Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! Andrew Painter Coming Soon? (7/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 When might the Phillies promote Andrew Painter? Let's find out on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Thursday, July 3rd. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White, and we are here to talk about prospects before we get to The Five on the Verge. Just want to start with a quick note about Max Muncie of the Dodgers. He's dealing with a knee injury.

Starting point is 00:00:22 As of now, the Dodgers sound optimistic. He's still going for an MRI on Thursday, but if anything happens, Scott, A name to watch here is prospect Alex Freeland. What do you think? Yeah, consensus top 100 guy coming into the year. The Dodgers, they have a way of kind of sneaking these prospects through. They're so star-studded and have so many very high-end prospect.

Starting point is 00:00:44 These kind of mid-range prospects fly under the radar. But Alex Freeland's been very solid. At AAA, slashing 271, 387 on base percentage, 458 slug. He hits the ball. Pretty hard, certainly in terms of average exit velocity. Played discipline is good, can steal bases. He is a shortstop by a trade, so he'd be playing out of position. But he's gotten some exposure to third base this year.

Starting point is 00:01:10 I don't know that Kyle Freeland is the first place the Dodgers would look because Hison Kim has been killing it when he's played and has hardly gotten to play. So this Muncie injury might open the door. Some shuffling around. I know maybe Tommy Edmund slides over to third base, and Kim takes over at second. That, I would guess, is the first thing the Dodgers would look to do. Maybe getting Enrique Hernandez involved, too.

Starting point is 00:01:39 But if they decided they needed an extra bat, Freeland would make sense, and he would have some modest appeal. I think in middle infield leagues especially, because he'd start out with shortstop eligibility again, Freeland would be worth look for that. potential on-base power speed combo. All right, let's get into the top prospects to stash right now, the five on the verge.

Starting point is 00:02:05 And first up, we have Emmett Sheehan of the Dodgers, Logan Henderson of the Brewers, Joe Boyle of the Rays, Andrew Painter of the Phillies, and Chase DeLauder of the Guardians. What's the latest? Notice who isn't here. Bubba Chandler, be gone.

Starting point is 00:02:19 First time all year, Bubba Chandler. And not because he got called up, because he has been that bad. His last start lasted only three and a third innings and he walked four. The start before that lasted two and two-thirds innings and he gave up six earned runs. So it's been a long run of badness for Chandler

Starting point is 00:02:41 and I'm not sure he's worth stashing anymore, clearly, because I've purged him from the roles. All right, so, it met Sheehan. His latest start at AAA actually wasn't the best either. but remember prior to that he had those six no-hit innings with 13 strikeouts, and it sounds like the Dodgers could be looking to call him up as early as Sunday. So yeah, I think given his unmatched bat-missing ability, his swinging strike rate, you know, whether you're looking pre-Tommy John surgery, post-Tommy John surgery,

Starting point is 00:03:23 majors, minors, it is an outlier in every respect and his swing. I'll have the Dodgers backing him. Very interesting. Logan Henderson, unfortunately, he's kind of going down the Bubba Chandler path here. Now, we have a little more reason to just kind of write it off because he's been in the majors here twice already for terrific starts in the majors between two stints. And so the fact that he allowed five earn runs over four innings in his latest

Starting point is 00:03:56 AAA start after two starts before that, four runs in four and two, there's any. They're bad starts. The ERA's on the rise down there, but he's kind of semi-proven in a way Chandler isn't. So that's why I'm keeping the faith in Henderson for now. Joe Boyle continues to do his thing.

Starting point is 00:04:14 He's not, the last couple of starts hasn't thrown strikes at quite as good of a rate, but he's never going to be a great strike throw. I think the fact he's been better overall, AAA points to a. points to a lot of upside there. So Andrew Painter is a new addition to this list. And I'll note for him also that the AAA performance isn't going to blow you away.

Starting point is 00:04:38 Chris off the air made a good point that Philly probably view Painter's development as more or less done. And it's just a matter of him delaying his arrival until July, which is what they aimed for all along. wanted to slowly build him up first year back from Tommy John's surgery. So there's a good possibility he's just kind of working on things at AAA rather than showing us his best possible self. And meanwhile, Mick Abel, who's currently holding down a rotation spy for the Phillies, has just been awful lately. Didn't even make it through.

