The Excessive Prospect Analysis Podcast

One major theme of the A's minor league system's August has been the widespread promotion of pitchers from one level to the next, especially in the teams' starting rotations. With only a few weeks remaining in the 2023 minor league season, I look at fourteen recently-promoted pitchers across the system and discuss what led to each of them getting the call, how their early returns in their new assi...

In the second Q&A episode of the 2023 minor league season, I fielded sixteen questions about different topics across the A's system (and beyond), ranging from macro topics such as putting the organization's starting pitching and top position players in context, to anticipating key offseason events like the Rule 5 Draft and Arizona Fall League, to discussing the progress of several specific pla...

This week's episode is an Excessive Prospect Analysis Podcast first: a chat with someone else, namely Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, the tremendous lead broadcaster of the A's organization's High-A affiliate in Lansing. Jesse was incredibly generous to take a full podcast's worth of time out to talk with me about a wide range of subjects delving into both on- and off-field aspects of minor league baseb...

Following last week's breakdown of the players and trends from the A's Arizona Complex League affiliate, this week examines the other A's Rookie-level team, that of the Dominican Summer League. I discuss the team's overall performance from a number of angles and put it in conversation with A's organizational trends at the Rookie levels and the development of international players specifically, the...

The final week of July finds the Athletics' Arizona Complex League affiliate in a time of transition. When this episode was recorded (on July 24), the organization's 2023 draftees had yet to make their professional debuts, but it was clear they were imminent, and they indeed began playing the following day. While we wait on the early results of the draft class, I wanted to spend an episode examini...

In this jam-packed midseason special, it's time to take stock of where things stand as a whole in the A's system as we prepare for an influx of new talent into the organization via the draft. Assessing exactly where Oakland's or any specific MLB organization's minor league system stacks up relative to their competition is a challenging task, but I attempt to do so in several ways, both looking at...

This week, I conclude my recent rundown of notable developments at the full-season affiliates in the A's system. In the first half of the show, I examine the factors that led to Jonny Butler's June breakout that saw him recently promoted to Midland, then look at five talented Lansing players looking to follow suit and conquer the High-A level more fully. In the second half, I turn to the complicat...

This week's episode provides updates on a number of notable Midland RockHounds before turning to discuss a collection of Lansing pitchers. How are each of Midland's top four offensive prospects faring, and what does each need to do to cement their progress through the Double-A level? What's behind the recent success of Joey Estes and Ryan Cusick on Texas League mounds, and what do Blake Beers and...

The podcast is back after a week off, and on this week's episode, I detail the numbers and tools behind the excitement generated by eight relatively inexperienced A's prospects, ranging from Lansing down to the ACL team. Who leads Oakland's 2019 draft class in career ERA, and why have you probably not heard of him? What's behind Henry Bolte's surge of production over the past several weeks? Now th...

This week's episode offers an in-depth look at the two Rookie-level affiliates in the A's system, laying out some overall themes to watch for at the Rookie level while also giving some information and scouting notes on many key players on these two rosters.

A longtime weak point in the A's organization has been the signing and development of international talent; since the days of Miguel Tejada, the organization has not only had very few of its own international signees rise to prominence in Oakland, but also a relative dearth of strong organizational players from that origin. This episode examines the past, present, and future of the A's efforts in...

As the minor league season progresses into its middle half, the amount of player movement in the A's system continues to increase. But as standouts at each level get promoted to the next, how can we try to understand whose dominance will carry over to higher-level challenges? I spend the first half of this week's show walking through my own prospect analysis journey—in general at first, but narrow...

This week's episode offers a comprehensive look at the exciting Midland roster a little over a month into the season. I dissect the data put up by nine of the RockHounds' position players and put it in the contexts of their individual skillsets and developmental arcs, then run through a quick (by my standards, anyway) rundown of the velocities and general stuff profiles of each of the team's fifte...

It's the first Q&A episode of the 2023 season! I tackle a wide range of over a dozen questions in this episode, ranging from big questions about recent A's draft classes, the upcoming Rule 5/40-man picture, and areas to emphasize in future trades, to the specifics of players like Brett Harris, Darell Hernaiz, Luis Medina, and Cody Thomas. As usual, I bring in as much data and dimensions as I can t...

One month into the 2023 minor league season, we can finally start to get some perspective on the talents of the A's 2022 draft class. How have they fared thus far in their first full seasons, and what approaches underlie their successes and/or struggles? In this episode, I detail how each of the A's top nine 2022 draftees are performing by looking through my exclusive charting data and tying it in...

In the season previews, I posited that Midland had the most important rotation to watch among those of the A's four minor league affiliates. Even with Mason Miller's quick ascension from the Texas League to the majors, the remaining quintet of RockHounds starters remains the most-hyped group of hurlers in a pitching-needy organization, so it's thus quite organizationally important to check in on h...

The 2023 minor league season is underway and there are no shortage of first impressions to dissect. But we all know the peril of small sample size in baseball, so which first impressions are truly meaningful? In this episode, I discuss how I make those sorts of determinations and how they follow from an overall philosophy of prospect evaluation. I then turn to discussing seven A's minor leaguers w...

The A's minor league affiliate season preview series concludes with a look at Low-A Stockton. Can the 30 players on this team's Opening Day roster turn around rough 2022 fortunes? Who out of the fresh faces in this group are most likely to contribute? I examine everyone from the team's top prospects to—in particular detail!—its veteran relievers, dissecting what each player brings and what challen...

The A's minor league season preview series continues with a look at the 29 players breaking camp with Oakland's High-A affiliate, examining each player individually, but also putting them in context within position groups and the larger A's organization.

The team preview series continues with a look at Oakland's Double-A affiliate, with examinations of the team's 30 players as individuals and how they stack up collectively and thematically.

With the 2023 Aviators season set to begin, this episode discusses each of the 28 players who made the team's Opening Day roster, dissecting their skillsets and noting areas where improvement would be particularly encouraging. I also discuss how the team might differ from last year's Las Vegas squad and what some of the A's roster decisions here indicate about where things stand with the group of...

The podcast is back for the A's 2023 minor league season! With minor league rosters set to come out in a few days, this first episode of the season offers a reset and some perspective on themes to track as players get sent to affiliates and the season gets going.

This week's episode features a quantitative analysis of the early returns on Daniel Susac's plate approach, a first look at the mindblowing full-season debut of one flamethrower and an attempt to piece together the incomplete season of another, and...me getting very worked up about a 28-year-old nobody has ever paid any attention to. Or have they? Timestamps: 0:00—Intro 4:53—Las Vegas 58:46—Midlan...

This week's episode features deep dives into the complexities of Las Vegas' youngest player, Midland's steadiest offensive performer, the Oakland organization's leader in strikeouts, and a dominant start for a member of the A's 2022 draft class. Timestamps: 0:00—Intro 3:42—Las Vegas 42:41—Midland 1:13:59—Lansing 1:51:32—Stockton

In this special episode of the show, I take a look at the 2022 seasons of both of Oakland's rookie ball teams and answer a diverse array of questions submitted by listeners about the A's system. Timestamps: 0:00—Intro 3:21—ACL A's Review 52:23—DSL A's Review 1:23:18—Q&A