Fresh off the recent rankings update, Top 100 Prospects for 2021 Fantasy Baseball Volume 2, I figured today was the perfect time for a Wednesday whip-around before we dive back into deconstructing the list this weekend.
Below the fold, you’ll find a smattering of things I noticed on the field Tuesday night combined with season-long stats and thoughts on what it all means going forward.
AAA
Tampa Bay SS Wander Franco — 4-for-5, 2B, 3 RBI. Ho hum. Just a 20-year-old slashing .299/.361/.536 with 4 HR and 3 SB across 23 games.
Tampa Bay RHP Luis Patino — 1.1 IP. 6 baserunners, 4 ER, 1 K. Okay. Just a rehab stint. Nothing to freak out about. I think.
Atlanta RHP Jaseel De La Cruz — 5 IP, 6 baserunners, 1 ER, 6 Ks. Season line at 0.87 WHIP, 3.12 ERA in 17.1 IP with 21 Ks. Could be coming up soon to help a depleted pitching staff.
Washington 3B Carter Kieboom — 1-for-3, HR, 4 RBI, BB. Nice to see some signs or life: 4-game hitting streak. Just one hit each night. Still batting .214. But hey he’s showing a pulse and that’s an uptick.
New York (AL) OF Estevan Florial — 0-for-4, slashing .203/.300/.506 with 6 HR. Like Kieboom, should’ve been dropped a long time ago in almost every league.
Seattle C Cal Raleigh — 3-for-5. Nothing loud last night, but Raleigh’s up to .375/.426/.693. Mildly funny to see all the clamor for Kelenic, see him get rushed right up the moment he’s healthy and hitting a little, only to then see Seattle drag its feet on Raleigh. Different situations, I suppose, and Tom Murphy is coming around, but this would appear to be something of a double standard from afar.
Kansas CIty OF Kyle Isbel — 1-for-5, 2 R, 3 K. Not to be a party pooper, but I think this is probably who Isbel settles in as. Not a .200 hitter at AAA specifically but closer to the 247/.337/.326 line he’s got now than whatever KC thought he could do when he broke spring with the club.
AA
Houston RHP Hunter Brown — 3 IP, 8 baserunners, 3 ER, 3 K, 5 BB. One of many training site hype hosts struggling to get it going in the real games. Sort of theme this year: word-of-mouth about low-stakes reps did not turn out to be super predictive information. Season-long WHIP at 2.53. ERA at 9.28 across four starts, all of them ugly. An easy drop for me.
Miami OF JJ Bleday — 2-for-3, BB. Another alt-side hype parade, Bleday is slashing .159/.302/.273 after this nice night. Cool. Cool cool cool. Can’t cut him, but I have seen him traded for some obscene things the past few months, so maybe you can try that if you have him anywhere. It’s only been 25 games at the highest level of competition he’s faced, but it’s pretty clear all that preseason talk about him getting a quick promotion to Miami was just sound and fury. Dude is not ready, and I’m fighting confirmation bias that wants to write him off because I’ve never liked him and feel like I might’ve been right.
Baltimore 3B Patrick Dorrian — 2-for-4, BB. Nothing flashy in this line, but Dorrian is among the more intriguing minor leaguers to me this season, slashing .260/.426/.630 with 7 HR and 3 SB. I’m hoping we see him with the big club in September. He’s 24 and was initially drafted way back in 2014 (12th round by Atlanta), but he’s been awesome all year hitting behind Adley Rutschman. Nice target in deep OBP leagues. I added him in a 20-teamer a week ago.
Baltimore OF Johnny Rizer — 3-for-5, SB in his first game at the level. 7th round pick in 2019 is slashing .313/.389/.547 with 3 HR and 3 SB on the season including his 15 games at High A. This front office is so impressive. I love the one-month call-ups for hot hitters.
New York (AL) RHP Janson Junk — 4 IP, 4 baserunners, 0 ER, 5 Ks, SV. Might make the list on cool name alone, but he’s here because in 19 innings this year, he’s allowed one run. Tidy 0.95 WHIP and 0.47 ERA. Not so bad.
I know I’ve said this before, but I’ve never seen AA look so meek. The statlines on some of these lineups read like a road map: everyone’s on the Interstate. This game here between Tampa and Milwaukee features 11 starters hitting around .200 or worse: https://www.milb.com/gameday/shuckers-vs-biscuits/2021/06/01/644693#game_state=final,game_tab=box,game=644693
The poor stats themselves are not incredibly rare, but it does feel rare to see early June AA boxes with very few capital G guys represented.
High A
Baltimore 1B JD Mundy — 1-for-4, HR in his debut at the level. Fast becoming must-see TV for me, slashing .320/.452/.600 thanks to very quiet approach and deceptively quick hands that generate easy opposite field power.
