Prospect News: You’ve Not Seen Nothing or Cauley Maybe

Rangers SS OF Cameron Cauley (23) had a nice debut Monday night, starting at second base and drawing a walk before tripling in the seventh inning to help tilt the game for Texas. He didn’t draw a start on Tuesday, but Corey Seager was removed from the game before his first at bat with a back injury, so it stands to reason that Cauley will be in the lineup quite a bit moving forward. Get him where you can fit him. 20 stolen bases in half a season is a definite maybe. 

Blue Jays 3B Sean Keys (23) singled and scored as the starting first baseman in his debut, flashing phenomenal bat speed at 77.5 miles per hour, a number that lands him among the league’s fastest swingers. I was a little puzzled about where they would play this kid when I wrote about him the other day in Prospect News: Primera Things Primera, Find Your Keys: 

“Keys posted a 158 wRC+ through 49 Double-A games to earn his promotion to Triple-A, where he has kept the party going with a 166 wRC+ through 14 games. Toronto is in kind of a weird spot, at least where a corner-infield bat is concerned. Kazuo Okamoto and Vladimir Guerrero have those spots on lock down, so Keys will have to create his own path to playing time as long as those guys remain healthy.” Pair that bat speed with the plate skills and outcomes Keys has shown, and it’s easy to imagine Toronto finding ways to unlock as many Keys-inclusive lineups as possible. He batted cleanup on Tuesday after Vlad the younger bowed out with a back issue. 

Guardians OF Kahlil Watson (23) played well enough with Chase DeLauter on the shelf that he should stay in the lineup now that DeLauter has returned. He’s even batted fourth or fifth in the last four games despite drawing just one walk in his 36 MLB plate appearances. His early average exit velocity of 94.2 is elite, and his 73.4 mph bat speed is well above average. Time will tell how he’ll fare when pitchers attack him outside the strike zone a little more consistently, but you don’t have to be a doctor to see that Watson has the skills to stick for the long haul. 

Giants C Drew Cavanaugh (24) got the call as Daniel Susac went to the injured list with a lower back issue. Feels like a large chunk of that job is up for grabs to the extent that if Cavanaugh looks capable on either side of the ball, he’ll probably stick for the bulk of the season if not straight through from here on out. Good guy to pick up if you need any help behind the plate. He was slashing .330/.445/.571 with six home runs and three steals in 32 Pacific Coast League games. I speculated that this was his job to lose when the Patrick Bailey trade went down in Prospect News: Montgomery Burns The Braves or Last Call On Lara:

I traded Phillies RHP Ramon Marquez (20, A+) away in the Razz30 last week to get Noah Cameron, and wow does that look worse today with Marquez promoted to High-A and thriving while Cameron continues to spiral. His ERA is at 4.95 now. The worst part of this situation is that I didn’t even want Cameron anymore by the time we finally found an agreeable exchange, but I’d already invested so many offers back and forth that I figured I might as well click accept on a trade that looked fair enough to me. The full trade was Marquez, Gabe Speier and Blue Jays 3B Juan Sanchez for Cameron. Even after his meltdown on Tuesday evening against the Rays, I can make a pretty solid case that he has the most value among these four guys. Does that mean he’s worth the other three in a SV+H league where Speier has been holding it down all season? No, it doesn’t. I wouldn’t fault you for ranking Cameron last among that group. In the context of this league, where Quality Starts are the sixth pitching category (it’s 6×6), and I need those QS something fierce after losing Spencer Schwellenbach, Carlos Rodon and Tyler Glasnow early on and Tarik Skubal just when things were about to start coming up Milhouse. I mostly took the position that I shouldn’t chase mediocre innings. My horses would eventually be healthy enough to make the playoffs, which is how the season had played out up to the moment when I made that trade. The Royals were comfortably a playoff team bouncing between 4th and 5th in the American League, and that’s where they are today. I got greedy and wanted to chase the regular season crown, a useless title at $200 compared to the playoff winner at $800. Anywho, I’m trying to get better at holding the guys I undervalue a bit because I added them early in their dynasty value arc. “Someone wants Marquez? I just added him a couple weeks ago.” That’s gotta stop. It doesn’t matter when you added a guy. These are smart people we play the game with. There’s a reason they want a player. Good luck out there, dear reader. 

Cardinals LHP Quinn Mathews (25, AAA) has been living outside the strike zone so much this season that it’s hard to watch him and stop yourself from yelling “Come on!” That’s changed over the last month or so. I wouldn’t say he’s been living within the zone, but he’s certainly throwing enough strikes to succeed these days, recording a 0.89 WHIP and 2.08 ERA over his last six starts covering 30.1 innings. I’m skeptical that he’s ready to replicate those numbers for a month in the majors, but he figures to get the next chance in St. Louis. 

Thanks for reading!