Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Athletics Are Promoting Top Prospect Nick Kurtz! - Emergency Podcast (4/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

The A's are promoting their top prospect Nick Kurtz (0:45)! ... Where to rank Kurtz among all of these emergent first basemen (5:00)? ... Which first basemen are we dropping for Kurtz (13:00)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. It's happening. The athletics are promoting their top prospect, Nick Kurtz. Welcome into an emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 21st. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. Good to see you, Scott. It wasn't too long ago we were podcasting, but we are back again, and it's been a very busy time for prospect promotions this weekend.

We got Chandler Simpson with the raise, Lukiechiechel with the twins. Just yesterday we learned that the Marlins are promoting Augustin Ramier, and now we get an even bigger name. The A's are promoting first baseman Nick Kurtz, and he has been the talk of the minor league season thus far, hitting 321, 7 home runs, 1040 OPS, just massive exit velocities at AAA. Scott, talk to me about the profile

and whether or not Nick Kurtz is a must-ad player in fantasy. Well, I always answer the second question first, and so I'll start there. Must-ad, yes. And I don't often say that. about prospect promotions anymore because in recent years the the learning curve has become much deeper for a promoted prospect and oftentimes that first stint in the majors doesn't go well and it ends up being a waste of time a waste of resources but the upside for Kurtz and the readiness

that he's shown throughout the his time in the minors I think makes him the exception and across the board regardless of shallow league, deep league, head-to-head, roto, you pick them up and you hope for the best. I mentioned readiness. He's played just 32 games in the minors. And we were making a big deal last year. Wyatt Langford seemed to make a very quick climb to the majors after being drafted just the year before.

He got 44 games. So Kurt's 32, Wyatt Langford 44. Kurtz is arriving even faster than Langford did. But it was a similar climb through that just dominated at every stop. It just showed that he doesn't really have much to accomplish in the minors. And so now he's getting a shot in the majors. What kind of player does Kurt's profile as? Well, the comp I've most often been using is Matt Olson.

And maybe that's just because he's a six foot five left-handed hitting first baseman for the athletics. No, that's not the only reason why. but very good power profile, power that translates to all fields, a very good, a very disciplined hitter, takes his walks. I think the impact here could be considerable. Now, there are ways that could go wrong, of course. Like I said, the learning curve is steep. And one thing we see in the data for Kurtz during his little bit of time in AAA where this kind of data is available is the zone contact rate is pretty low. He swings and misses a fair amount in the zone.

Chase rate is fine. Like I said, he seems to know the difference between a ball and a strike, but he can swing and miss some in the zone. Interestingly, Matt Olson does that too. So it's not like a death knell or anything. But if Kurtz were to go wrong in some way, that might be it. There's also going to be a bit of a playing time crunch with the athletics, because, of course, they already have an emergent first basement,

one of the biggest ones this year in Tyler Soderstrom. And Kurtz, like I said, is first baseman, so what did they do about that? Brent Rooker at DH, well, we've seen him play outfield some recently. They've also floated the idea of maybe having Soderstrom handle some third base. I don't think we'll see that very often, but they are talking about using a rotation of players to get everyone in the lineup. it does add pressure, though, for Kurtz to perform right away, because if he doesn't, they're not going to,

they're not going to deal with that, that lineup headache indefinitely. He's not performing. So, yeah, I'd say that's the basic rundown. Yeah, I mean, looking at the A's lineup right now, they have Gio or Shella at third base. They have Miguel Anduhar in left field, right? So these are veteran kind of retread type players, totally fine players to have on their bench at this point.

not really ones that you need to be blocking prospects. It's not a perfect fit. You know, having Brent Rooker in the outfield, not regarded as a great defender, Soderstrom, can he play third base? I don't know. We might find out over the next couple weeks. I don't think he has as a professional yet. Yeah, so.

Majors or minors. It's an interesting fit, but to get all these guys in the lineup, and speaking of that lineup, I mean, it could turn out to be a very, very good one over the next couple of years with Lawrence Butler and Rooker and Soderstrom and Langalear is doing his thing, and now you insert Nick Kurtz into this mix as well. Scott, the million dollar question.

And I guess we could talk this one out together because it is a tough one. Where do we rank Nick Kurtz? So trying to figure out among this emergent group of first basemen so far this season. We've had the aforementioned Tyler Soderstrom, and this has been a huge talking point all season long. Ben Rice, who's breaking out for the Yankees.

Spencer Torkelson, who looks like he's bouncing back to season. Jonathan Arronda, who looks at, like he's breaking out for the raise and now playing against left-handed pitching as well. Michael Bush has picked things back up. Reese Hoskins had a big week too. So we have all these kind of first baseman that are, that were available early on. But now we're trying to figure out like, do we drop any of them for Nick Kurtz? So let's kind of talk it back and forth here and try and figure out what's your initial read?

