The 68th overall pick by the Rockies in 2021 out of Ohio, Rays LHP Joe Rock (23, AAA) is listed at 6’6” 200 lbs and looks the part of a major league innings eater. The Rays got Rock in exchange for SS Greg Jones in March of this year, and wouldn’t you know it, Rock’s […]
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Greg Jones
Please see our player page for Greg Jones 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.
Jackson’s On Holliday Until May
March 24, 2024 | Fantasy Baseball Daily Notes, Featured | 266 Commentsby: Grey
Jackson Holliday didn’t make the O’s Opening Day roster, because he has to work on how he carries himself around the bases after a home run. A bit too upright! Can’t say I’m surprised. Honestly, I’m not at all.
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Top 100 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball
March 27, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 45 Commentsby: 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? Top 50 Shortstop Prospects For Dynasty Fantasy Baseball in 2022
February 9, 2022 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 30 Commentsby: The Itch
Some of these guys will have to move off the position, either because they’re blocked by a star-level regular or because they lack the hyper-elite twitch, reflexes, hands and arm required to make it as a big league shortstop, but for the most part, these guys will man their middle infields for the next decade or so. Some dynasty league veterans build minor league rosters populated almost exclusively by shortstops and outfielders. Solid plan, really. Shortstop might be the game’s deepest position at the moment, and it’s only getting deeper.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Tampa Bay Rays Top 10 Prospects for 2022 Fantasy Baseball
December 5, 2021 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 22 Commentsby: The Itch
Witchcraft. That’s the plainest explanation. We need to get some ducks and a big old scale and sort this out once and for all.
It’s no exaggeration to say the Rays have changed baseball. Has there ever been a more successful stretch by a team who didn’t win a single World Series? Perhaps, but probably not if you’re giving them bonus points for thrift, which I think we should probably stop doing at some point. We’re just really into discounts, is all, so when we see a team win as something of a walking clearance rack, we like that. It’s hard-wired. The success here is built from the ground up–a long-term developmental outlook that perennially puts Tampa in the top tier of minor league systems.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 10 Tampa Bay Rays Prospects for 2021 Fantasy Baseball
December 13, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 7 Commentsby: The Itch
Yesterday, at my daughter’s suggestion, we drew our butts, my daughter and me, by which I mean we outlined our forms in chalk as we sat–kind of like making a hand turkey during Thanksgiving week at preschool.
It’s raining today as I write this, so our butts will soon be gone. Washed away forever.
Good thing I took some photos.
That alone makes our day drawing butts more productive than a whole week of MLB’s winter meetings, where Lowe was the high point. Very 2020.
Let’s do the prospect thing.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 20 First-Year Player Draft Rankings for 2020 Fantasy Baseball
February 5, 2020 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 23 Commentsby: The Itch
First-Year Player Draft Rankings for 2020 Fantasy Baseball
In dynasty baseball, the June draft is must-watch television and the July 2 international signing day is fodder for a million clicks.
Months later, typically in February or March, dynasty leaguers select their favorite college, high school and international players in annual first-year player drafts. I have attempted to consider and rank this year’s player pool for your reading pleasure.
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Three More Prospects Poised to Skyrocket in 2020 (AL this time)
December 28, 2019 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 31 Commentsby: Will Scharnagl
Last week, I posted an article about Three Prospects Poised to Skyrocket in 2020. While I didn’t realize it at the time, all three of those guys are on NL teams, so it definitely wasn’t the most helpful for guys in AL-Only leagues. For that reason, this week I’m going to be covering three guys from AL teams who are going to breakout big time in 2020.
If you notice that the six prospects I’ve covered over these past two articles are all position players, that’s not by accident. You may have seen the acronym “TINSTAAPP” around the baseball world before, meaning “There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect”. While it’s a bit of an oversimplification, the reasoning behind it is that pitching prospects are significantly more risky than their position-player counterparts, so you’re more likely to get value out of a hitter than a pitcher. Additionally, the adjustment curve for pitchers in the majors is a bit steeper, and few pitching prospects contribute at a high level immediately. Many prospects struggle massively in their debuts (i.e. Berrios), and some even take a few years (i.e. Giolito, Glasnow) before really figuring it out (By the way if you’re looking for a pitcher like Berrios who struggled in their debut, I highly recommend picking up Mitch Keller.). Because of this, many former top prospects will end up hitting the waiver wire in even deep dynasty leagues, so I think you should invest in position players way more, and for that reason I’m focusing mainly on hitters.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 2020 Prospects: Tampa Bay Rays
December 22, 2019 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 20 Commentsby: The Itch
I doubt there’s any good way to explore this, but this week I found myself wondering if this year’s rays prospect list might be the fastest top 10 in baseball history or at least in the last several years. Perhaps the turf-burning Cardinals and Royals of the 80’s could measure up in parts, but they wouldn’t have three 80 runners and a Wander, I think.
Fantasy baseball players love the Tampa Bay Rays to some extent already, I think, but they should probably just lean in and pick up all the profit. Avisail Garcia was a great example of this last year. As were Emilio Pagan and Nick Anderson and Tyler Glasnow and Austin Meadows. And that’s all just last season. Oh, Brandon Lowe, too, though he was from within.
This year it’s Brendan McKay and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo; Kevin Padlo and Joe Ryan; Josh Lowe, Colin Poche and Brent Honeywell Jr.
Also Hunter Renfroe.
Because crazier things have happened.
Presumably.
Jesus Aguilar did not drink the lazarus water in 2019, so it’s not like Tampa Bay bats a thousand, but the Midas touch element here is real. Consider Nick Solak. Traded for Peter Fairbanks. When a prospect leaves Tampa, it’s because there’s no room at the inn, and they see an angle they want to play now. Our move is to realize their bar is incredibly high, so when they “sour” on a prospect enough to move him, it means a little less than it might in other smart organizations. Solak is still probably a value, depending on how you acquire him, and Fairbanks should be tracked in leagues where his profile (high K reliever) matters.
I veered off the path there. Suffices to say you could do worse in dynasty leagues than focusing on the organizations that are best at this particular game of finding talented players and helping them maximize their abilities. Or even just using it as a tiebreak when looking at two players of similar appeal. Estanli Castillo and Alberto Figueroa won’t make many lists this off-season, but I will be checking in on throughout the season because they’re with Tampa. I will check their game logs every few weeks or so just in case Castillo begins a noisy home run binge or Figueroa starts swiping bases in bunches. I just don’t want to be late to a Tampa party because a Tampa party rarely stops.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 Prospects for 2020 Fantasy Baseball
October 6, 2019 | 2020 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 15 Commentsby: The Itch
I teach in China for a month every summer, and all I really have access to for that month, entertainment wise, is baseball and whatever I can download or arrange ahead of time, so that leads to lots of podcasts and audio books.
The books I repeat most feature a certain group of young wizards invented by J.K. Rowling, and during this summer’s listen-through the whole Potter series, I had some new thoughts.
First, poor Filch. I mean what a awful gig that dude has. Whole castle full of magic, and he’s on his hands and knees scrubbing vomit and blood and snot and who knows what all.
Second, Summer for Harry Potter is a lot like Winter for baseball fans. Harry just sits around waiting for news. All. Summer. Long. So every little snippet of something takes on extra meaning. And The Daily Prophet has its head so far up it’s cauldron that even the snippets are just glances through a cracked mirror.
So who’s ready to fire up the rumor mill and speculate our way through the off-season!?
Not me.
I’m hanging onto Fall as long as possible.
If that appeals to you, let’s hop on a Thestral, fly over prospect country and pretend it’s still Summertime.
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