I'm Ralph Lifshitz, and I am not on this podcast. It's a strange phenomenon. Work pulled me away from the show for the week, so Lance returned and brought Jason Woodell on to bless us with his top notch insights. The boys talk The Mets, as well as a few of Jason's favorite prospects coming into 2019. They then wrap up the show with some discussion of their mentalities when working on the forthcoming Top 100 list. It's guaranteed to be a classic show so tune in to catch all that. It's the latest episode of the Razzball Prospect Podcast powered by Prospects Live.
See all of today’s starting lineups
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ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK |
Rankings season is upon us. Rejoice and be glad! Just like when your dad lets you open one present on Christmas Eve before Santa comes the next morning, I'm dropping the first of three Top 100 prospect rankings on January Grey Rankings Eve. January Grey Rankings Day should be a gosh dern national holiday. This Top 25 will be followed by a Top 50 on Wednesday and finally the rest of the Top 100 next Sunday. For detailed info on any of these prospects, go to the 2019 Minor League Preview Index. There, you'll find links to all thirty team pages, their top ten prospects, and my (vague and misinformed) thoughts on each of them. Later this offseason, I'll release a special list just for redraft leagues once some playing time etc. situations come into sharper focus. Enough chatter. Here's the Top 25 fantasy baseball prospects for 2019...
Up, down, over, around, The Touki Toussaint Carousel spins around. I can't quite recall a player in recent years who's had such a tumultuous start to their careers. Good news is, he's up again. Can it be trusted is the question. We dive deep into Touki as our 2019 Video Draft Guide continues.
"Saving the best sleeper for last," Grey said while forlornly looking out a window to see falling snow. It was the first snow he had seen in some time, so he went outside to play in it. When he reached his lawn, he realized it wasn't snow. It was floating soot from the BBQ place they opened down the block. The liquid smoke smell hung in the air. This was the America he knew. Grey grabbed some fallen BBQ ash from the lawn, formed a snowball that reeked of ribs and joined in the horseplay with a few of the neighbors' kids. "Hey, Eddie, here's bacon remnants in your eye!" Grey yelled as he threw the BBQ ball at Eddie, but the soot-ash ball disintegrated as soon as it left his hand. In the pieces of shattered BBQ ash-soot ball, Grey saw all his
fantasy baseball rankings that will start Monday-- Suddenly, an alarm clock buzzed. Damn, I fell asleep watching a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon while John Cougar Mellencamp was playing on the radio, and must've wrote the preceding while conked out. Taking these sleepers too literal. Anyway, what can we expect from Shane Bieber for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
You would think that with one of the host's of this Guide being nicknamed Jesus, there would be at least one corny reference to it when we discuss Jesus Aguilar. But amazingly (grace), there were none. None, with the exception of this intro. Instead, we detailed just why Jesus Aguilar may be as good as we saw him be in 2018. As obvious as that last statement may sound, repeating isn't always a cake walk. Aguilar may, nay! Aguilar is as good as we've seen him be. Here is some free proof, for just the cost of 5 minutes of your time...
I was waiting for Manny Machado or Bryce Harper to sign before dropping the last bit of offseason signings before the rankings that start on Monday, but apparently the Phillies only have $300 million for each, and they want $325-plus respectively, so we need to go forward with the news without Machado and Bryce. The last bit of big news was Yusei Kikuchi signing with the Mariners. He reminds me of every other Japanese pitcher, but not in a raycess way. He reminds me of Miles Mikolas too, who was only Asian after being reborn. It's something about Asian pitchers, and non-Asian pitchers who go to Asia and return; they exercise some serious control. Maybe it's the culture. I had a robot watch Gung Ho 15,000 times to tell me what it thinks and now the robot is speaking super-racist. Yo, robot, why are you so culturally inappropriate? "I have no culture of my own, so I adopt yours. And I kill puppies." AHHH!!! ROBOT MURDERER!!! RUN!!! Or roll your swivel chair towards a door if running is too much for you. Kikuchi, which is going to be fun for me to say this year, comes with a lot less fanfare than Ohtani, but I do think he can be better than him, pitching-wise, in his first full season. Ohtani is a unicorn in Babe Ruth's body, we all know this. Kikuchi reminds me of Mikolas and Ryu and others in that mold. He's a decent strikeout guy, but won't blow people away, while also having impeccable command. I'm definitely looking to draft him this year, then passing him up every other year when he fails to throw 130 IP in consecutive seasons because the Japanese also completely overwork their starters. In fact (Grey's got more!), the Mariners have already said Kikuchi will only throw an inning or so every fifth or sixth start to try to preemptively avoid the inevitable arm injury that befalls every Japanese starter. For 2019, I'll give Kikuchi projections of 9-7/3.67/1.18/136 in 151 IP. Anyway, here's what else I saw this offseason for 2019 fantasy baseball:
There are so many bad puns I'm tempted to lead with... but we'll just leave it at, Yusei Kikuchi. Who Say Kikuchi? We say KIKUCHI! I know, that was horrible. And actually, we don't say Kikuchi. At least not both of us. I mean we do, but to varying degrees. Yup, Ralph and I are split. So help be the tie breaker! If nothing else, watch the video, because I truly believe we teach you more about the latest Japanese import than you likely knew before you press play. And if you like this piece, scroll down to the links for the other guys we've covered so far in our 2019 Fantasy Baseball Video Draft Guide.