What's your gut telling you on where to put Nick Kurtz in the rankings? Well, let me start by saying I feel like this conversation is only relevant. for shallower leagues and mainly just head-to-head leagues where you don't have that extra corner infield spot to fill like in roto so if you get into if you get into leagues that deep then of course you can find another way to get all of them on your roster how many however many you happen to have at this point you wouldn't have to consider dropping say a michael bush for for for nick kurtz so i actually wrote about it just came out this morning i wrote about six of these emergent first baseman this year.

And I did my best to rank them, the six, excluding Nick Kurtz. And this is how it came out. Tyler Soderstrom 1. Jonathan Aranda, now that we're seeing him, play some against lefties, two. Ben Rice 3, helps that he bats lead off against righties. Spencer Torkelson 4. Kyle Mazzardo, 5. if you didn't even mention, he's very close to getting first base eligibility.

Kyle Lanzardo 5 and Michael Bush 6. So again, it was Soderstrom, Aranda, Rice, Torkelson, Mazzardo, Bush. I am not that attached to that ranking. Just in the last couple weeks, it's changed a few times. I don't feel like there are obvious red flags for any of them, and they all have pedigree or minor league track records such that it's feasible. They could keep doing this or something close to this. So probably not all of them will.

And that's, you know, you'd hate to, you'd hate to end up with the one that drops off. But that's where we stand with those six. So where does Nick Kurtz fit in those six? I mean, he has the highest pedigree of all of them. He is a top, top, top of the line prospect. Well, Torkelson, Torkelson had that pedigree too. Yeah, I guess that's fair. He was a former number one overall pick.

But he's also... kind of lower on the list because he has so much failure on his resume. Yeah, so I think I could definitely say Kurtz ahead of the last two there, Bush and Monsardo. Bush has yet to start against a left-hander this year. The thing about both Bush and Monsardo, why they're at the bottom of the list is their peak exit velocities, just don't compare to these others. I don't think either has hit a ball 110 miles per hour in the majors. Yeah. So that does make their power harder to come by. It doesn't, it's not always a clean translation, eggs of velocities to home runs. But generally speaking, the harder you hit the ball, the better chance you have for home runs. So that gives them more downside risk, push them and Zarado. So I can definitely put Kurtz ahead of them. It's the other four, Soderstrom, Ironda, Rice, and Torkelson. You're not putting them ahead of Soderstrom. given that he leads the majors and home runs.

Like you're just not dropping that guy. There's no way. I could see just in the interest of, okay, this is one of the very best prospects in baseball. It's a shallow league, so you need as much impact as possible. Like just putting Kurtz's highest second on this list

from that perspective. No guarantees, obviously. But in shallower, leagues, you need to sell out as hard as you can for upside, and Kurtz, just by nature of his pedigree, would seem to have the most upside. I don't know that I really want to drop a Ronda or Rice for him. Or even Torkelson. I mean, you were making the case for Torkelson before we started recording. I don't know if you want to go ahead and do that now. Yeah, and it's just the fact that we've

seen Torkelson have a high-end fantasy season before. I mean, just a couple of years removed from having a 30-plus home-run season. Now, it's not a guarantee that he's going to get back. to that. It's also not a guarantee that Nick Kurtz is going to perform right away either. So I would rather bank on someone who I've seen do it before and who's already off to a great start. Torkelson hitting 288, 7 home runs, 21 RBI, and OPS over 1,000. So for me, I think I would rank him fourth. I think I would rank Nick Kurtz behind Soderstrom, Aranda, well, no, maybe even fifth, Aranda, Torkelson, Sodor Shrode.

Ben Rice. Ben Rice is the one you're missing. Ben Rice, too, yeah. Ben Rice, I'm a little bit more iffy about just because, and I know I'm thinking down the line, I just, I do have this concern about once John Carlos staying in his back is like, wait, how do they figure these things out? But, you know, life finds a way, as we know.

So I do have a slight concern over that. And I think we have some time. He hasn't, has he started hitting yet? I think he has to go through a whole spring progression. Yeah, I mean, I think at the earliest, for probably like a month away from seeing Stan, late May, if anything. So, yeah, I think that's worth bringing up for Ben Rice. I'm not sure it really factors in the decision-making.

I think one way or another you have to pick up Kurtz is what it comes down to. And I really don't want to drop Aronda or Rice or Torkelson. I would drop my last starting pitcher rather than dropping one of them. I would come up with some other bench player to drop even if I already had first base and my utility spot filled. I would want to give myself the best chance that having as many breakthrough hitters as I could.

And obviously, if they all end up clicking, then that's trade bait. That's good trade bait. And it's probably going to land you in a trade a better pitcher than whatever one you happen to be dropping now. So I don't really think your decision. could come down to this.

