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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Prospect News: CJ Abrams Directs the Rise of Padwalker

April 10, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 20 Comments

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Since last we met, CJ Abrams made the club and started at shortstop in the second game of the season. He just missed a home run in one at bat, and he got caught stealing once, but the talent was clear. His playing time outlook might be a little foggy with Ha Seong Kim playing well this spring and carrying that over into the season, but you have to figure he’ll be in the lineup almost every day or he’d be in AAA. 

It’s not easy to anticipate who the most interesting prospects in baseball will be, but Abrams is undoubtedly one of them. What happens to him when Tatis comes back? The DH would figure to be blocked by Voit with Hosmer at first, so Tatis will have to play somewhere. Maybe Abrams will just kick out to left field (my guess), and his playing time won’t be impacted at all. Truth is it’s all down to how he plays. If he’s playing up to his potential, he’ll stay in the lineup no matter who’s walking through that door. 

Let’s take a quick lap around the league and check in with some rookies and prospects. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Prospect News: The Night Before Baseball Christmas

April 6, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 55 Comments

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On the eve of Opening Day, I’m trying to recall the last time so many high-profile rookies were scheduled to break camp with the big club. Might’ve been . . . never? Prospect coverage has come a long way these past few decades. Used to be cool to bash rookies and the prospect lovers who drafted them. Now you’re just leaving money on the table if you ignore the possibility that Julio Rodriguez opens the season in center field for Seattle. 

Focusing on Rodriguez in particular, I moved earlier than Average Draft Position at the time to select him in the 18th round of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. Pick 265. He went inside the top 75 this week. Incredibly weird to me that three weeks of stats is worth 200 draft spots in the echo chamber, but that’s the illusion of certainty for you. Object permanence. I guess there was an outside chance Julio stayed in the minors until July, but not really. Not without a catastrophe of some kind. 

I’m already eager to see how next year’s crop of potential rookies is treated during draft season. Will we overweight the 2022 outcome, which happened partly due to a backlog built from the paradigm of punting combined with a CBA in flux and a lost 2020 season? Or is this simply the new reality? If a player is ready to help generate major league wins for a contending team, he will open the season on the roster. Sounds crazy, I know. 

So let’s run through the list, consider the fates of each player, and celebrate what we all hope will be a new chapter in baseball history, where service time suppression starts to creep away from center stage. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Prospect News: Edwin Rios More Than a Luxury or Seth Beer on Tap

April 3, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 42 Comments

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First reaction to the Dodgers trading AJ Pollock for Craig Kimbrel was justifiably noisy in the FantasyVerse. People had been touting Kimbrel and drafting him as a closer for months upon months and only recently began to count how many chickens they’d pre-counted as eggs in the White Sox arm barn. Now Kimibrel was officially a Final Boss on the winningest team in baseball and people wanted to crow, which I tend to think is for the birds. 

Next second, the internet turned to watch as all the Blake Treinen shares went poof into a fine powder. The phantom limb pains of those who’d just lost 30 saves could be felt everywhere around us. 

A few internet moments later, Gavin Lux sprinted into the spotlight, charging the Twitter stage like Will Smith to smack the shit out of all the haters who’d buried him during draft season. Like me. Only I’ve been burying Lux on lists since way back when he was just a hotshot kid out in California, so I saw him coming and ducked out of there. My attention was elsewhere anyway. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Brash Predictions 2022: Prospects Edition

March 30, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 40 Comments

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I hate to be rude, so I won’t be Brash in the truest sense, but Seattle pitcher Matt Brash will make this list, so Brash this list will be. 

The individual predictions, however, are a step below that. I can’t exactly call them reasonable predictions for 2022, but I do think these are all within the realm of reason, and I think those kinds of predictions tend to be a little more sticky and useful than the boldest ones.

I hope you’ll join me in the speculatory fun. What are your most reasonably brash predictions for the coming season? Which of these seems most bold to you? (Thanks for reading! I’ll tally everything in this piece up for an article next season, so if you want to get something on the record to amplify your human memory, here is a place to do it.) 

Now into the future we go! 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Top 100 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

March 27, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 45 Comments

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When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I found myself getting caught up in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.

It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that Bobby Witt Jr. is definitively a better prospect than Julio Rodriguez if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality.

I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index.

Let’s bring this thing home!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Prospect News: Spring Training Opportunity Watch

March 23, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 50 Comments

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Holy cow do I miss writing these. 

Actual prospect news? Yes, please!

