Please see our player page for Brady House to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.
by: Grey
“Pump up the jam, pump it up,” was what I was singing during the shortstops rankings. And now we’re not singing fun, party songs anymore. Submerge yourself into a garbage dump; take a deep breath…Ah, that’s the smell of the top 20 3rd basemen for 2025 fantasy baseball. Don’t turn your nose up! Don’t turn […]
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Grey
Nearing the end of the top prospects for 2025 fantasy baseball — see them all under my 2025 fantasy baseball rookies. At least that’s nearing the end for who I will be writing up. Remember, this is also for redraft leagues, so I need to see real playing time opportunity. If a guy doesn’t seem […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?
by: The Itch
1. OF Dylan Crews | 23 | MLB | 2024
Here’s what I wrote about Crews in Prospect News: The Future Is Not A Game or Collier Daddy:
“It’s hard to say somebody lost any dynasty value during a seven-inning exhibition, but Nationals OF Dylan Crews took some some strays during the broadcast, who agreed he was something of a ho-hum, 25-homer, gets-his-numbers-by-season’s-end type of compiler who doesn’t have great speed but knows how to swipe a base. That’s been pretty much my read all along, but it was kind of odd to hear it during what’s meant to be a two-hour hype fest.”
Nothing’s really changed since then. Crews made his debut. Slashed .218/.288/.353 over 31 games. He’s ranked first here because it’s unreasonable to rank him after the super young pitchers. I’m kinda out on him until/unless something changes.
Please, blog, may I have some more?The 2024 Futures Game rosters were made public on Tuesday, so I’d like to highlight some key takeaways that might be relevant to people with mid-week transaction set-ups.
For dynasty purposes, the Futures Game has always been an escalator for prospect fantasy values. Most people don’t watch minor league baseball on the regular, so their first time seeing some of these prospects with their own eyes happens during this seven-inning exhibition game.
My takeaway today is that values are going to change more than ever this season due to the new Futures Skills Showcase that will follow the game itself.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
26. Padres C Ethan Salas | 17 | AA | 2025
I’ll never have Salas on a roster. Nothing against him, really, just a matter of public-facing, real-baseball lists running him so high up the rankings that there’s no road back to dynasty baseball value. He’s already a top ten prospect in most places, and he’s just nowhere near that for our purposes. He’s in Double-A at 17, but he hit just .200 for nine games in High-A, so that’s an artificial placement to say the least. He’ll likely open back in High-A and should have to hit his way out. There’s absolutely no rush. At 6’2” 185 lbs, Salas moves smoothly behind the dish and receives and frames with a deft touch that’s a decade beyond his years. With a bat in his hands, he’s a dangerous lefty power hitter with a discerning eye. An elite prospect to be sure. Just not an ideal building block for our game.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: Grey
Submerge yourself into a garbage dump; take a deep breath…Ah, that’s the smell of the top 20 3rd basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball. Don’t turn your nose up! Don’t turn away from the stench! This is the reality about, uh, fantasy. You have to embrace the stank of the 3rd basemen. Enjoy!
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2024 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. OF James Wood | 21 | AA | 2024
At 6’6” 240 lbs from the left side, Wood is always just a bit of contact away from a double and a barrel away from a bomb. Last winter, he was mostly untouchable in all my leagues. This time around, that shiny new bloom seems to be off the rose. I kinda get it. He slashed .248/.334/.492 in 87 Double-A games, but he also had 40 extra base hits (18 HR) and ten steals in about half a season as a 20-year-old in Double-A. I think I’m more impressed with him now than I was then.
Please, blog, may I have some more?For this list, I used the players’ ages as of July 9, 2023. The cut-off lines for eligibility were 130 at bats for hitters and 50 innings for pitchers. Here’s a link to the top 25. 26. Mariners RHP Bryan Woo | 23 | MLB | 2023 I featured this guy after his debut […]
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
The Orioles recalled Colton Cowser, who should make the lineup just about every day from here forward. Baltimore is six games behind Tampa, but the Rays have been ravaged by injury and could probably be caught if a team got hot enough. Cowser should cut into the playing time of Ryan O’Hearn and Aaron Hicks.