Baltimore SS Jordan Westburg — 1-for-3, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB. Also his debut at the level, now slashing .365/.490/.595. Rebuild is coming along nicely.
Oakland SS Max Schuemann — 2-for-4, 2B, SB. Having a loud season, milking the throw-over limit for 15 steals in 16 chances while adding 3 HR and slashing .295/.429/.538. 20th round pick in 2018 making Oakland look good.
Seattle 3B Austin Shenton — 4-for-5, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI. Big night for the Everett AquaSox, who scored 16 runs at Hillsboro.
Seattle 2B Kaden Polcovich — 3-for-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI. Seattle has a knack for stacking solid college bats who make for tough at bats.
New York (NL) 3B Brett Baty — 3-for-4, HR, 2B, BB. First bomb of the year, now slashing .343/.451/.478. Considered among the best pure hitters in the 2019 draft class. Proving the scouts right.
Pittsburgh RHP Quinn Priester — 4 IP, 9 baserunners, 5 ER, 3 Ks. Ouch. WHIP at 1.48 through 21 innings. Maybe he’ll click and start living up to the off-season helium, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. People needed something to preach about from the scant alt-site information they could get, and they wrote about Priester. Then others saw that and wrote about Priester. Certainly a quality prospect but easily more of a sell than a buy for me.
Low A
RHP Xzavion Curry — 5.1 IP, 3 baserunners, 0 R, 6 Ks. Just 5’11” but his heater really eats atop the zone. Was a two-way player early in his college career at Georgia Tech and looks like he could still handle shortstop. Eager to see what Cleveland can do with him. Season line at 38 Ks in 25.1 IP innings with a 1.07 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP. Good enough.
OF Alexfri Planez — 2-for-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI. A dreadful campaign finally hit a bright spot last night, but Planez is still slugging just .366.
SS Angel Martinez — 2-for-5, HR, CS. Best infield prospect in the system, slashing .295/.427/.557 with 3 HR and 5 SB as a switch-hitting 19-year-old in full-season ball. Don’t wait too late to add him in your dynasty league if he’s available.
Houston RHP Jaime Melendez — 2.1 IP, 1 baserunners, 5 Ks. Lively 5’8” righty who’s thoroughly carving so far: 31Ks in 15 IP with a 0.60 ERA.
Chicago (AL) SS Jose Rodriguez — 2-for-6, 2B, 2 RBI. Big fan of this guy. Recently turned 20 and playing well in a very weak lineup. 2 HR. 8 SB. .282/.333/.476.
Texas SS Thomas Saggesse — 3-for-4, HR, SB. A 5th round pick out of high school in 2020, Saggesse played DH in this one as young Acuña covered shortstop. Gonna put a flag up here and keep track. Anyone who warranted a 5th round pick last year is extra interesting to me. Last kick at the can for those orgs so to speak. Seems like everyone in the room would have to kinda like the guy.
Washington 2B Viandel Peña — 3-for-3, 2 BB. Not a great year for Peña so far, but as a 20-year-old batting lead off in full-season ball, he gets kind of a pass for May. Not much for bats in this system, so Peña could be a mainstay on their top ten lists for a long time.
Baltimore SS Gunnar Henderson — 2-for-4, HR, 4 RBI. Can’t do much better than Henderson has this year, slashing .321/.392/.655 with 7 HR and 7 2B in 21 games with 4 SB and a 23/11 K/BB rate. Looking like he’ll be a consensus top 25 prospect soon.
Cincinnati LHP Evan Kravetz — 5 IP, 4 baserunners, 0 R, 6 Ks. A 5th round pick in 2019, Kravetz could be a high fidelity prospect by this time next year. He’s 6’8” 240 lbs with good extension and decent control, a combination that’s finding little resistance in Low A: 21 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 10 BBs, 32 Ks.
Kansas City OF Darryl Collins — 3-for-5, HR, BB. Slashing .329/.427/.447 with 2 HR and 4 SB as a 19-year-old against a lot of college graduates. Good time to snap him up if he’s available in deepish dynasty leagues.
Kansas City SS Maikel Garcia — 3-for-5, 3B. Interesting guy to track in my opinion. Listed at 6’ 145 lbs, Garcia doesn’t have a HR yet but has hit 7 doubles and 2 triples while walking 16 times and striking out 14. If he can add strength and maintain the approach and hit tool, we’ll have a sleeper on our hands here.
San Diego OF Robert Hassell III — 2-for-4, HR, 2B. Just a continuously impressive start to Bob Hassell’s pro career. Real problem for opposing arms.
Los Angeles (NL) C Diego Cartaya — 2-for-3, HR, 2B, BB. Now at .450/.522/1.050 with 3 HR in just 5 games. Not long for this level.
San Francisco OF Luis Matos — 1-for-3, HR, BB. The climb continues.
Thanks for reading!
I’m @theprospectitch on Twitter.
