Fantasy Baseball Today - 12 TOP PROSPECTS Traded at the Deadline! (08/06 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: August 6, 2026Frank Stampfl and Scott White break down the biggest prospects who were moved at the deadline. Zyhir Hope headlined the return for Tarik Skubal. What is Anthony Eyanson's upside? The Cardinals actuall...y got a haul in return for Dustin May and JoJo Romero.Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballTodaySign up for the newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Let's break down the prospects who were traded at the deadline.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Thursday, August 6th.
I am Frank Stamble joined by Scott White,
and we are going to run through 12 prospects traded at the deadline,
and we will start with the best seven.
And we will start with the Hall of the Tigers got in return for Terrick Scouble,
which included Zahir Hope and River Ryan.
Scott, what are your thoughts?
on those two headed to the Tigers.
So I think Hope's the best prospect traded at the deadline.
I think I put River Ryan fourth best.
But Hope is, I see him outside of the top 50 on some prospect rank lists.
I think he's closer to top 25.
Maybe that's the fantasy analyst talking in me.
Just obviously concerned about offensive production.
He had a monster July, 372 batting average.
10 homers, six steals, impacts the ball as hard as you'd want a middle of the order slugger to do.
Athletic enough to keep stealing bases, takes his walks, knows the difference between a ball and strike.
So I think Zahir Upside has, sorry, I think Zahir Hope has a lot of upside.
You know, the Tigers recently graduated Max Clark.
They have Riley Green there.
I think Hope might have the highest ceiling of that trio, at least offensively.
And then River Ryan, the big knock on him is he's 27.
You don't see many 27-year-old prospects.
Part of the reason he's retained his rookie status all the way to age 27 is because,
well, he's missed time with injury, but also the Dodgers just had such a rotation surplus
that there was no need for them to activate River Ryan this year.
Currently down with a hamstring injury, so there you go, another injury.
But it doesn't sound like the sort of thing that will keep him sidelined rest of season.
So I think down the stretch we'll see Ryan pitch for the Tigers.
And some evaluators still think he has number two type upside, even for him being 27.
The Orioles got a haul from the Red Sox in exchange for Adley Rushman.
And the name who headlined that deal was pitcher Anthony Iyanson, who again went to the Orioles in that trade.
Scott, what do you think the upside is here for Anthony Iyensen?
I think it's very high.
It's higher than River Ryan.
That's why he's a couple spots higher on this list.
Between High A and AA, Iinson has a 132 ERA.
0.89 whip, 94 strikeouts and 68 to third innings.
Had a 19% swinging strike rate,
which is about as good as you'll ever see from a starting pitcher.
He was throwing harder earlier in the year.
The velocity has slipped a little bit.
over the course of time,
but the production hasn't at all.
And that's because the secondary arsenal
is so good for Iions.
And I think the Orioles did well here to get him.
And I think he's maybe the biggest riser
among pitching prospects this season.
I thought the Angels did very well as well,
trading away Jose Soriano to the Blue Jays.
In exchange, they got Arjan Namala,
who is a power-hitting shortstop prospect.
Scott, what are your thoughts here on Arjun Namala?
So I've always been a little lower
than the consensus on Namala.
It seems like I'm still calling him
the third best prospect traded.
But he's struck me as more of a project
than you'd like a top prospect to be.
And even now,
reaching AA this year,
the numbers are a little underwhelming.
The promise for Namala
is big power from a player
who can legitimately stick at shortstop.
defensively.
But it's still more theoretical than
fully realized,
and now it's in the hands of the angels to realize it.
So I don't know how we should feel about that.
But Namal is a good prospect and
deserves to be discussed here.
I thought the Cardinals did fantastic
in the trade where they sent Dustin May
and Jojo Romero over to the Brewers.
In exchange, they received Alexander Frias
and Josiah Ragsdale.
These are two names, Scott, that I know, have really popped up this season as well.
Yeah, I kind of feel like this might have been the most lopsided deal involving prospects that they gave up two exciting rising outfield talents for a couple months of Dust in May.
Don't really get that.
But Alexander Frioss, even though he's further down the ladder, only 18 years old, I mean, the fact he's only 18 years old in doing what he's doing is part of the reason why there's so much enthusiasm for.
him. He's hit a ball as hard as 117 miles per hour this year, which is a better mark than
Aaron Judge Ellie De LaCruiser, Nick Kurtz, has reached this year. And he's doing it at 18.
So there is massive upside here. The numbers look ridiculous. Mostly that was in rookie ball.
They moved him up to full season A ball, and he's kind of scuffled a bit there. But again,
he's 18 years old. So that was an aggressive assignment. And the data
the data is very encouraging for Alexander Friuss.
And then Josiah Ragsdale,
it's less about the data than the pure production for him.
He,
the main thing he seemed to be lacking,
what gave him more of like a fourth outfielder type profile was power.
Well, he goes to the Cardinals during a binge that's seen him Homer
10 times in 13 games.
So it's hard to say he's lacking in power.
I think he homered in his first game with his new organization.
So it just continued for Josiah Ragsdale.
