Graduated from Volume 1: Brett Baty, Tanner Bibee, Francisco Alvarez

Just a refresher or if it’s your first season with us, I’ll say that players like Jordan Walker and Taj Bradley are ineligible for the stash list. Anyone who has already been promoted in-season is ineligible. Guys like Christopher Morel and Royce Lewis are a bit of a gray-area exception. 

 

1. Reds 1B Christian Encarnacion-Strand | 23 | AAA

The man can hit. Been back for five games. Has four home runs. Hitting .500 (12-for-24). Put a claim in today if you have the chance.

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Mon 8/4
ARI | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CIN | CLE | COL | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | ATH | CHW | DET | OAK | SEA | WSH

Riding the mini burst of chess popularity spurring from Garry Kasparov sparing with IBM and the development of Searching Bobby Fischer from book to movie in the 90s, growing up, I was a chess kid. Although I spent my early years playing unfocused chess (the tournaments were lowkey just an underground Pokémon trading ring), eventually […]

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Welcome back to another edition of Top Dynasty Keepers. It is hard to believe we are already done with the first month of the season.

With that in mind, major league teams are already making changes to their rosters. The Cardinals have decided Jordan Walker needs a little more seasoning in the minors, especially in right field. But if you are a Walker owner, don’t fret. He will be back soon enough because he did show why he is one of the top prospects in the game his first week in The Show.

Meanwhile, clubs are bringing players up some of their top prospects to give them their shot in the majors. Two of those players are Zach Neto and Brett Baty

The Fast Track

Neto was recalled by the Los Angeles Angels two weeks ago after a very successful, but brief, stint in the minors. The shortstop was a star at Campbell University, but he was only drafted last summer. Now, less than a year after the draft, he is starting for the Angels after entering the season ranked as the 53rd best prospect by Baseball America, 89 by MLB.com and 47th by Baseball Prospectus

The More Traditional Route

Unlike Neto, Baty has taken the more traditional route on his way to New York. Drafted out of high school, he has played at every level in the minors. But while doing so, he climbed up the prospect rankings. He broke into the top 100 in 2020 when MLB.com ranked him 93rd and then 94th in 2021. By 2022 he was a top 100 prospect pretty much across the board.

MLB.com moved him up to 27th while Baseball America ranked him 39th and Baseball Prospectus 13th. Baty saw time with the Mets last season but was still a prospect entering 2023. MLB ranked him at 21 while he was ranked 33rd and 17th by Baseball American and Baseball Prospectus.

With both players now in the majors, let’s take a look at them.

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(NOTE: THIS POST WAS RELEASED EARLY THIS WEEK ON OUR PATREON. IT’S $10/MONTH)

“Are the Cubs stupid? We come back after the break to answer that very important question and many more.” The anchor takes off his earpiece and says, “Yes, they are stupid. They’ve kept down Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel for so long now for what reason? Is there a reason? Well…?” Then, he realizes he’s not an anchor, but instead he’s a fantasy baseball owner of Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel, and he’s not wearing pants and he’s sitting in his mother’s basement and he’s doing a ‘newscast’ to his cat, Pajamas Higgins, who was the Cubs’ first baseman last year for 38 games, though he’s better known as P.J. As I said last year, “I did a google for Matt Mervis and his ETA and I found he’s going to be promoted to the Cubs in 2022. Very cool, let’s see how he did. Let me do another google for us. Hmm, I’m not seeing any stats for Matt Mervis with the Cubs. The Cubs must’ve had some great 1st basemen for the last year.” And that’s me quoting me! Same story, different year! Matt Mervis is a 25-homer guy in the majors tomorrow with no change in approach. He’s not young, so, ya know, he should already be in the majors, if the Cubs didn’t want to waste him for no reason. At 25 years old, it would be easy to write him off, but he was a college guy who lost 2020. I asked Itch if Mervis was going to be Tork 2.0, and he said he hoped not, then asked for my GPS coordinates to send a drone. Itch also added that Mervis has more reps against good arms and he keeps getting better. Sounds like he should be Never Nervous Matt Mervis. He reminds me of every super late cornerman that is rostered in every league. 25/.260 guys have value, and he should’ve been up already. Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

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Just like when a Jewish kid turns 13 and they become a man or woman, and have their Bar Mitzvah or when a hitter breaks out and they have a Star Mitzvah, the same can be said of a team. A team becomes a Man Team when they decide they’re too good for Adam Frazier. That’s what happened yesterday for the Orioles. They looked at their team, and they said, we’re a Man Team, we need a Man 2nd baseman. (Though, they just moved Adam Frazier to right field yesterday; Santander to DH and Gunnar to the bench, but let’s hope they didn’t decide to become a Man Team without Gunnar.) To be a Man Team, they called up Joey Ortiz to be their new Man 2nd baseman. Itch’s said, “(Ortiz is) probably my favorite player in this system at the moment in terms of value to our game versus perceived value across the lists I’ve seen. Ortiz is a plus defender at 5’11” 175 lbs and could come on so quickly that the club has to promote him early in the season. He finished 2022 with an excellent 26-game stretch in Triple-A (.346/.400.567) and doesn’t have much more to learn in the minors. If he hits as well as my fist against Grey’s head, then sign me up!” What even? Ortiz looks like a 15/15/.280 hitter if he has an everyday job. It’s time, O’s. Man up! By the way, if you leave a sandwich out for 13 years, it becomes a Manwich. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Outside of the day I got married, the birth of my kids and the first time Grey commented on one of my pieces for Razzball, the two months of Linsanity back in 2012 were the greatest two months of my life. This past month of Lynnsanity has been one of the most painful months of my life. Lance Lynn has made five starts, served up batting practice for 26 1/3 innings and posted a 7.52 ERA so far in the 2022-23 season. Good times. It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. So is the life of Lynnsanity. But do we capitulate or do we make William Wallace proud and hold?

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David Lynch’s mid-career masterpiece Lost Highway tells the story of a few lost souls and found ghouls prowling the liminal spaces of Southern California. About half through the film (spoiler but the movie is more than a decade old, so the spoiler rule does not apply suckers), Balthazar Getty’s character transforms into a completely different character played by Bill Pullman with no explanation beyond Lynch later stating that the film exists in the same Nightmare Logic universe as Twin Peaks. Identities, egos, and even flesh are seen as nothing more than oobleck, temperamental and seemingly impossible. 

Such a film brings to mind one person: Bud Black.

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