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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Prospect News: 20 20 24 Hours To Go

March 26, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 39 Comments

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Astros OF Cam Smith has officially made the opening day roster after a slow speculative leak broke that news across a couple days. Wasn’t rocket surgery. Smith is making the Houston brass look pretty good given the context, and he’s earned it on the field. Fun story to follow. I suppose there’s a chance he can slump his way back to the minors, but I’m betting against that, envisioning something like .265 with 25-ish home runs. 

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

Prospect News: Wilson’s Not Alone or Can One Return A Brito?

March 23, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 23 Comments

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Guardians 2B Juan Brito lost out in his bid for the second base job despite going five for his last ten at bats with zero strikeouts and two home runs. Tyler Freeman has been electric this spring, and though he’s been playing outfield this year after coming up as an infielder, he could probably slide back to the dirt if that’s his path to playing time. Gabriel Arias continues to exist and might be the opening day starter. I have never seen what Cleveland sees in him, but that’s irrelevant. Perhaps Cleveland will recall Brito at the first signs of distress at the keystone, but I’m not encouraged right now. 

UPDATE: Freeman has been traded to Colorado for Nolan Jones.  Unclear if this means anything to Brito’s chances, or if the Guardians are simply pursuing their quest to get Gabriel Arias as much playing time as possible.

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The Itch

Prospect News: Slowpening Day Jitters Or Leiter Than Mayo

March 19, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 36 Comments

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I got pretty excited to have baseball with my morning coffee this week. Sure, I’ve been watching a lot of “baseball” already, but spring training rings pretty hollow compared to the real thing. Even without Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers defeated the Cubs with ease. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but Los Angeles might be a problem this season. 

Rangers RHP Jack Leiter is throwing hard this spring and kicking his change up like all the cool kids are doing these days, and he’s finally getting some results after a pro career peppered by unexpected struggles. He’s all but locked up a spot in the season-opening rotation and could hold it all season if he can keep the ball in the strike zone and generate better outcomes than the 8.83 ERA he posted in 35.2 MLB innings last season. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Bold Predictions For 2025

March 16, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball | 34 Comments

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I’m not sure what qualifies as bold anymore, but I know I want to write things that help readers find value in their leagues. Here’s a link to my bold predictions from last year in which I say Elly De La Cruz will have a 30/50 season. It’s easy enough to say this now, but at that time, much of the fantasy world was in doubt, including Razzball’s fearless leader, as he mentions in his recent Draft Champions Draft Recap: I Choo-Choo Cruz You. I have to lean into the Elly call because a lot of those predictions were not good. I thought Anthony Rendon would watch “The Fan” and start hitting somehow, for instance. Gonna try and do a little better this year. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Kyren In Paris Renewed For Season Two

March 12, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 12 Comments

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Nationals OF Robert Hassell III is slashing .400/.447/.600 with a 15.8 percent strikeout rate and 174 wRC+ through 35 spring plate appearances. He’s been playing a lot of center field and might push Jacob Young, who has a 60 wRC+ through 26 PAs, for the opening day gig. Hassell III has been something of a . . . problem since he came over in the Juan Soto trade, just in terms of on-field outcomes, so there’s a vibes component to this decision. Would feel pretty good for everyone in the front office if Hassell III broke camp and played well early. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Boneitis Clearing The Way or Pereira Pushing To Play

March 9, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 46 Comments

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Yankees RHP Will Warren should break camp in the major league rotation following injuries to Luis Gil and Gerrit Cole, joining Clarke Schmidt and Marcus Stroman to form a trio that’s good enough to keep the team in games. Warren struggled in 2024 but has been excellent this spring, striking out 11 batters and allowing one run and a 0.50 WHIP across eight innings. Stuff is not an issue here; he features two fastballs along with a plus slider and changeup, following the side-to-side pitching path paved in part by Clarke Schmidt. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Alan Roden The Thinker or Matt Shaw Nuff

March 5, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 18 Comments

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Until yesterday, Cubs 3B Matt Shaw has been one of those strange cases where a rookie could be acquired in redraft leagues for very little currency, relative to his skillset and opportunity. This discount can be attributed to the relatively recent clearout of Cubs’ third base options and the fact that Shaw has been injured and hadn’t played this spring. During Tuesday’s game, however, Shaw looked 100 percent, smoking an easy looking single to the opposite field in his first at bat and stroking another single in his second. On the bases that second time, he got a good read off the bat and sprinted to score from first base only to run into Michael Busch at third base when Busch pulled up after rounding third and retreated in spring training style. I mention the sprint because Shaw is clearly feeling good and pushing to make the team. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: NL Only Auction Recap: CBS Analysts League

March 2, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 5 Comments

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Here’s a link to my write up of the American League version of this league: 

In that article, I discuss my approach to this league: specifically, that I try to get money spent in smart places early, sit through the middle, and battle it out for every dollar in the end game. That’s kind of my general approach in auctions but especially in this one because the money is twice as fake here. Once you’re full at 2B, SS, MI and U, you cannot nominate or bid on a middle infielder. Oh and something I forgot to mention last time is the reserve draft. The auction only covers the starting lineups, then we switch to a seven-round reserve draft to close out the night. This creates something of a false auction that leaves value pools commensurate to the depth at each position. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Early Spring Thoughts or Who Needs A Holliday?

February 26, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 21 Comments

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Orelvis Martinez hit a homer. I have a hard time believing he won’t be part of that infield this year. I know wins and losses matter, but giving 900 plate appearances to Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider is not a viable long term approach, and with Vlad potentially on the way out, the team needs to look toward its next wave. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Dynasty Draft Season Review Volume Two

February 19, 2025 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 9 Comments

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With three first-year-player drafts behind me and one underway as I type, fantasy baseball is officially back in the Itch household. I covered my Razz 30 draft in Volume one and will share the results of two 15-team league drafts in this article. 

I’ll start with the Ditka Sausage Razznasty League, a daily lineups league that’s been going for about seven years. I’ve made some good moves in this league and just as many bad ones because I feel the race against time most acutely here, meaning the crunch to maximize my daily lineup drives a lot of my decision making. I say all this to explain in part why I didn’t pick until the fourth round in this draft. I did still have my third round pick (3.43), but I moved back a few spots to add a fourth-rounder in 2026 and slide up from 5.67 to 5.61 in the fifth round this year. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Dynasty Draft Season Springs Eternal

February 16, 2025 | 2025 Fantasy Baseball | 11 Comments

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With two first-year-player drafts behind me and two underway as I type, fantasy baseball is officially back in the Itch household. Today I plan to share my early takeaways with you, dear reader, starting with the guys I actually selected.

I’ll start with the Razz 30: a 30-team league filled with skilled players. We can keep as few as seven minor leaguers and as many as 18 major leaguers, so the draft is 13 rounds across a couple weeks, adding up to 320 total picks this season. 2B Cesar Prieto of the Cardinals was Mr. Irrelevant, a solid selection in a league where playing time is king and low-minors lottery tickets tend to end up back in the draft pool. I like this about the league. The free agent pool gets a full scouring in comparison to the new guys coming in from the draft, and the two pools get well shuffled up and mixed together. Phillies RHP Moises Chace, for example, went 1.19. I was disappointed because I wanted him at 1.30. He went undrafted in the 15-team FYPD I completed this week, which made sense. Pitching is a lot easier to find in that league, and proximity is almost a punishment because each team has 30 MLB roster spots, and players are exceeding their minor league eligibility all the time. 

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