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| Monday, April 17, 2023 |
| Happy Monday, everyone! One of my favorite wrinkles in the MLB over the past several years has been the shift in how much more aggressive teams are with their minor league system and we've already seen so many talented young players take meaningful at bats and pitches this season. Now more are on the way. This week, we're getting Mets 3B Brett Baty who gets the call, and if he hits anything like he has in the minors, he'll be up for good. Angels SS Zach Neto and Yankees SS Oswaldo Peraza are also getting the call up with Giancarlo Stanton headed to the IL in New York. |
| We'll dive into key action from the weekend, but first let's take a deeper look into Baty and Neto -- are these the players to spend a huge chunk of your free agent budget on? A top waiver claim? |
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| Baty and Neto impact |
| Chris Towers wrote about the recent surge of prospect call ups and dove into how aggressive Fantasy managers should be when it comes to acquiring Baty and/or Neto here. |
| Baty entered the season as Scott White's 22nd-best prospect in baseball. Neto was Scott's 66th. |
| From Chris: "Baty is a 23-year-old former No. 12 overall pick in the draft who has done little but hit since becoming a professional. Overall, he's sporting a .293/.394/.508 line, but this is a case where a guy keeps getting better as he moves up the ladder. Since getting to Double-A, he's hit 29 homers in 144 games, with a .308 average. That's come with a manageable 24.8% strikeout rate despite a seemingly conscious decision to hit the ball in the air more often." |
| Towers dove deeper into Baty's profile here. |
| He also provided a synopsis of Neto's game: "Neto was the No. 13 pick in last year's draft, and he'll end up making his MLB debut after just 44 games in the minors. That's an awfully small sample size to go off, but looking at a .322/.408/.529 line from a college bat, and you can see why the Angels might have decided there wasn't much left for him to prove down there. He's managed that line despite concerns coming out of the draft about the quality of the competition he faced at Campbell University, and if teams were re-drafting that class, I'd bet Neto would go even higher than he did." |
| The Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast broke down both prospects here as well. |
| Weekend Fantasy nuggets |
| Yankees SS Anthony Volpe collected a home run and three steals over the weekend. While that Roto-scoring stat padding is impressive enough, what's most notable is that he led off batting in one of the games.Nasty Nestor Cortes keeps on dealing. The Yankees starter threw another seven innings of two-run ball with only five hits and no walks allowed. He struck out seven better and Cortes has thrown just two walks the entire season through three starts.Kodai Senga finally slid and took a step back in his weekend outing. Senga didn't even last five innings and allowed seven hits, four walks and four runs (while striking out seven). He's walked at least three batters in each start and we understand if you want to bench him this week against the Dodgers.Guardians 1B Josh Bell is finally showing signs of life with a three-game hit streak that included one home run. Hopefully you stashed him on your benches, but if not look to scoop him back up.Cedric Mullins stole another two bags this weekend and is tied for the league lead with eight stolen bases. Shea Langeliers is somehow still 26% rostered in CBS leagues and that needs to catch up immediately. He hit his third homer this weekend and is now catcher eligible. |
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| Cut candidates |
| As part of Chris Towers' weekly preview, he takes a crack at breaking down this week's cut list and you can find that here. If you are still holding on to hope with the following players, you might want to consider an exit strategy just in case. |
| From Chris: "Tyler O'Neill (96%) -- I'm not ready to cut O'Neill just yet, but it's concerning that O'Neill was out of the lineup for Friday and Saturday games against the Pirates. O'Neill was famously benched earlier in the season for a game, but I don't think this was related to that. But with Lars Nootbaar back from the IL, it's certainly worth monitoring his playing time here. O'Neill is more than capable of getting hot and forcing the issue, but he hasn't done that yet."From Chris: "Joey Meneses (62%) -- I thought it was worth taking a flier on Meneses just to see if last year's 56-game sample size was even somewhat real, but the early returns suggest it definitely wasn't. Even with two hits Saturday and Sunday, he's hitting just .238/.284/.302 overall. If the past two days were enough to buy Meneses another week on your roster, that's fine, but I just don't see much to be optimistic about here."From Chris: "Michael Kopech (52%) -- Kopech is just getting crushed right now. He gave up an average exit velocity of -- this is not a typo -- 97.2 mph Saturday against the Orioles, and he's in the sixth percentile of all pitchers in average EV allowed right now. He has a pretty good fastball, but that's about all Kopech brings to the table these days, and it clearly isn't enough. He's droppable in all formats." |
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| News & notes |
| Brandon Woodruff has been diagnosed with a sub-scapular strain in his right shoulder. The good news is that he won't require surgery. The bad news is that he's going to miss more than 15 days. There is no estimated timetable. Jeffrey Springs is expected to miss a minimum of two months with nerve discomfort in his left arm. Yonny Chirinos was recalled. Does Taj Bradley get another look? Max Scherzer had his next start pushed back to Wednesday due to right side/back tightness. Jordan Romano was struck in the ribs by a line drive Saturday. The X-rays came back negative. Justin Verlander threw a successful bullpen session Saturday. It was his first time throwing off a mound since suffering that muscle strain in his shoulder.Carlos Rodon will throw a two-inning bullpen session Sunday or Monday and could then progress to facing live hitters. Joe Musgrove made another rehab start at Single-A Sunday. As long as there were no setbacks, he should be cleared to join the Padres' rotation late this week. Robbie Ray will be re-evaluated Monday, after which a throwing program could be mapped out. He's on the IL with a grade 1 flexor strain.Michael Harris has yet to be cleared to take live batting practice as of Saturday. He's on the IL with a lower-back strain. Tim Anderson is trending towards a late April return. He's on the IL with a sprained left knee.Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Bryce Harper may not take part in a rehab assignment in the minors. Perhaps this pushes Harper's timetable up a bit, but we're still looking at late May, early June.Amed Rosario is day-to-day with a back issue.Drey Jameson may make multiple starts as a fill-in for Zach Davies, whose oblique strain is expected to take several weeks to heal.Madison Bumgarner will remain in the D-Backs rotation and is scheduled to start Wednesday against the Cardinals. He's made three rough starts and Brandon Pfaadt has looked better recently. Max Kepler was activated by the Twins Saturday. Matt Wallner was optioned to Triple-A. Joey Gallo appears likely to be activated Wednesday. Does Edouard Julien stick around?Brayan Bello is expected to make his season debut Monday against the Angels. Any interest? 30% rostered Michael Conforto has missed three straight due to left calf tightness but is hopeful he'll return Monday.Will Smith has missed three straight games with an undisclosed illness. Jon Gray was removed from his start Saturday after getting hit in the forearm by a line drive. He told reporters that he does not expect to miss his next start. |
| The following players landed on the IL this weekend: |
| Giancarlo Stanton with a strained hamstring.Yoan Moncada with lower-back soreness, retroactive to April 11. That was fun while it lasted: Kris Bubic went to the IL with a left flexor strain.Connor Overton with a right elbow strain. Luke Weaver is set to join the Reds rotation.Ji Man Choi with a left Achilles strain, retroactive to April 14.Joc Pederson with right wrist inflammation. Matt Beaty and Darin Ruf look like they'll share DH duties. Ryan Tepera with right shoulder inflammation. |
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