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The Itch

Author: The Itch

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The Itch

Prospect News: First-Year-Player Draft Dynasty Rankings

February 18, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 11 Comments

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My FYPD rankings have changed more over this winter than any I can remember. Some of it is just the OCD in action, but I think it’s mostly because class is especially tricky to sort. This sequence is the best I could come up with for now for a typical dynasty league, but every context is different in every dynasty league. I just drafted Red Sox C Carlos Narvaez at the end of the 2nd round in a league I won last year. Sure, I could’ve tried to draft a prospect and trade that for a catcher, but sometimes it’s better just to take the guy who best fits your build during a contention cycle. Good luck out there in your leagues. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: They Tell Me You’re A Switch Hitter

February 15, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 3 Comments

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Interesting couple weeks in the Acuña family chat. Ronald got to dance the halftime away with Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, which probably made him feel young again a few days before Pirates SS Konnor Griffin probably made him feel old by saying he grew up watching him. On the other end of the professional development spectrum, Luisangel’s new boss very publicly thinks he’s somebody he’s not. White Sox Senior Vice President and General Manager Chris Getz couldn’t stop referring to the younger brother as a switch-hitter when discussing the Luis Robert trade during media hits. Rumors suggest he thought he was trading for Ronny Maurcio and got crossed up in the process. Gotta be just rumors, right? That’s way too big a mistake to make with that job title. Although, alternatively, that’s exactly the kind of job title you might have if you find yourself getting away with such a mistake. And Mauricio would make a lot more sense to me as a trade target for a team in Chicago’s spot. Hard to see how Getz could’ve handled the whole Luis Robert Jr. saga any worse. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Notes From The Razz 30 First-Year-Player Draft

February 11, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 4 Comments

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Prospect News: Notes From The Razz 30 First-Year-Player Draft

The Razz 30 off-season is a tradition like no other. Owners slowly trim their rosters from 50-something players (43 spots with unlimited IL) down to the required 25 total, bartering over mid-round draft picks and borderline droppable players. It’s quite the party, and after a couple hundred trades have been made, we begin the First-Year-Player Draft. 

Click here to read how the first round went down. 

Results From Round Two:

31. Diamondbacks SS Kayson Cunningham 

32. Twins SS Marek Houston

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The Itch

Prospect News: Razz 30 First-Year-Player Draft

February 8, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 8 Comments

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The Razz 30 off-season is a tradition like no other. Owners slowly trim their rosters from 50-something players (43 spots with unlimited IL) down to the required 25 total, bartering over mid-round draft picks and borderline droppable players. It’s quite the party, and after a couple hundred trades have been made, we begin the First-Year-Player Draft. 

1. White Sox 3B Munetaka Murakami 

2. Blue Jays 3B Kazuma Okamoto 

3. Astros RHP Tatsuya Imai

4. Mariners LHP Kade Anderson 

I wouldn’t put Murakami in the top group, but he’ll probably go that high in most leagues, and Okamoto will probably go a little lower as people chase upside over present production at the top of their drafts. Likely wouldn’t be picking that high if they had enough right-now juice in the categories to contend. Even in a rebuild, I’d be tempted to take Okamoto. If he hits right away, you can trade him for more or just build around him heading into 2027. I don’t advocate for rebuilds with long tails anyway. I think the goal should be an 18-24 month turnaround, and you have to start stacking functional pieces at some point. Why not start with Okamoto? Well, if he doesn’t hit in his first MLB season, his value will be pretty much shot. There’s some safety in far-away players like Ethan Holliday because he doesn’t have to generate big outcomes to keep his dynasty stock alive for a couple years. Or so goes that theory anyway. Every league is different though. In the Razz 30, a bad 2026 from Holliday could tank his stock just as quickly as a bad 2026 would tank Okamoto’s. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Top 100 For 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball

February 4, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 17 Comments

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76. Pirates RHP Seth Hernandez | 19 | NA | 2029

I might wind up low on Seth Hernandez despite loving the player. How could you not? He throws a hundred miles an hour with an adult change-up and solid command. Comes down to timeline stuff. Pittsburgh can develop pitching, but they won’t be in any kind of hurry with Hernandez. They have Oneil Cruz and Paul Skenes today. Jared Jones is on the way back and Bubba Chandler is on the way up. Why take a player who’s five years away? It’s certainly defensible because Hernandez is awesome, but it also feels like old thinking in that a front office shouldn’t draft for short-term impact. We have all seen the opposite over the last several years. Amateur baseball has come a long way. Then I think of Jackson Jobe and Andrew Painter, who’ve both been great in the minors at times but have battled injuries throughout their careers. Can’t predict that, of course, but it’s just hard to point to a high school right-hander who has returned a ton of dynasty value. There’s Hunter Greene, but he’s been hurt, too

