NOTE: This ranking is focused on redraft impact of players who’ve yet to debut in 2020. It’s a snapshot of all the information I can synthesize as of publication day.
Graduates from Vol. 1 = Jo Adell, Monte Harrison
Graduates from Vol. 2 = Spencer Howard*, Alex Reyes, Jordan Yamamoto, Joely Rodriguez
Busy weeks like these are alright alright by me. Let’s get to the list.
1. Tigers RHP Casey Mize gets the top spot for back to back posts. Get your old poems and party hats ready: mighty Casey is coming to town.
2. *Phillies RHP Spencer Howard is scheduled to get the call to start the second leg of Sunday’s double header.
Here’s Hobbs giving Howard the business.
3. Padres LHP MacKenzie Gore gets a few steps closer as Joey Lucchesi is no longer bringing his bag of donuts into the office. Will miss that fresh Streusel.
Here’s Grey’s Dart Throws: MacKenzie Gore
4. Dodgers 2B Gavin Lux is gonna have to start paying rent if he’s living on this list much longer. Mid August is the fuzzy, moving-target super two zone, so it shouldn’t be long now.
5. Cardinals OF Dylan Carlson drops another couple spots today as the Cardinals keep coming up covid. Plus the Schildt kinda hit the fan this week with a series of service-clock suppressing quotes that sent a shiver down my timeline.
6. Rays OF Randy Arozarena has been playing some 2B down at the training site. He’s already their best non-Meadows outfielder, so trying him at second base makes sense in a Tampa kind of way. I think he’s good enough to carve out whatever Tampa’s version of an everyday role is shortly after he gets the call. The current iteration of Manuel Margot does not belong in a major league lineup. He’s not yet 26, but his best wRC was 90 back in 2017, and he’s living on borrowed time in my opinion.
7. Marlins 1B Lewin Diaz holders got some weird news when he was lumped in with the “top prospects” the team wouldn’t be promoting to function as roster filler. Since that report, Miami is 5-and-0 and rolling along an inside lane toward the playoffs.
8. Atlanta LHP Tucker Davidson‘s opportunity is taking a little longer to materialize than I anticipated, and that continues Sunday as RHP Huascar Ynoa gets the start.
9. Padres 2B Jorge Mateo could bring a Myles Straw shaped piece to daily leagues in 2020. Mateo has more pop than Straw, but his plate skills are very much a work in progress.
10. Injuries have been the main thing holding Athletics RHP Daulton Jefferies back, and while he might never be the most durable workhorse, he’s got plus command of a solid three-pitch repertoire featuring a plus change up. I think he could be good right away and visibly better than the modest expectations associated with his prospect pedigree.
11. Marlins RHP Sixto Sanchez: Miami is hotter than that Kings of Leon song about Sixto being on fire. Every time they win, we peel a section toward revealing Sixto.
12. Tigers RHP Matt Manning is probably next in line after Mize.
13. Partly because Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal caught the covid, which means he’s now an evolved species of human two steps removed from the rest of us, as he was already beyond the limit of what we might call human.
14. Marlins SS Jazz Chisholm is a tough call because he might not make much contact, but this team was going to start Isan Diaz before he opted out and has been on a real athleticism kick these past few years. I think they’re hoping to avoid using him this year, but that can’t matter much when you’re 7-and-1 in a shortened season with expanded playoffs.
A Team Can Dream
1. There’s been a bit of a Twitter swell around Mariners OF Jarred Kelenic, but I think you can save the roster spot for someone more likely to contribute.
2. Tigers 3B Spencer Torkelson might make himself an option if all the cookies crumble his way in Motown. In related news, Today I Learned Smokey Robinson and Spencer Torkelson have the same number of syllables in their names. Ooh Baby Baby.
3. Orioles 1B Ryan Mountcastle’s name keeps coming up in fantasy circles, but I’m only putting him here because I’ll probably get a question about him if I don’t. I see little reason for Baltimore to promote him, and I’m guessing Baltimore sees something similar. It’s not like attendance is lagging so badly ownership wants a rookie hype infusion or like Mountcastle can prove himself endlessly superior to AAA pitching, which are two of the few ways prospects on bad teams can force an early call these days. Baltimore getting swept in four games by the Rona Marlins might’ve sealed the drawbridge on Mountcastle.
4. Giants C Joey Bart might’ve been Tromped by Chadwick. I don’t think Bart was coming up this year anyway, but we’ll know within the week if he is, and with Tromp hitting well enough to make Grey’s Buy list, San Fran can skate around the issue, noshing on a butterfinger and looking snidely at the screen.
ROLAIDS SPELLS RELIEF PROSPECTS
Tigers LHP Gregory Soto is a Freddy Krueger level nightmare for opponents. He was painting with 99 and 100 from an impossible angle last time I saw him (Saturday against Pittsburgh). I’m borrowing the word impossible from the announcer, who I think was Matt Shepard, just trying to describe what he was seeing.
White Sox RHP Codi Heuer gave me a similar feeling. Looks unhittable to me with his easy 98 and devastating change from the same tunnel. LHP Aaron Bummer is hurt, so Heuer is really just a moment away from his second save chance. He converted the first. 16% swinging strike rate. 0.37 FIP. Just 5.1 frames so far, but I think the Sox have something huge in Heuer.
Thanks for reading!
I’m @theprospectitch on Twitter and Reddit.