PS: We’ll circle back to round out the Top 100 on Sunday. 

PPS: I’m building an overall dynasty rankings set, and it’s already a scramble to stay ahead of the draft room in the Highlander Dynasty Invitational. I feel like Indiana Jones running from a rock. We’re on pick 34 as I type this part, and I only feel really good about my rankings through pick 50 or so. I’m at 143 in terms of building the list from scratch. Wish me luck, dear reader, as this hallway is narrow, and my computer time is scarce. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Top 75 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

March 20, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 27 Comments

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When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I kept getting lost in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.

It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that Nolan Gorman is definitively a better prospect than George Valera if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality. 

I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index. 

Here’s a link to the Top 25. 

And here’s a link to the Top 50. 

Drumroll please and away we go!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Top 50 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

March 16, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 37 Comments

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When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I kept getting lost in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.

It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that George Kirby is definitively a better prospect than Nick Lodolo if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality. 

I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index. 

Here’s a link to the Top 25 before we roll on down the mountain. 

Drumroll please and away we go!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Top 25 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball

March 13, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 30 Comments

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When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I found myself getting caught up in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.

It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that Bobby Witt Jr. is definitively a better prospect than Julio Rodriguez if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality. 

I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index. 

Drumroll please and away we go!

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Prospect News: Top 10 Beneficiaries of the Universal DH

March 9, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 17 Comments

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If MLB implements a Universal Designated Hitter as expected this season, the new rule will impact more than just the lumbering gloveless wonders. A Universal DH opens up playing time for people all over the field, especially in the era of load management. If the DH spot adds something like 650 plate appearances, I suspect most teams will divide that up among several players. 

Seems important to note that some of this work will be obliterated or at least obfuscated by free agent signings shortly after the lockout ends. 

I could have sorted these guys out team-by-team, but I can be kind of a moron and wanted to go player-by-player instead. Things got messy in a hurry, but the completionist in me is pleased with the results: a document ranking just about every National League prospect who figures to benefit from the Universal DH. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Attack on RazzSlam, Season Two: The Slammening

March 6, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 10 Comments

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Last year around this time, we were all bright-eyed and razzy-tailed youths looking forward to a fresh new season through the lens of a fresh new format: The RazzSlam, a collection of 12-team best ball leagues to determine who is the Razziest baller of them all.  

I did what I could to find my way through the field and wrote about it here in Attack on RazzSlam: The Itch’s Final Draft Rundown. 

Mistakes were made. I drafted 19 pitchers, which is fine, especially considering the pitchers I got: Logan Webb at pick 447, Alex Reyes at 399, Trevor Rogers at 346, Jake McGee at 327, Dylan Cease at 303 . . . Hey, how come I didn’t win this league? 

Well, outfield weakness, for starters. Christian Yelich at 2.15 was not fun. Conforto at pck 63. Teoscar at 82 and Buxton at 134 were fine, but in general, I was short on corner bats (had Dom Smith, Andrew Vaughn, Eric Hosmer at 1B) and short on outfield bats. Was also weak at catcher: Vazquez, Tom Murphy and Torrens oh my. 

In most roto leagues, I think you can cover a weak spot with a strong one. That doesn’t seem to be the case in the RazzSlam, so I guess that was our blueprint heading into the draft: have good players at every position. Seems simple enough. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
The Itch

Top 50 Relief Pitcher Prospects for Dynasty Fantasy Baseball in 2022

March 2, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 7 Comments

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In case you missed the opening frames, here’s a link to the Top 25 Relief Pitcher Prospects for Dynasty Fantasy Baseball in 2022.

Of all the positions I’ve ranked, this one feels the strongest from 26-50, relatively speaking, held up against the elite players at that position in the majors. For example, Eric Orze could be pitching late innings in front of Edwin Diaz as early as April this year. Domingo Acevedo is at 26 here, and he could be universally rostered as the closer in Oakland at some point this season. Not, like, a one percent chance, either. We’re talking 25-plus percent, in my opinion. In a saves-only league, I’d have him on speed dial and maybe stashed away in my minors. Heck, they could clean house in the bullpen shortly after Wayne and Garth say “Game On.” Relief is a wonky endeavor. Wyatt Mills was cartoonishly dominant in AAA, with a 38.6 percent K-BB rate. It feels endless. You click in to watch someone then see a different guy come in throwing fire and have to go look him up. Rinse repeat. Lotta nasty stuff in the game today. Tough time to be a hitter. 

Please, blog, may I have some more?
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