Starting point is 00:05:16 He made it through one inning, but couldn't I get through two in his latest start walk five. Taiwan Walker, they could go back to him, I guess, though I'm not. sure how stretched out he is anymore. So Painter's time, you know, we're in July now, which is always what they were in before. It may be here. I want to be as enthusiastic about him being called up as he was just as if he was, as I would if he was just flat out dominating AAA.

Starting point is 00:05:40 But no, still been still a really good prospect, still has really good stuff. Still somebody could consider stashing. And then finally Chase DeLotter. We talked about this last week. He's hitting well AAA. He's actually healthy. all the injuries he's had. He's been injured more than he's been healthy for his minor league career.

Starting point is 00:06:00 So the guardians with their constant outfield needs may want to take advantage of this moment and call up the latter sooner than later. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in the FBT Express. Let's go over the five prospects on the periphery. These are names that are making some noise lately. And Colson Montgomery, shortstop with the White Sox.

Starting point is 00:06:24 Nathan Church outfielder with the Cardinals. Joe Mack, a catcher with the Marlins. Let's be very careful with this next one, Scott. Cam Schlittler, starting pitcher with the Yankees, and Cody Freeman, third baseman with the Rangers. Yeah, so Colson Montgomery, his overall numbers are still pretty awful, but he was a consensus top 50 prospect each of the last three years. He wasn't that great last year either, but kind of got a pass for that.

Starting point is 00:06:54 started out so poorly this year. It was striking out like 40% of the time at AAA that they sent him to the Complex League to work one-on-one with the hitting coordinator there. He's come back, and his strikeout rate is more like 28% about what it was last year. Still not great, but more doable for Montgomery. And very lately, he's started to pick up the production as well.

Starting point is 00:07:17 So over the past week, Colson Montgomery is betting 440. He has two multi-homer games. during that time. And like all the underlying data still points to a very high ceiling here. His max exit velocity is over 115 miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:07:38 His 90th percentile exit velocity is over 108. Both of those are near the top of the miners. And for all the strikeouts he's had, the chase rate isn't that bad. The zone contact rate is actually pretty good. So there's a lot to like here for Montgomery and hopefully his production over the last

Starting point is 00:07:59 week is a sign of him coming around. Nathan Church is going to be a new name for many of you. He's been killing it in the miners, even better since moving up to AAA. It's kind of a hitter-friendly AA venue he was playing at. But since moving up to AAA, he's batting about 360. And he strikes out less than 10% of the time, tremendous contact skills. Surprising power he's shown to for somebody who doesn't have great exit velocities. His best tool for as good of a contact hitter as he is, power. Andy's a base dealer. I said that wrong.

Starting point is 00:08:33 His best tool for as good of a contact hitter as he is is defense. Andy runs well. I think the Cardinals' offense with the struggles they've had lately, Lars Neupar potentially being hurt, I could see them very soon wanting to turn to Nathan Church. Joe Mack, Marlins catcher. They've already promoted a catcher this year, Augustine Ramirez. Not a great defender.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Mack is a good defender. The Marlins like the White Sox don't have a dedicated D.H. So you could see them graduating two catcher prospects as the White Sox have done. And I think Mack, with his defensive skills, he would end up pushing Augustine Ramirez mostly to DH. Maybe he moves to first base eventually. I don't know. but Mac might actually be the team's catcher of the future. He's homered five times in the last six games.

Starting point is 00:09:27 So he's showing signs of being ready for a call-up. You can read more about Cam Schlittler on the site. Tall Yankees starter with a good strikeout rate of AAA. He may be approaching. But I do want to touch on Cody Freeman real quick here. Five foot eight infielder, a AAA for the Rangers. Primarily he's been playing third. they just sent down their third baseman Josh Young.

Starting point is 00:09:54 They're using Ezekiel Duran there right now. His numbers are awful. Freeman is batting 452 in his past 11 games, 367 in his past 33. It's a profile to me that's a little reminiscent of Thomas Sejisi, who started out in the Rangers organization, you'll remember. But this guy, Cody Freeman, has slightly better exit velocities, much lower strikeout rate. It's below 10%. So you watch video of them,

Starting point is 00:10:28 very quick stroke, not a conventional prospect, not in the top 30 for the Rangers by any major publication. But Cody Freeman's getting it done and maybe on the verge of getting a look in the majors. 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 tomorrow. Bye-bye. On Podcasts.

Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! Andrew Painter Coming Soon? (7/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

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