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Please see our player page for Luis Lara 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.

Graduated from Stash List #1: It’s Okay To Be Scared: Noah Schultz

1. Guardians 2B Travis Bazzana (23, AAA) 

He’s only played 13 MLB games, but 2B Juan Brito has not adapted to major league pitching, slashing .159/.229/.227 with a 31.3 percent strikeout rate. He’s  actually been a little worse than that considering he picked up four of his seven hits in his first two games. Most teams would probably give the kid more time to find his footing, but in this case, Brito’s reps come for a first-place team at the cost of plate appearances for a recent number one overall pick who is tearing it up in Triple-A. In 23 games, Bazzana has a .297/.429/.527 slash line with two homers, eight steals and almost as many walks (20) as strikeouts (22). He’s been even better over the last two weeks, slashing .409/.552/.750. Both homers were hit this week. I can’t think of a good reason why Bazzana is in the minor leagues today. 

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Guardians 2B Juan Brito (24) got the call this week to replace the injured Gabriel Arias and picked up a couple hits in his debut. He walked twice as much as he struck out through nine Triple-A games (6:3) and was slashing .314/.405/.457 for Columbus. I’ve long been a believer in Brito’s bat and suspect he’ll carve out a long term role with this opportunity. 

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1. SS Jesus Made | 17 | DSL | 2028

Here’s what I wrote in July for Prospect News: Angel The Guardian or Jesus Made Me Do It:

Brewers SS Jesus Made (17, DSL) is looking at a long career of awkward puns if he can keep playing like he has so far as a professional, slashing .395/.490/.716 with five home runs, three stolen bases and a 14.6-to-13.5 percent walk-to-strikeout rate. Made was a highly ranked, highly paid signing, but I’m fascinated by Milwaukee’s process as they’re getting results like this while much of the incoming international class is struggling to make contact or has yet to debut. Made is a switch-hitter at 6’1” 187 lbs who is more physically developed than a lot of his peers, so that’s probably a factor.”

He finished the season .331/.458/.554 with six home runs, six triples, nine doubles, and 28 steals in 32 attempts across 51 games. His plate rates were 18.1-to-13, so he walked more and struck out less the rest of the way. Stateside debut could still send things sideways, but this is a stock on a rocket in the prospecting game. 

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Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2024 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival 

1. OF Jackson Chourio | 20 | AAA | 2024

A phenomenal athlete who generates unique torque, Chourio hit 22 home runs and stole 43 bases as a 19-year-old in a Double-A league that used a pre-tacked ball to start the season. Hypotheses vary on how much the tacky ball impacted offensive outcomes, but there’s little doubt it increased the difficulty level for hitters. The league swapped out that experiment for a different one after a couple weeks, but the ball was still . . . unique enough that it creates a little error bar and reverse-explained some of Chourio’s early struggles. Mostly, he was pretty great, slashing .280/.336/.467 with an 18.4 percent strikeout rate and a 112 wRC+ across 122 games. This earned him a promotion to Triple-A for the final six games, where he slashed .333/.375/.476 with just one strikeout. Milwaukee has a lot of pieces to sort through, and you can see by the ETAs on this list that their path won’t get clearer anytime soon. There’s not much Chourio could prove at Triple-A Colorado Springs, so he’s got an outside shot to open the season in the big leagues. 

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The guidelines that built this team are pretty fluid, but in a general sense, a player must have significantly enhanced his dynasty profile to qualify. 

Catcher

Orioles C Samuel Basallo has slowed down some since a steamy start but is still slashing .299/.340/.489 with four home runs and two steals as an 18-year-old in Low-A. He looks solid behind the plate, too, especially for a 6’3” teenager. 

Honorable Mentions: Dodgers C Thayron Liranzo. One way to identify a player like this is the ratio of relevance to league-size is changing in a hurry on the fly. Though I’ve added him elsewhere, I’ve mostly ignored Liranzo in my 15-teamer with 20 milb spots per team. This week, I saw his name in some tweets. On May 21, he hit his 10th and 11th home runs on the season. He’s slashing .310/.444/.690 in the month of May with 14 walks and 18 strikeouts in 16 games. Still just a catching prospect in Low-A, but he’ll be off the board in most leagues before long. 

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