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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Seattle Mariners Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

February 4, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 18 Comments

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1. OF Lazaro Montes | 19 | A | 2026

At 6’4” 256 lbs with a picturesque swing from the left side, Montes invites visual comps to Yordan Alvarez and embraces them, incorporating regular video study and modeling his own game after the Houston slugger’s. He cut his strikeout rate by eight percent between the Dominican Summer League (33.2%) and the Complex League (25.3%) then maintained the gain with a 25 percent strikeout rate in 33 Low-A games. He slashed .321/.429/.565 with seven home runs and a 165 wRC+ in that month-plus of full-season ball. There’s plenty of reasons to rank other guys higher than him on this list, especially on the probability or speed fronts, but I just kept moving Montes up this totem pole and couldn’t really convince myself that I’d take any of these guys over him in a dynasty league I thought would last a long time.

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The Itch

Los Angeles Angels Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 28, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 12 Comments

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1. 1B Nolan Schanuel | 22 | MLB | 2023

The 11th overall pick, Schanuel dominated his competition at Florida Atlantic, especially in a preposterous junior season that saw him slash .447/.615/.868 with 19 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 59 games. The team sent him to the complex for three games then to Low-A for two games. What he showed at those levels with a smattering of singles and walks is probably what he’d shown before they drafted him. Bit of travel for puzzling reasons, is all I’m saying. Then he went to Double-A for 17 games and slashed .333/.474/.467 with twice as many walks as strikeouts. That’ll probably be that for his minor league career: 22 games across three levels. There’s just not much argument for him to spend any time in Triple-A this season after he posted a 112 wRC+ and .402 OBP in 29 major league games. Sure, he didn’t get to his extra base power, and he might benefit from some low-stakes opportunities to focus on that, but spring training should offer that. In a loaded first-year dynasty class, Schanuel is a steal in the middle of the first.

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The Itch

Houston Astros Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 24, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 2 Comments

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1. OF Joey Loperfido | 24 | AAA | 2024

A seventh round pick in 2021, Loperfido produced better than average lines at each step along the way until a difficult 32-game stint in Triple-A to close out the 2023 season. In the box, he’s a 6’3” 230 lb lefty with power. In the field, he’s a right-handed thrower with enough athleticism that he’s a real option in center field. In 84 games at Double-A, he slashed .296/.392/.548 with 19 home runs and 20 stolen bases. I’m pretty bullish on his chances to carve out a role for himself in center or a corner outfield spot or at first base.

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The Itch

Minnesota Twins Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 21, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 10 Comments

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1. OF Walker Jenkins | 19 | A | 2026

In some draft classes, Jenkins would’ve been a contender to go first overall. In a class with Crews, Skenes and Langford, Jenkins and fellow high school outfielder became windfall profits for teams with lottery luck. A left-handed hitter at 6’3” 210 lbs, Jenkins hit .333 with power for a couple weeks on the complex then looked like Chuck Norris in Low-A for 12 games, slashing .392/.446/.608 with six strikeouts and four walks. The fifth overall pick appears likely to sprint through the system.

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The Itch

Kansas City Royals Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 17, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 16 Comments

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1. 2B Nick Loftin | 25 | MLB | 2023

The 32nd overall pick out of Baylor in the 2020 draft, Loftin plays all over the field, logging eight games at first base, seven games at second base, and four games at third base in his 19 games with the major league squad in September. He hit .323 over that stretch and has a chance to beat out Michael Massey for the primary job at second base after slashing .270/.344/.444 with 14 home runs and six stolen bases in 82 Triple-A games. He’s always controlled the zone well and struck out just 13.1 percent of the time in those 82 games.

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The Itch

Detroit Tigers Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 14, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 22 Comments

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1. RHP Jackson Jobe | 21 | AA | 2024

Hey all you cats and kittens. These tigers are so loaded that you can pick any of three guys to lead off their prospect list. I’ll bet their top three lands between 15th and 35th on just about every public-facing list. Jobe gets the opening chapter here because he pairs impeccable command with incredible spin rates. His four-pitch mix is headlined by a slider he revs up over 3000 RPMs. In 64 innings across three levels in 2023, he posted an ace-level 0.98 WHIP and a preposterous 84-to-6 strikeout-to-walk rate. He took just one turn at Double-A but threw six shutout innings. He’ll probably look ready for the rotation in spring training but will probably wind up taking ten or fifteen turns in the minors before a mid-season debut.

