Baseball America's Ben Badler Joins The Bronx Pinstripes Show
On Monday, The Bronx Pinstripes Show spoke with Ben Badler, Senior Writer for Baseball America.
Badler focuses on all things MLB prospects - scouting reports, rankings, and in-depth analysis on talent. Badler also has great knowledge of the international market, which he shared on the show.
In a conversation with Scott Reinen, Badler discussed how he evaluates talent and ranks prospects, the international signing process, the current top international prospect Jasson Dominguez, and more.
When evaluating talent, Badler said he uses a mix of the "eye-test" and the numbers, but it also depends on what kind of prospect he is looking at. For example, he prefers to evaluate international prospects in person because scouts don't have the same type of access to them as they would high school or college players in the United States. Badler added that scouts tend to know who the premium prospects are in the states, but not internationally. Badler had a lot of very interesting things to say on the topic, especially related to the inner workings of the international market.
As it relates directly to the Yankees, Badler gave his input on Estevan Florial, the Yankees top-rated prospect. Florial had his 2018 season cut short due to a hamate bone injury in his wrist which required surgery. This led to Florial being left off Baseball America's 2019 Top-100 MLB Prospects list, which Badler explained.
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"It's a tough one like you said because of the injury - how much of that injury was masking the performance that he had this year which was just ok... it's tough especially because those hamet injuries can really zap your power."
However, Badler did go on to give a mini scouting report of Florial and reasons why he thinks the young outfielder still has sky-high potential.
"But with [Florial], I think the strengths are still the same that we've always seen, he's just got a ton of tools - bat speed, arm strength, the speed, really fast hands, he's got the power I know he didn't really show all that much of in games this year. That I'm not super concerned about by any means, this guy definitely has above average raw power, and the bat speed and strength that shows 'alright this guy is legit, there's more power in there than what he showed.'"
In addition to Florial, Badler gave his input on other key Yankees prospects including Michael King, a pitcher who may see action in the Bronx later this year, Antonio Cabello, a young outfielder who converted from catcher, and some young arms in the system to keep an eye on.
Badler's knowledge of prospects ranging from international to team-specific is vast. You can listen to the full interview HERE or below starting at the 01:20:00 mark.