Ralphy Velazquez Tops The Hot Sheet

Baseball America’s Hot Sheet ranks the hottest prospects from the previous week while also identifying a weekly helium player to keep tabs on.

The latest Hot Sheet is topped by Guardians first baseman Ralphy Velazquez, who has been molten hot lately. Since July 1, his 18 home runs are tied for the most in the minor leagues. Velazquez has homered in 13 of 17 games in August, including six this past week to top the latest Hot Sheet.

Join us at 2 p.m. ET on Monday for our weekly Hot Sheet prospect chat and be sure to watch the Hot Sheet show on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET on YouTube.

STATCAST STANDOUTS 📊 

Comparing Franklin Arias, Ethan Salas & Walker Jenkins

Every Monday morning, Eli Ben-Porat highlights 10 players who stood out over the previous week based on underlying Statcast metrics, which often serve as early indicators of breakouts or players who might be ready for MLB roles. Highlights from this week’s list include:

• Franklin Arias vs. Ethan Salas vs. Walker Jenkins

• Lazaro Montes vs. James Tibbs vs. Kemp Alderman

• Making sense of Drew Thorpe

• A Pirates pitcher with two 80-grade pitches?

• College Pitcher Spotlight: Vanderbilt’s Wyatt Nadeau

KADE ANDERSON DEBUT ⚾️ 

How The MLB Ball Affected Kade Anderson’s Fastball

While it’s always exciting to see one of the game’s top names make his big league debut, Kade Anderson’s first MLB outing with the Mariners over the weekend also drove home an important point—it’s silly that we don’t have one uniform ball all throughout professional baseball.

Geoff Pontes digs into Statcast data to explain how the difference in ball construction from Double-A to MLB has affected Anderson and others in recent years.

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Senior writer for The Athletic Melody Gutierrez joins the show to break down the federal and SEC investigations involving Dodgers majority owner Mark Walter and explain what they could potentially mean for Los Angeles.

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