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The Itch

Cleveland Guardians Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 10, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 12 Comments

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1. OF Chase DeLauter | 22 | AA | 2024

A gifted left-handed hitter at 6’4” 235 lbs, DeLauter could be a middle order mainstay and fantasy superstar. In 57 games spread across three levels, he slashed .355/.417/.528 with 30 strikeouts, 23 walks, five home runs and six stolen bases. He then extended his season by 23 games in the Arizona Fall League, where he slashed .299/.385/.529 with five homers and five steals. His blend of patience, power and contact skills are enticing and could land him in the majors late this season if Cleveland is contending. Hard to imagine they won’t be squarely in the mix given the relative weakness of the AL Central.

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The Itch

Chicago White Sox Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 7, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 11 Comments

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1. SS Colson Montgomery | 22 | AA | 2024

A left handed hitter with patience and power at 6’3” 205 lbs, Montgomery gives the club its best chance at a star since Jason Benetti. In 37 Double-A games, Montgomery reached base at a 40 percent clip and hit four home runs. He stole zero bases after stealing zero bases in High-A despite being on base all the time. There’s a little more dynasty risk here than you’ll find in most name brand middle infielders because if the power doesn’t play, you’ll be falling behind in multiple standard rotisserie categories.

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The Itch

Toronto Blue Jays Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

January 3, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 7 Comments

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1. LHP Ricky Tiedemann | 21 | AAA | 2024

A low three-quarters release and blistering fastball make Tiedemann a tough look for batters from either side of the plate. He hasn’t pitched much, and he posted a 5.06 ERA and 1.50 WHIP in 32 Double-A in 2023, but his FIP was 2.12, which suggests he was better than his outcomes and also that FIP is pretty dumb. You can’t really post a 1.50 WHIP across 32 innings and chalk that up to fielding issues. Anywho, the 6’4” 220 lb twirler dealt with injuries throughout the year and picked up some extra innings in the Arizona Fall League, picking up 23 strikeouts in 18 innings with a 1.11 WHIP. If healthy, he’ll be part of the rotation picture early in 2024.

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The Itch

Tampa Bay Rays Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

December 31, 2023 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 16 Comments

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1. SS Junior Caminero | 20 | MLB | 2023

Caminero smashed 31 home runs in 117 games across two levels, slashing .309/.373/.548 with a 17.1 percent strikeout rate in 81 Double-A games on his way to a late-season promotion to the show. To my eyes, he’s the leading candidate to open the 2024 season as the club’s starting shortstop. Maybe they go a different way, considering he’s not a great defender and has spent a lot of minor league time at third base. Tim Anderson feels like a good fit on a prove-it deal, if they’re looking for a moderately priced option in free agency. Taylor Walls is a possibility, in house, but he hit .201 last year and got worse throughout the season. If he can handle the workload on defense, Caminero has the talent to rejuvenate a team and fanbase that will be missing its missing building block until it manages to forget him.

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The Itch

New York Yankees Top 10 Prospects For 2024 Fantasy Baseball

December 26, 2023 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 12 Comments

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1. OF Jasson Dominguez | 21 | MLB | 2023

The Martian landed in New York on September 1, smashing four home runs in eight games before his season ended due to an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery with a side of an internal bracing procedure. If his elbow heals well, the 5’9” 220 lb switch hitter should be an option for the major league lineup by midseason. He wasn’t great across 109 games in AA (.254/.367/.414), but that was enough for a 118 wRC+. Can’t complain about that from a 20-year-old. Then he torched Triple for nine games, walking twice as much as he struck out. The plate skills seemed to be mid-leap when he got hurt, and he’s starting to feel a little underrated for the dynasty game.

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