellow rookie Jonah Tong. The homer left the bat at 107.1 mph, just clearing the wall. Stewart's two-out, two-run blast put the Reds up 2-0, and they never trailed the rest of the way.
As we near the finish line, Tarik Skubal is beginning to put his final touches on his second straight American League Cy Young Award. Skubal went seven innings while allowing just three base runners, his league-leading fifth start this season matching that criteria. By every start, Skubal's inevitable price tag grows for this offseason for Detroit, but before they even get there, a Postseason push is in order as Detroit looks to go farther than the Division Series this season.
Hunter Brown's excellent season rolls on with another stellar quality start, striking out eight Ranger hitters in Houston's drubbing of Texas. Brown generated a 32% whiff rate on the night with his changeup running a 71% rate on its own. Of the five hard hit balls off of Hunter, only one wasn't a groundball. Given the state of the AL Cy Young race and how incredible Crochet and Skubal have been, Brown's season is flying a bit under the radar. Brown now has a 2.25 ERA across 167.2 innings with 190 strikeouts, extending his career high. Brown also has 13 starts this season where he's gone at least six innings and allowed one or fewer runs, tied for second-most in baseball. Only Skubal has more, naturally.
Ohhhh so close. Similar to Gavin Williams on August 6, Yoshinobu Yamamoto came one out away from a no-hitter, only to have it broken up with a home run. The one difference...the Dodgers and their bullpen managed to lose the game within the next six batters. Outside of one swing, Yamamoto was nearly flawless, striking out 10, his fourth 10-strikeout game of the season. Only Crochet, Skubal, and Luzardo have more. Yamamoto was dotting all night, placing his fastball up in the zone, running in on righties, generating 10 whiffs on his 4-seam (40% whiff rate). His splitter was even better, diving away from lefties and into the back foot to righties, generating 7 whiffs on 11 swings (64%). Yamamoto's starts have become a perfect microcosm for the Dodgers this season. Yamamoto now has seven starts where he's allowed either zero or one runs and come away with a loss or no decision. But pitcher wins, right?
After striking out 10 across 121 pitches in his last outing, Justin Verlander is now stringing together multiple solid starts. Against St. Louis, Verlander tossed six shutout innings, striking out six Cardinals across just 88 pitches and didn't issue a walk, something he's only done three times this season. Verlander allowed just three hard hit balls all start, generating 6 whiffs between his slider and sweeper across 17 swings. Though the Giants eventually came up short, Verlander certainly did his part.
A pair of bombs from Julio Rodriguez in Seattle's blowout win over Atlanta gave the Mariners' centerfielder his second 30 home run season before turning 25. Rodriguez has been excellent all-around for Seattle this season, leading their charge towards the Postseason. Rodriguez now has 11 home runs since the start of August, and no centerfielder in baseball has been more valuable than JRod since the All-Star Break. Rodriguez entered the day with a 145 second half wRC+ with a fascinatingly low 3.1% walk rate. I guess when you're crushing everything in sight, who needs to walk? With his two home runs, Rodriguez passed Cal Ripken Jr. and entered the top 40 for most home runs before turning 25.
This was pure dominance from Kade Morris, who led the way for a staff shutout. This outing has not been fully indicative of his season to this point. Morris has had his moments, but is sporting a 5.56 ERA in 87.1 Triple-A innings this year. He is pitching in the PCL so that can explain away some of it, but he is a command over stuff type pitcher. His strikeout rate entering this game was below 20 percent. That being said he doesn't walk many batters. This is a backend rotation-type profile who will throw strikes and rely on weak contact for success.
The turnaround of Sterlin Thompson is nothing short of amazing. After hitting .406 in August, he's starting .333 in September. Between the two months he's hit 5 homers. Whether it was an approach change, a mechanical change, or both, the fact remains that Thompson has been raking lately. The hitter friendly environment aside, the numbers are really good. Plus, whenever he makes it to Colorado, he'll have another hitter friendly environment. From first to second half, something is different and Thompson is right back on track in terms of his prospect status.
Add another name to the debut club yesterday. Thomas White is one of the more exciting non-debuted prospects. This was an interesting debut all around. The 10 strikeouts are certainly really good. The walks are a smidge high. At any rate, the 20-year-old southpaw showed he's can do more than compete at this level. He's done that all season with 138 strikeouts in 85 innings. All things considered a fantastic debut for a really good pitching prospect.
The Marlins have a young catcher who his tearing things up in his rookie year, but Joe Mack would like a word. Put his bat aside for a second, he had one of the most impressive throws I've seen ever to throw a runner out at second during a double steal. It's seriously next level stuff. Now, let's talk about his bat. This is his 15th homer at the level and he's hitting .248. His defense mixed in with what should be enough hitting to help out the Marlins means there's going to be something that happens with that backstop equation in 2026.
One thing that Ryan Clifford can do is his the baseball very hard. If you don't believe me, just ask the 27 baseball's he's hit out of the park. I'd bet they would say it hurt. Clifford truthers will be buying into the big exit velocities, and ability to get the ball over the fence. Truthfully, I was getting ready to follow that up with how his strikeout rate is scary, but honestly it was in the mid-20's in Double-A and is right around the same spot through his first 21 games in Triple-A. While the strikeout rate may be an issue still, we are seeing what it looks like when it's manageable. Either way the Mets have some serious thump coming to their lineup in the near future.
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
Director of Dynasty Content - Canadian born and raised, moved to Arkansas with my wife and two sons Ezra and Ari. Followed and played baseball my whole life; played dynasty for 25+ years.
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
As Director of Pro Scouting, I lead a talented group of evaluators as we break down future stars. You can find me at random California League games throughout the season!