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The Itch

Prospect News: Top 75 For 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball

February 1, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 18 Comments

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51. Astros RHP Tatsuya Imai | 27 | NPB | 2026

Imai has been dominant in Japan since 2022 when he was 24 years old with a 2.04 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. 2025 was his best season yet. He recorded a 1.92 ERA and 0.89 WHIP, representing a big leap forward in command. His walk rate of 2.5 per nine innings was a full walk better than his previous career-best mark of 3.6. Imai generates these results on the back of a fastball-slider combination against righties with a splitter against lefties. Houston’s still having a lot of success with pitchers, and I’m betting that continues with Imai. You can move him up this list in deeper leagues or win-now windows. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Top 50 For 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball

January 28, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 10 Comments

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26. Marlins LHP Robby Snelling | 22 | AAA | 2026

In 11 Triple-A starts this season, Snelling recorded a 1.27 ERA and 0.99 WHIP with 81 strikeouts and 17 walks in 63.2 innings. He might’ve been a major leaguer a month ago if Miami had any incentive to promote him. Should open next season in the rotation unless he gets edged out for a month or so by bargain signings. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Rangers Score Gore or New York Ready, Freddy?

January 25, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 2 Comments

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We’ll get back to rolling out the Top 100 next time, but the news cycle demands that we make space to discuss two major trades in the prospect world.

If you happen to be a Brewers fan, I don’t really know what to say that might make you feel better about trading Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers for RHP Brandon Sproat and SS Jett Williams. Perhaps you’ve internalized the message that your team is so poor that it can’t afford the final season of a good player’s contract or so poor at finding prospects that they have to make these kinds of trades to keep the system stocked. Perhaps you’re totally in step with this transaction. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Top 25 For 2026 Dynasty Fantasy Baseball

January 21, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 24 Comments

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1. Brewers SS Jesus Made | 18 | AA | 2026

A 6’1” 187 pound switch-hitter with power and plate skills beyond his years, Made is the top prospect for our game in my opinion and a consensus top-five prospect for any purpose no matter who’s sorting the list. In 115 across three levels, Made slashed .285/.379/.413 with six home runs and 47 stolen bases. He was 2.4 years young for the level in Low-A, 4.2 years young for the level in High-A, and 5.7 years younger than the average age at the level during his five-game debut with Double-A Biloxi to close out the season. He was slow to get settled into full-season pro ball after skipping the complex league but was dominant in High-A, slashing .343/.415/.500 in 27 games, and I suspect we’ll see a lot of that moving forward.

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The Itch

Prospect News: Never Met A Pricier Maybe or Bichette, Please

January 18, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 18 Comments

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I couldn’t stop circling the same thought Friday in the aftershock of Kyle Tucker to Los Angeles then Bo Bichette to New York: these Mets look like the worst team you could put together while spending $336 million. Their ace is Nolan McLean: a prospect I really like but also an inexperienced rookie. All rookies lack experience, but McLean was a two-way player until just a few years ago. Again, no shade, it’s just weird to spend $336 million on a baseball team and have mostly question marks on the pitching staff. 

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The Itch

Prospect News: Edward Becomes A Cubrera or Is Matt Shawt?

January 14, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 7 Comments

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I’m looking at fresh powder for the first time since beginning the organizational top ten prospect reports, and I probably need to re-read all 30 before I start to reorder the top 100 and first-year-player-draft rankings. 

One guy who figures to move up is Cubs C Moises Ballesteros. If you read Grey’s 2026 Fantasy Outlook for Ballesteros, you might remember I was skeptical that he’d actually be part of the team’s 2026 regular lineup after they ignored him in the playoffs. 

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The Itch

Texas Rangers Top 10 Prospects For 2026 Fantasy Baseball

January 11, 2026 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects, Featured | 4 Comments

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1. SS Sebastian Walcott | 20 | AA | 2027

Walcott signed for $3.2 million in 2023 out of the Bahamas and climbed swiftly through the system until 2025 when he got a full season to settle in at Double-A, where he slashed .255/.355/.386 with 13 home runs and 32 stolen bases in 124 games. The line might not leap off the page, but he was ten percent better than league average playing against guys who were 4.9 years older than him, on average. That’s future superstar stuff from a kid who’s already 6’4” and 190 pounds with double plus raw power and easy speed alongside smooth actions on the infield. 

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