So now he's a 2030 guy with an on-base percentage near 450 at Della.
I know Josiah Ragsdale is available in a lot of Dynasty leagues, but that needs to change.
And the last name on this list, the best seven prospects who were traded at the deadline.
Ramon Marquez went to the Giants in the Luis Arise trade.
What do you have on Ramon Marquez?
Well, I was raving about Anthony Ionson.
19% swinging strike rate in the minors this year.
Ramon Marquez's is 24%.
Yeah, mostly on the strength of a change-up
that might be a true 80-grade offering.
The fastball is good in its own right,
and so that makes for a good pairing.
That's about all he has now,
and he's pitching an A-ball,
so he might need to broaden out his arsenal from there,
but it's a lot to work with for Ramon-Marquez.
He's been another big riser among pitching prospects,
And it needs to be added in all dynasty leagues where he's available, I'd say.
All right, let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back, FBT Express.
We have five other prospects who were traded at the deadline,
whose numbers command your attention.
And first up, to my dismay,
the Yankees traded Henry Lalane to the Giants in the Elliott-Ramos trade.
and Scott, I was not happy about this one as a Yankee fan.
Big lefty.
I think there's a lot of upside down the line,
if he could say healthy.
Yeah, a few years back, he was still a teenager,
and he looked like he was trending toward being the Yankees' best pitching prospect,
and then he kind of fell off the map for a couple years
because of shoulder issues.
Came back strong this year, big 6'7 lefty was getting a lot of strikeouts.
He's 22 now, and he's still in A ball,
so that gives him a lower margin for error.
But obviously he improved his stock enough Henry Lelonay
to be included in this trade.
The Mets received Sammy Stafora from the pirates
in the Luke Weaver trade.
What do you have on Sammy Stafora?
So he was on a power binge,
sort of like Josiah Ragsdale was.
At the time of this trade,
Sammy Stafora had home.
over 16 times in his past 22 games.
Wow.
And during that same stretch,
he had improved his strikeout rate to 25%.
Now, that's still a high strikeout rate,
particularly for a hitter in A ball,
where they're not seeing much secondary stuff.
But it's an improvement over his season long 30% mark,
which gets into prohibitive territory.
It's a clear flaw for Stafura.
It's going to have to be worked out as he ascends the latter,
but in addition to all those home runs, he has 20 steals.
He's a plus defender, shortstop, it seems like.
And so that should continue to earn him chances as he moves up the ladder.
Next step, we have Boston Smith,
who went from the White Sox to the Mariners in the Luis Castillo trade.
What do you have here on the power-hitting catcher, Boston Smith?
So I feel like this has been the most under-discussed prospect from the trade deadline.
and you might not even see him show up on everybody's top prospect list.
But I feel a little salty about it because that was Ben Rice at one point in time.
He was the catcher putting up bonkers numbers at AA, and nobody was willing to admit he was a prospect.
I think because nobody gave much of a chance
of staying at catcher, that's a big part of it,
and maybe Boston Smith doesn't have that much of a chance of that either.
But it looks like a really freaking good hitter.
Like with Ben Rice, if that continues,
then he'll find a spot somewhere.
Boston Smith has a swing that's grew for power, I would say,
in that he pulls the ball a lot in the air
in the home run production,
22 and 269 at bats.
He's also reached base at a 444 clip.
Walks a ton.
And again, he's already reached double A
doing stuff like that.
I'm very interested in Boston Smith.
The last two names here on the list,
both went to the Marlins,
Braden Taylor and Jonathan Long.
What do you have on those two?
This is kind of the Marlins' MO.
They did this with Kyle Stowers.
They did this with Jacob.
Marcy, they found a player who had kind of reached the end of the line in the minors in his current
organization and it put up numbers there, but the team didn't really have a path for him,
and they were kind of aging out, and they just needed to go somewhere, so the Marlins were happy
to take those two off in Stowers' case, the Orioles, and in Marcy's case, the Padres,
off their hands. And it's worked out pretty well. Braden Taylor was the Ray's first round
pick 19th overall in 2023, but it took them until this year, age 24, to put up numbers to
be fitting of that. 24 is getting pretty old for a prospect, but near 900 OPS between
AA and AAA near 2020 production there. I think we could see him on the Marlins sooner than later.
Jonathan Long's even older, and he was repeating at AAA this year because he's a true
first baseman.
And obviously
few teams have a path for a true
first basement. The Cubs didn't it with Michael
Bush there.
Long
has more raw power than he shows in the
minors. He tends to hit the ball
to the opposite field a lot, which helps with batting average.
But, you know, might be undermining
his power potential a little there. Still,
good numbers of AAA this year
slash 305-404-4-79
there last year. And the Marlins
don't have a first baseman. They've usually
mostly used that position as catcher and outfield overflow this year.
So we could see that this trade gives along a chance of mattering.
We could see him get that chance soon.
All right.
For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage,
listen to our full-lane podcast,
Fantasy Baseball today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
or anywhere else podcasts are found.
Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
And we will be back again this weekend.
Bye-bye.