This is my kind of system. It's heavy on hitters...hitter heavy?...heavy hitting!? This means I won't have to lull you to sleep with descriptions of potential mid-rotation starters recovering from their second Tommy John surgery. Goodnight moon. Goodnight brush. Goodnight boy whose arm is now mush. Oh yeah, and Toronto has the numero uno spec in all the land! You may have heard of him. If not, check out Grey's redraft analysis, then click back here and scroll down like two inches. Then keep scrolling because I talk about nine more prospects. I'll wait here and stare into the middle distance while you do all that.
Hani-ger! Hani-ger! Hani-ger! Is how I chant the Mariner outfielder's name, reminiscent to another breakout in history. But, was it really a breakout? I mean... he was healthy. Yay! But, the numbers themselves were exactly the same. Is this real life? Oh is it ever! And we have some juicy nuggets to share with you that'll make you walk around chanting Hani-ger! Hani-ger! Hani-ger! yourself. Watch, learn, comment, discuss. Then go watch another one of these little camera experiments we've been throwing together, only go watch another player. (They're listed below to make life extremely easy on you).
You know what makes me upright? Ew, gross! I'm talking about sitting up in my chair and taking notice! Anyway, I get upright, when a guy ups his K/9 and lowers his walk rate. To make me even more erect -- Again, in my seat! Geez. -- a guy who had an already elite K-rate and wasn't that miserable with his command. Eduardo Rodriguez had a 9.8 K/9 and 3.3 in 2017, and bested both numbers last year with a 10.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. That makes me pitch a tent! A tent in my backyard that I've labeled "Pitchers I like." C'mon, you perv! Eduardo Rodriguez had the 20th best K/9 last year. Wow, I am so horny! Horny as in bullish on Eduardo Rodriguez! What is wrong with you? Anyway, what can we expect from Eduardo Rodriguez for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
What is in the Houston water? More specifically, what is in the water in the Astros' clubhouse that the pitchers have been drinking? It's really more about what they're spinning, than drinking, and this opening is starting to sound like I'm drinking when I'm trying to spin. Whatevs. The 2019 Fantasy Baseball Video Draft Guide continues with a look at Astros' new toy, Josh James. Check it out, leave us a comment, and check out the others (if you've missed any to this point. See below.)
While casually scrolling through pitchers from last year who should be better this year, I saw Andrew Heaney. My first thought was, "RIP Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan." Then, I Googled "professional wrestlers who have prematurely died," and, five weeks later, when I was done reading the results, I returned to Andrew Heaney. Am I suddenly more optimistic about the Angels now that they have the new manager, Brad Ausmus? Well, no, not necessarily. He is devilishly handsome -- between Ausmus and Gabe Kapler, can a Jewish grandmother get some grandkids up in here?! -- and Ausmus can't be worse than The Sciosciapath. At least he won't have to make out the lineup card with a pencil in his mouth, because he's wearing a straitjacket. How much will Ausmus do for the Angels' starters? Meh, he finished under .500 as the Tigers' manager after four seasons, and seems to fail sideways. His bullpen management was goofy at best, and he thinks catchers, who are pitch framers, should go work at Aaron Brothers, the national chain of picture framers, not Rex Brothers' brother (stutterer!). Luckily, I don't think Ausmus has any bearing on Heaney, there's too much going in his favor, which I will now tackle, after this clunky segue: So, what can we expect from Andrew Heaney for 2019 fantasy baseball and what makes him a sleeper?
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