Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Pitching Prospects on the Rise Including Jonah Tong & Matt Wilkinson! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 Pitching prospects on the rise. Let's talk about them on fantasy baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, June 1st. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and 10 pitching prospects who've improved their stock the most this season. We'll start with the first group of five, and that includes Yilbert Diaz of the D-backs, Logan Evans of the Mariners,

Starting point is 00:00:27 George Claussen of the Phillies, Quinn Matthews of the Cardinals, and Zebby Matthews of the twins. No relation. Scott, who are a couple names that really stand out from this group? Yeah, the Matthews don't even spell their name the same way. One has one T, that's Quinn,

Starting point is 00:00:44 and one has two T's, that's Zebby. But I'm going to talk here about Yobr Diaz of the Diamondbacks who has had a great strikeout rate this year. The ERA and WIP aren't as amazing because the first starts were kind of shaky, but in his last five, Yolbert Diaz of 184 ERA, a 0.72 whip, 12K per 9. And he gets extra credit here

Starting point is 00:01:10 because he's doing that at AA Amarillo, which is by far the most hitter-friendly venue in the already hitter-friendly Texas League. It's not affecting Yolbert Diaz. He has triple-digit heat, locates it well up in the zone, a couple of hammer breaking balls, looks like a big strikeout artist for the Diamondbacks.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Logan Evans of the Mariners is one of the biggest risers just from last year's draft class, because he wasn't taken until round 12. The Mariners gave him an aggressive assignment to AA to begin this year, and all he's done is lead the level with a 123 ERA. And unlike most of the pitchers on this list, Logan Evans doesn't boast a big, strikeout rate, which always means some skeptic, some amount of skepticism for me. My favorite thing a pitcher can do is miss bats. But he does get ground balls at a high, at a very high rate. And he has developed a sweeper this year that could be a pitch that unlocks swing

Starting point is 00:02:24 and miss potential. It's been a very effective pitch for him. I know evaluators have been raving about Logan Evans this year. So I wouldn't let the so-so strikeout rate scare you away from him. He does seem to be a riser. Like I said, leading all of AA, an ERA. This next group of pitching prospects on the rise includes Cade Povich from the Orioles, Winston Santos from the Rangers,

Starting point is 00:02:50 Spencer Schwellenbach, who just got called up by the Atlanta Braves, Jonah Tong of the Mets, and Matt Wilkinson of the Guardians, also known as Tugboat. Yeah. How could you not root for tugboat? Come on.

Starting point is 00:03:04 How could you not root for tugboat? I'll get into tugboat in a second, but let's talk here first about Jonah Tong of the Mets, who I wasn't familiar with him coming into the year. You look at his numbers in his, you look at his numbers as a pro. Last year, the walk rate was very high. It prevented him from having any sort of impact statistically. The numbers just looked awful across the board. But he's improved. the control dramatically this year

Starting point is 00:03:32 in low A. There was a little bit of a step back once he moved up to high A, but last couple turns, he's gotten the strike throwing in order again. And Jonah Tong has been a huge badmisser for the Mets in the low minors this year. And it's

Starting point is 00:03:48 in a way that by traditional evaluation standards may have slipped through the cracks. Because he doesn't throw especially hard. His fastball sits in the low 90s, does Jonah Tongs? can get it up in the mid-90s, but mostly in the low 90s. It's just the shape of the fastball, the way he gets, the way he creates that rising effect

Starting point is 00:04:10 and gets whiffs up in the zone. And that's despite a really over-the-top delivery for Jonah Tong, because a lot of times with that, you get that optimal vertical approach angle from a lower release point. That's the easier way to get it. But Tong is able to register whiffs with the rising effect in spite of that. And it's kind of reminiscent to me of Joe Ryan, who was dominant throughout his minor league career and never got a lot of credit from prospect evaluators, I think, just because back then they hadn't come around to this fastball shape as much. But Jonah Tong, if anything, his secondary arsenal is even more developed than Joe and Ryan's

Starting point is 00:04:53 ever was, has a long way to go. like I said, he's still an A ball, but he can move quickly for the Mets. And I think is a very exciting pickup in Dynasty Leagues where he's still available. And then finally there's Matt Wilkinson, who tugboat, as you said. He, everything I just said about Jonah Tong and fastball shape and the vertical approach angle and all of that, it goes double for Wilkinson because he throws like 90 miles. per hour. It's not even like below,

Starting point is 00:05:29 it's just like bad velocity by modern standards. Left-hander, but he has a very low release point. And also a long wingspan from what I've read, even though he's 6 foot 1, I think the wingspan is like 6 foot 6 for Matt Wilkinson. So between the extra reach and the low, low angle of the release,

Starting point is 00:05:52 it puts the fastball on a plane that hitters just they can't square it up. He had a 15 strikeout game in the minors already this year. It has a 19% swinging strike rate, a 69% strike rate. So he's a really good control pitcher as well. And it's kind of a gimmick, but it's a gimmick that we've seen work before. He'll kind of have to prove himself at every level and has a long way to go still. But Matt Wilkinson, the kind of numbers he's putting up, very interesting, just an incredible

Starting point is 00:06:24 strikeout to walk ratio. And yeah, it'd be fun to see a guy named tugboat become a thing in the majors. We're kind of seeing that exact thing from Shoda Imanaga right now, the way that he throws low 90s velocity, the rising fastball from the left hand side. It's, yeah, I'd love to see it. We're all rooting for tugboat. If you want to read more about the rest of the name, Scott has an article, which is live on the site.

Starting point is 00:06:53 You can check it out, CBSports.com. slash fantasy slash baseball. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, you can listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Pitching Prospects on the Rise Including Jonah Tong & Matt Wilkinson! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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