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I dropped the ball when I neglected to include Mets OF AJ Ewing (21) in my top ten for Stash List #3: Lara At The Top Of His Craft. He enjoyed a slam dunk in his debut Tuesday night, going 1-for-2 with three walks and a stolen base, turning the lineup over with a jolt out of the eight spot. I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, but it’s hard to see a path for him to leave this lineup over the next month or so. If he hits during that month, he’s probably a fixture all season. I’ve been comparatively high on Ewing for a while now, so I hope you have him if you’re a regular reader. I sold high in one league, and I’m worried that wasn’t actually selling high so much as it was selling early. Oh and there was a minute in there when Fantrax gave him shortstop eligibility. Whew. I still have him on enough rosters that I’d be mostly thrilled, but I’d also be somewhat not thrilled by the Taysom Hill factor, you know? Where did that SS come from? Could a thought bubble on an edgy 1940’s political cartoon. Also my thoughts Tuesday afternoon looking at AJ Ewing on Fantrax.

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Graduated from Stash List #2: Bazzana Republic or Charlie In Charge: Travis Bazzana (#1), Bryce Eldridge (#3), Robby Snelling (#5), Ryan Waldschmidt (#7), Trey Yesavage (#9)

 

1. Mariners LHP Kade Anderson (21, AA) 

I think he’d be in Triple-A by now if they planned to send him there at all. Double-A seems too easy for him though: an 0.60 ERA and 0.67 WHIP through 30 innings with 47 strikeouts against five walks is preposterous. I realize there’s no room in the rotation for him, but life finds a way.

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I managed to add newly promoted Giants 1B Bryce Eldridge in the open-waivers Perts league where I need a first baseman. I might have to hold him for a while despite the league having three bench spots and a super high churn rate because he’s not 1B eligible in Fantrax, and the Giants played him at designated hitter both nights. In his ten MLB games last year, he played six at DH and four at first base. I think Fantrax needs to update their eligibility requirements because DH is not a position. If a guy plays four games at 1B and zero games anywhere else in the field. He should be 1B eligible. Anywho, I suspect the Giants would like to see Eldridge at first base because he’s an enormous target over there at 6’7” and he’s a good athlete who’s not a ball-butcher with the glove. Rafael Devers actually played okay at the cold corner last year, but at six-foot even and 29 years old, he’s unlikely to provide much defensive value in the long run. On the other hand, moving him to first base at all was quite the ordeal, so maybe the front office would rather not tinker too much. 

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Orioles RHP Trey Gibson (23) will reportedly make his major league debut today in New York against the Yankees. Scary way to join the league. Gibson hasn’t been especially good in Triple-A as evidenced most apparently in his 1.62 WHIP across 24.2 innings, so the odds are not in his favor, but he will have an element of the unknown along with an impressive curveball. Crazier things have happened than a 6’5” rookie righty tiptoeing through the Bronx with a quality start. 

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Yankees OF Jasson Dominguez was slashing .326/.415/.478 with three home runs and eight stolen bases through 24 Triple-A games when the Bombers recalled him to replace the injured Giancarlo Stanton. This marks the fourth straight season Dominguez has spent time with the major league club, and he’s still just 23 years old. His strikeout rate was all the way down to 15.1 percent alongside a 12.3 percent walk rate. Maybe it won’t ever happen for the Martian, but this feels like a good opportunity for him to break out. 

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Graduated from Stash List #1: It’s Okay To Be Scared: Noah Schultz

1. Guardians 2B Travis Bazzana (23, AAA) 

He’s only played 13 MLB games, but 2B Juan Brito has not adapted to major league pitching, slashing .159/.229/.227 with a 31.3 percent strikeout rate. He’s  actually been a little worse than that considering he picked up four of his seven hits in his first two games. Most teams would probably give the kid more time to find his footing, but in this case, Brito’s reps come for a first-place team at the cost of plate appearances for a recent number one overall pick who is tearing it up in Triple-A. In 23 games, Bazzana has a .297/.429/.527 slash line with two homers, eight steals and almost as many walks (20) as strikeouts (22). He’s been even better over the last two weeks, slashing .409/.552/.750. Both homers were hit this week. I can’t think of a good reason why Bazzana is in the minor leagues today. 

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White Sox 3B Munetaka Murakami would be my number one pick if we could re-roll the First-Year-Player Draft today. Nine home runs in his first 23 games is crazy talk. That’s almost a 50-homer pace across a full season. And the craziest part is that something close to that seems sustainable, at least to some extent. Murakami’s patient until he’s not. He’s early to recognise a pitch he should pounce and does exactly that. I wish I had him somewhere. My bad. 

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Atlanta is getting incredible production from a shortstop spot manned by Maurcio Dubon (139 wRC+) and Jorge Mateo (222 wRC+), but if they should need another in-house option before Ha-Seong Kim returns from injury, Braves SS Jim Jarvis (25) is firing on all cylinders for Triple-A Gwinnett, slashing .411/.506/.575 with three home runs and 13 stolen bases in 19 games. Defensive prowess has been the carrying tool throughout his baseball life, so it’s surprising to see him roaring out of the gate like this. A left-handed hitter at 5’9” 190 pounds, he’s never slugged .400 as a professional. Hasn’t even gotten especially close, but he’s always controlled the strike zone and taken his walks, maintaining a K:BB ratio somewhere in that sweet spot of 1:1 with a teenage strikeout rate. He’s been hunting a lot more than ever before this year, moving the contact point out front just a bit and really seeking pitches he can pull with loft. Click here to see doing just that and launching an inside pitch. 

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White Sox LHP Noah Schultz (22) made his major league debut on Tuesday night, allowing three earned runs in 4.1 innings with four strikeouts and four walks at home against the first-place Rays. He’ll head to Sacramento for his next start before facing the Nationals at home in his third major league outing. That’s the place to start him for the first time, I suspect, if you’ve got him on your fantasy teams. 

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1. Giants 1B Bryce Eldridge (21, AAA) 

Patience has been key to Eldridge’s approach so far this year. He’s been on base 31 times in 63 plate appearances, good for a .492 OBP. Over his last three games, he got on base ten times in 15 plate appearances and hit his first home run of the season. San Francisco is playing utility man Casey Schmitt at first base, and he’s not making many friends over there. Doesn’t make much sense to me. “Play your f*cking prospect!” That’s what Matt Chapman really meant to say that day. 

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Guardians 2B Juan Brito (24) got the call this week to replace the injured Gabriel Arias and picked up a couple hits in his debut. He walked twice as much as he struck out through nine Triple-A games (6:3) and was slashing .314/.405/.457 for Columbus. I’ve long been a believer in Brito’s bat and suspect he’ll carve out a long term role with this opportunity. 

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Konnor Griffin grabbed all the headlines Wednesday afternoon when news broke that his promotion was imminent and that Pittsburgh was deep into contract talks with the 19-year-old shortstop, who ended up signing for nine years and $140 million, beating Colt Emerson’s days-old record for a player who hadn’t debuted ($95 million) by a healthy margin but surrendering two years of free agency in comparison to the one that Emerson signed away. Tough to dislike this one for either side, I think. We’ve seen recently that these kinds of deals can be torn up and rewritten if both sides are happy with their situation. By which I mean the fear that a young player will get ripped off in this kind of transaction feels overblown. If he really does outperform the contract, he could probably get a healthy raise in exchange for another year of free agency, which is what you’d want to do anyway if you’re building a family and enjoying your life where you’re living it. 

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