Marlins RHP Eury Perez finally got touched up by a major league lineup, surrendering six earned runs and recording just one out against Atlanta. Best to just let that pass, I think. One thing I noticed this week in building a new Top 100 list: Perez has 47.1 innings pitched and will graduate as the number two prospect to my eyes, second only to Elly De La Cruz. I haven’t been doing this all that long, but I’ve never ranked a pitcher that high.
My mind is a little bouncy this week in return from vacation, in preparation for the new Top 100, the MLB Draft, and the Futures Game, but I’ll try to stay focused on that last piece as we peruse the Futures Game rosters together.
American League
Catchers: Harry Ford (SEA), Edgar Quero (LAA), Tyler Soderstrom (OAK)
Fun group. Ford feels overrated in some ways. He’s hitting .223 with a .357 slugging percentage since June 1, down from his season marks of .244 and .396. He does have eight homers and 14 steals in 71 games as a 20-year-old in High-A, which gives us a lot to dream on. Soderstrom has been trying to hit his way out of Triple-A over that same stretch, slugging .609 with ten home runs since June 1.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
If you’re gonna pull the early plug on a contention window, you better walk away with some future stars. To their credit, the Nationals did that. A better move might’ve been to hold Trea Turner in 2021 and hope for the best in 2022, but that wasn’t the play this team wanted to make, preferring to off-load Max Scherzer’s deferred money along with their star shortstop. 2022 then became an exercise in futility. It’s tough to imagine the front office saw the Turner trade as precursor to a Soto sale. I guess the checks keep clearing when an ownership group opts to quit an entire MLB season, but the cascading impacts of those tank-thoughts will be felt throughout the organization for years. Players might simply stop wanting to play. They didn’t have to move Soto, of course. Could’ve left him malcontent on the roster then watched him walk in free agency, but I don’t think any amount of free agent spending could undo the damage that had been done.
1. OF James Wood | 20 | A | 2025
There’s a lot riding on the broad shoulders of the 6’7” 240 lb center fielder. If he remains a high-contact, big-power bat through the upper minors, the Juan Soto trade could look okay a couple years from now. CJ Abrams has a big part to play in that math as well, and he started hitting better down the stretch with regular at bats. Like Abrams last winter, Wood should be a consensus top ten fantasy prospect this off-season after slashing .313/.420/.536 with 12 home runs and 20 stolen bases in 76 games this year. He also walked 50 times and struck out 75. So far, his game has no apparent weaknesses. Depending on the timelines of Jackson Chourio and Elly De La Cruz, James Wood could be baseball’s number one overall prospect early in 2024.
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I found myself getting caught up in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.
It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that Bobby Witt Jr. is definitively a better prospect than Julio Rodriguez if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality.
I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index.
Let’s bring this thing home!
Please, blog, may I have some more? by: The Itch
When mapping out this year’s Top 100, I kept getting lost in the layout. I’ve tried a few different ways to skin this cat, and I think my favorite so far was my first: Top 25 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball.
It was simple, sleek, easy to see, easy to scroll, and it was built in tiers, which feels like a realistic lens through which to view these players. You can argue that George Kirby is definitively a better prospect than Nick Lodolo if you want to, or vice versa, but if you get offered one for the other in a trade, you might freeze up like me pondering the layout of this article. The differences are real, certainly, but they’re more aesthetic and subjective than anything like objective truth. It’s a difference in type or style more than a difference of quality.
I’ll try to stay concise in between the tiers here, but you can access a more in-depth consideration of each individual player by clicking on their names or skimming around in the 2022 Minor League Preview Index.
Here’s a link to the Top 25 before we roll on down the mountain.
Drumroll please and away we go!
Please, blog, may I have some more?