Fantrax blessed Cardinals Rookie OF Bryan Torres with the gift of eligibility before he stepped foot on a big league field, granting him access to Catcher and Second Base along with his native Outfield spot. Interesting. I overpaid to get him in a couple 15-teamers where he was floating around. Maybe he goes back to Springfield like Homer Simpson after a reality altering escapade. Maybe he plays pretty much every day in the outfield while starting at catcher for our fantasy squads. I’d have to drink some Brain & Nerve Tonic to skip that far into the future, and I’m not sure the trade-off is worth the hurt, but I’m pretty sure Torres is worth a spot in most leagues where you’ve got one to spare.
Athletics LHP Gage Jump (23) didn’t land in the perfect spot for a six-foot lefty, but who really lives their perfect life? Jump allowed four runs on nine hits across five innings against Seattle in his major league debut in the home-field, minor-league bandbox in Sacramento. We should get a better idea of what his dynamic fastball-slider combo can do against major league hitters during his road starts. Still, not especially encouraging for fantasy purposes to avoid home starts, but we’ve always had to pick our spots with some discretion out here. I benched Stephen Kolek late in the Perts league because I had a bad feeling about his road start against Texas coming off his complete game shutout against Seattle. I actually cut him, to be totally honest. Why? Because who gives a shit, that’s why! You got something to say? Just kidding. I’m in second place in the Perts despite having half my team on the injured list. Can’t really afford to roster a windfall apple from whom I’d already squeezed the sweetest juice. I’m not making applesauce out here. I’m sorry, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, Gage Jump. Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em. Mostly on the road. Tobacco can really stink up a living room.
Baltimore recently promoted six-foot-eight lefty Joseph Dzierwa (22, AA) to Double-A, and he’s held his own thus far, recording 19 strikeouts through ten innings while allowing just one walk. A second-round pick in 2025, Dzierwa earned the promotion by recording a 2.21 ERA through 40.2 innings with 50 strikeouts against ten walks. As you might expect from someone so tall, his changeup can be devastating when he’s landing it on a given night, which opens up his mid-90’s fastball to dominate atop the zone. Looking like a nice pick for the birds buying into his breakout junior season at Michigan State.
Giants 3B Parks Harber (24, AA) has an 80-grade name for a ballplayer. And plus, he landed with a coastal-city organization. You can’t make this stuff up. I mean, I guess you could. Parks Harber, Private Eye. Or maybe Harber. Parks Harber. I dunno. It’s better that he’s just a real ballplayer who can hit the stitches out of the baseball. I hope this doesn’t sound weird, but here’s a case where nepo kids would be welcome. Bring on Parks Harber the second, I say! 20 years from now, I mean. Parks Harber the first is slashing .316/.375/.573 with six home runs in 28 games. San Francisco pulled him back in the Camilo Doval trade, so keep an eye on this space, be it by land or sea.
You’d be well with your right mind to devalue Braves OF Luis Guanipa (20, A) for making his third trip to Low-A, but you’d also be wise to consider the facts that he remains 0.4 years younger than the average age at that level and that he’d only played 61 games at the level split almost evenly between 2024 and 2025. This year, he’s dominating the level, striking out in just 10.4 percent of his plate appearances while slashing .313/.356/.527 with eight home runs and 22 stolen bases in 25 attempts. He’s an effective case study in the concept that you don’t always have to roster a teenage player while he learns how to hit. Guanipa popped up a couple years ago and was probably rostered in most leagues. Now, he’s rostered in just four percent of Fantrax leagues. Not much cost in taking a flier to see how the next month or so unfolds.
I was planning to write about Red Sox 3B Louis Andujar (18, A) when he was dominating the complex league, but Boston bumped him up to Low-A in the interim, making the message ever so slightly more urgent. Not that I think you have to rush out and make roomdujar for this Andujar in all your leaguesdujar. I do think you might elbow someone off the end of the bench in deep leagues. I’ve added him to the Razz 30 Royals (600+ MiLB-eligible players rostered) until further notice. He’s 0-for-7 so far in full-season ball, which means nothing of course except that this guy is very young and wants to hunt pitches he can pull and lift: an approach typicallly reserved for more battle-hardened hitters. And plus (my 7 yo daughter’s go-to tag line : ), this kid signed for $20,000 and isn’t the kind of twitch-tastic athlete you drop your lunch for when he smokes a double and sprints it into a triple. He’ll have to perform on the cardboard at every level to create relevance in the dynasty game.
Thanks for reading!