But I know the way some of these casual leagues are, and if you're the one most aggressively playing the waiver wire, there's a chance you've grabbed a couple of these guys. There's a chance you drafted Bryce Harper as your starter and grabbed Soderstrom and grabbed Rice, and then what do you do? That is a great problem to have, by the way. It's a great problem.

Assuming you're in a trade league, that is a great problem to have. Obviously, if there's no trading or if you play in the NFBC, all right, I guess you just kind of play the matchups and you figure it out from there, and it's going to be tough. But in a trading league, it is a great problem to have. Just acquire as much talent as humanly possible.

I don't know that we've actually said what Kurtz's production has been in the miners so far. So I mentioned he played 32 games. And in those 32 games, he slashed 336, 432, 689. That's with an 1120 OPS. That's what it adds up to. 11 home runs in those 32 games, 10 doubles.

only 36 strikeouts, so he's managed to keep that under control. And, yeah, I just wanted to put those out there to give you all the more reason to be excited here for Nick Kurtz. Let's talk through just some other first base eligible players that we would drop openly for Nick Kurtz. So, like Michael Tolia, that's without a question, right? Like, you could drop him for Nick Kurtz.

What about Ryan Malkassel, Scott? Someone we liked is a sleeper this season, but is this off to a dreadful star? Would you drop Ryan Malkassel for Nick Kurtz? Yeah, I would. I still have faith in Ryan Moucassel coming around, but I don't think the kind of shallow leagues we're talking about that the upside really compares there.

Again, with that caveat, Chowler Leagues, Yandy Diaz. Yeah. Paul Gulchman. Yeah, I'd do that. What about Jake Berger, who's off to a terrible start? Which is another interesting one because, you know, you're kind of hoping that Nick Curd, becomes a Jake Burger-like player,

obviously with better-on-base percentage, but like, you know, Jake Burger, we're expecting around 30 home runs. That's, I mean, we're hoping that Nick Kurtz can get to that level. Right, but, you know, it's not just the home runs. It's not just batting average either. I don't know that Kurtz will be a standout

for batting average. That's kind of why I use the Matt Olson comparison. Like I said, some in-zone contact issues. And maybe in the long run, he's just a 260, 270 guy. Or not. Maybe he's more like 280. The range of outcomes is for any player, just emerging in the majors, with this kind of upside.

If the upside is known to be high, then the range of outcomes is fairly wide. But obviously, Jake Berger, even in a best case scenario, we're not talking about him as an early rounder fantasy. And Kurtz does have that kind of upside. How likely is he to meet it as a rookie? I would say it's less likely than I would have said for a prospect of his caliber getting called up five years ago. But it's in the realm of possibility.

So if you're in the sort of league where it's even a consideration, drop Malk Castle, drop Berger, if that's even a thought that can cross your mind, it tells me it's a shallow league and it tells me you need to go for the potential high-end, high-draft-pick bat. And the last name, I have to ask, Tristan Kossis. Do you drop Tristan Kosses for Nick Kurtz? Shallower format. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we're probably not going to. Which is confusing. Like, we're probably not going to rank it that way, right? because if we rank it that way, then that means we have Nick Kurtz ranked

as a top 12 first baseman. But it's very nuanced, obviously. Mm-hmm. Right, because the rankings are one-size-fits-all. Apart from scoring format, they're not taking into account depth so much, so they have to be a little more measured than somebody out there

who knows their league and knows exactly what they're giving up when they make that kind of move. but the thing about CASAS, the thing I keep coming back to with CASAS is the main thing we like about him is pedigree also. He did have that second half of 2023 where it looked like it all came through

and he was emerging as a stud bat, but he hasn't come close to that since then. And so that's over a year ago at this point, and it's not like there's, it's not like there's a lot in the track record to to give me confidence that okay he's for sure going to over time regress to being this

regress in a good way to being this I can't say that with confidence for CASIS so in a shallow league would I rather take a flyer on Kurtz if that's really what it took and hopefully it won't hopefully like I said for those other first basements the Ben Rice's and Jonathan Arronda's of the world I dropped my worst pitcher or whatever instead.

I'd do whatever it took to keep them all on my roster. But if it ultimately came down to Casas or Kurtz in that shallow league scenario, I'd probably roll the dice on Kurtz at this point. All right. Again, the athletics are calling up their top prospect. Nick Kurtz, 22 years old, he was the fourth overall pick in last year's draft. He's been the talk of the minor league season,

hitting for a bunch of power, seven home runs already down at AAA in just 20 games this. season. Lots to be excited about. Go add Nick Kurtz if he is available in your league. We are going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to like and follow, subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already, and we will be back again later tonight. Bye-bye.