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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Prospect News: Bryce Eldridge Brings The Horror

August 28, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 13 Comments

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Athletics SS Jacob Wilson’s major league debut ended after just one at bat thanks to a hamstring injury that sent him to the injured list for about two months. He’s back up with Oakland now, singling and scoring a run in his return. He’s a curious piece for our game: a plus hitter without the extreme speed or power we love to see in a prospect. One huge plus: his glove at shortstop buys him lineup real estate even if he’s not hitting, and so far he’s been hitting everywhere he’s been as a professional. When Oakland plays in a kinder run-scoring environment over the next few years, Wilson will be their shortstop and potentially their leadoff hitter. In case it’s not clear at this point, I find him difficult to evaluate for dynasty purposes, but I’m more optimistic than pessimistic. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Jack Leiter Feeling Fluid or Shaw Nuff?

August 25, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 14 Comments

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Nationals OF Dylan Crews leads us off for the second time in a week after taking the top spot in last Sunday’s Stash List Vol. 8: Crews Control or Hubba Bubba. 

Here’s what I said then: “His last ten games have been arguably his best of the season: .300/.383/.600 with three home runs, two steals and a 10.6 percent strikeout rate. Small sample goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway and then say the Nats have had Crews on the escalator all season and will reportedly make room for him sooner than later. That’s what has him in the top spot, for what it’s Werth: the likelihood of a call-up turned out to be more valuable than usual in the construction of this list. Lots of uncertainty in the stash game this time of year.”

Last week me was all over that one. Crews has continued hitting this week and will reportedly make his major league debut on Monday. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Rocker Is Rolling, Walker Sent Packing

August 21, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 7 Comments

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The Cubs released closer Hector Neris, which probably makes Jorge Lopez the closer for now. The club also recalled deadline acquisition RHP Jack Neely, a former Yankees prospect who checks in at a gargantuan 6’8” 245 lbs. He’s thrown 6.2 scoreless innings with a 52 percent strikeout rate for Triple-A Iowa since the trade that sent him there. RHP Porter Hodge is the early favorite for the gig in 2025 until further notice, specifically a notice of the club getting involved in the reliever reclamation market as it often does. RHP Tyson Miller has been excellent this season but doesn’t feature the wipeout arsenal most teams want in a guy who handles the ninth. Meanwhile, jettisoned Cubbie farmhands RHPs Manuel Rodriguez and Jeremiah Estrada are key pieces of other teams’ bullpens. I won’t count RHP Hunter Bigge because he at least was traded for something. Can’t win ‘em all, I realize, but here’s hoping Neely gets a real opportunity to nail down a long-term roster spot. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Stash List Vol. 8: Crews Control or Hubba Bubba

August 18, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 25 Comments

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1. Nationals OF Dylan Crews | 22 | AAA

His last ten games have been arguably his best of the season: .300/.383/.600 with three home runs, two steals and a 10.6 percent strikeout rate. Small sample goes without saying but I’ll say it anyway and then say the Nats have had Crews on the escalator all season and will reportedly make room for him sooner than later. That’s what has him in the top spot, for what it’s Werth: the likelihood of a call-up turned out to be more valuable than usual in the construction of this list. Lots of uncertainty in the stash game this time of year.

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The Itch

Prospect News: Jarlin Susana, Sykora On The Banjo

August 11, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 12 Comments

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Dodgers RHP Edgardo Henriquez (21, AAA) missed last season due to Tommy John surgery but has recovered his easy-plus pitch mix and cruised through four levels already this season, recording 70 strikeouts in 41.1 innings along the way. Now he’s just one step away from joining an L.A. bullpen that could use an infusion of youth.  

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The Itch

Prospect News: This Justin: A Fiery New Closer In Arizona?

August 7, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 5 Comments

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Astros 3B Zach Dezenzo (24) debuted last night after graduating Triple-A in just 11 games. He slashed .391/.472/.739 with four home runs and three stolen bases in those 11 games, so kudos to the ‘Stros for waving him onward to the majors. Dezenzo’s a large dude at 6’4” 220 lbs and brings easy power from the right side. Heads up in the Crawford boxes. 

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The Itch

Top 50 Prospects Post-Draft Update For Dynasty Fantasy Baseball

August 4, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 43 Comments

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Here’s a link to the Top 50 Prospects For Dynasty Fantasy Baseball: May 2024 Update. Here’s a general layout of what’s been happening since then.  Graduated:  Paul Skenes, Wyatt Langford, Christian Scott, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Noelvi Marte, Heston Kjerstad, Jonny Deluca.  Moving Down:  Jonny Farmelo, Ricky Tiedemann, Orelvis Martinez, Cole Young.  Moving Up:  Sebastian Walcott, Roman […]

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The Itch

Prospect News: Trade Deadline Shuffle or Jose Tena Clubs

July 31, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 21 Comments

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If I were running an MLB organization these past few weeks, I’d have been on the phone with Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s agent in a fairly constant way, discussing long term contracts while I backchannel with the Blue Jays about his price tag on the trade market. It’s probably good that I’m not in that position. In dynasty leagues, I have a tendency to pay what it costs to make the move and figure out the rest in the aftermath. Major league teams do not agree with that approach, considering the lack of prospect firepower that changed organizations on deadline day. Baseball America ran a piece that said zero top 100 prospects were traded this time around. While we might be able to pick at the specifics a bit, the premise feels fair enough: this year brought us a strange few days of trades without many Named Guys making headlines. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Dynasty Rankings For First-Year-Player Drafts

July 28, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 16 Comments

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1. Guardians 2B Travis Bazzana | 21  With Bazzana, the Guardians get their most polished draft prospect in a long time, but he’s not a floor play by any means. At six foot even out of Australia, Bazzana has gotten stronger throughout his career in college ball and added significant impact to his plus-contact profile, […]

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The Itch

Prospect News: Harvey Disappears or Chayce Is On The Case

July 24, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 11 Comments

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This week marks the beginning of a bottleneck on the minor league baseball calendar. 

The Arizona and Florida Complex Leagues will finish their regular seasons on Thursday before a brief playoffs. After the postseason, some of these players will head to a practice facility after a 50-game season. Some will get promoted to Low-A to continue their development via in-game repetitions. You can probably guess which outcome most players would prefer. It’d be a long off-season if you weren’t going to play an actual game again for about seven months. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: The Future Is Not A Game or Collier Daddy

July 14, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 26 Comments

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I found out a few hours before the Futures Game that the Skills Showcase Challenge won’t air live after the seventh inning. Instead, it will be available on tape delay the next morning (today) at 10 a.m. EST. Perhaps that’s for the best in the sense that this event is new, and the league has no idea how it’s really going to play out, and certainly has no idea how to broadcast it before it happens. I figured it was pretty intuitive: show the hitter, show the hit, show the hitter, show the hit, and so on, but maybe it’s not that simple, and maybe it’s on tape delay for other reasons than trust in competence. I’m sure they want to have some kind of post-game show and include an interview or two. Whatever the reason, the showcase is probably on right now if you’re reading this as part of a Sunday morning routine. 

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