Now that the regular season of the lower leagues is over, the team has already started teaching league activities in the traditional sense, where a group of players from several branches work out and scramble in their spring training complex. While the “Bridge League” (an period of informal melee that ends later after the complex level schedule ends) often includes some new draft players, most of the rosters are made up of guys who spend the year round in the complex. But once the “guidance” begins, the talent and quality of these games rise to a different level, as the team tests their most interesting young players, or gets close to potential clients, who may get a roster of 40 people in the winter. The Snowbird hasn’t returned completely yet, as the weather in Arizona is still rough, so it’s easier to travel the subway than it is in a few weeks (and next spring training). So I decided to focus my early attractions on the teams in Phoenix Metro West, far from the house.
I returned to Pennsylvania from a visit from Pennsylvania late Wednesday evening and decided to be one of the starters in the winemakers’ internal game Thursday morning when I learned that their second-round pick, the second-round pick of Vanderbilt, would be one of the starters. While most teams in Arizona play the schedule that includes matches with other clubs, the Brewers indicate that the schedule consists entirely of internals (although this may change). Thompson made only one inning, which looked like his pre-game pre-game, mostly 93-94, with a whip-induced carry and a broken thing. In most of the videos below, he reached 93-94 mph at 93-94 mph, which is 78-80 mph. Thompson also threw some bad changes so the brewers haven’t made any magical progress in this regard. I kind of give Thompson what he expected to be a curve ball grade based on this look, but his overall grade (45 fv, a little heavier than his draft position and bonus) remains the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk7sf6rqlhw
Milwaukee unsigned free agent Jarrette Bonet with his sinker 94-95 SAT SAT SAT SAT SAT SAT SAT and flashed a 80s separator capable of obtaining a heavy duty above the ground ball. The 230-pound, 20-year-old Righty is a two-way high school prospect in Puerto Rico, pitching on the 2023 U-18 World Cup team, spending two seasons in San Jacinto before pitching for Trenton in the 2025 MLB draft. Bonet (pronounced “Team Source” tells me, like “Lisa Bonet”) is primarily a settler/slider guy who becomes an amateur, so this split is a new speed pitch. He is a good lower-level relief prospect, which is basically manifested by the kind of living at the bottom of the prospect list. Kevin Garcia is a realistic 18-year-old Venezuelan receiver with above average bat speed but poor contact ability, and indeed threw the ball well for me and popped up an accurate two-second multiple times. He is physically working hard, waving in a full-season cup of coffee and holding a cup at the end of the year, but here, strikeouts can be a problem.
There was heavy rain throughout the Phoenix Metro on Thursday, with one cutting the northwest of the area and causing a daily push to the Royals-Padres game (which will have several fresh Royals drafters) on the go. I’m watching both clubs on Friday and Saturday at Royals. I caught Nestor Cortes and Xander Bogaerts and made a comeback.
When it comes to the prospect of things, San Diego has already launched the red carpet for many of its more interesting arms. During the two days at the camp, I saw several pitchers who I thought were beyond the threshold of talent on Padres’ list. The most important of these is their first round of revolver revolver in 2025. Schoolcraft was better than that in his several post-draft outings, but on this day he was 93-96 (mostly 95-96), with additional changes, below average breaking balls of 79-80 mph. Schoolcraft’s size and athleticism are very special, separate from most major league athletes, not to mention his teenage peers. His natural breaking ball quality isn’t great (I’m glad to see him throw some of it at least because he didn’t throw it away when I saw him before the draft), which might limit the ceiling his bat missed, but as long as the school’s strike capability improves, he can be a meaningful starter, thanks to his durability and durability efficiency. He entered the offseason of the 45/40+ FV line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dci39xaqcgq
Japanese-born righty Bryan Balzer (up to 98, plus slider) and Miguel Mendez (up to 100, below-average secondary pitches) are established prospects (you can read more about them here) with late-inning relief upside (this was the best I’ve seen Balzer), while Kleiber Olmedo (a 21-year-old A-ball righty sitting 94-95 with a plus changeup and poor control) and Sean Barnett (a two-way Player 95 Sit with hard cutter/slider) puts its own discussion at the bottom of the next updated Padres lead list. This is Balzer’s game;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj3jaoaaemhu
Royals (Royals’ instructions are loaded) throw the top three pitchers’ draft picks from 2025: $1.5 million high school signer Cameron Millar, 71st overall pick Justin Lamkin and 61st overall pick Michael Lombardi (I missed a call from an executive). But I think their most impressive arm today is the ninth round Shane Van Dam at North Carolina State University. Van Dam had Tommy John’s surgery in 2024 and didn’t return until the end of the 2025 college season, when he only scored eight innings. This is a 6-foot-5 prototype Pro Pitcher build with cute arm movements and added curve balls. Van Dam sat down 95-96 during this outing. The background matters: This is a well-received guy, and it’s short now, but if that’s something Van Dam can sustain in the first few months of the 2026 season, he’ll be one of the better pitching prospects for the royals. He looks like over 40 FV pitchers today, and given the few records due to injuries, he will be entering the offseason in the offseason of the 40+/40 FV line, which is very heavy for the ninth round. Here is a sample of his outing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ormgkg7ondc
My next dispatch will include notes from the Rockies and Rangers Battalion, including some of the recent Texas high school graduates and Ethan Holliday’s box office.
