Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! Could Joe Boyle Replace Taj Bradley? (6/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Could Joe Boyle take Tage Bradley's spot in the race rotation? Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome in to FBT Express on Thursday, June 19th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. The top prospects to stash. It's going to sound a lot like last week's list. Logan Henderson of the Brewers, Chandler Simpson of the Rays, Chase Burns of the Reds, who has moved up the list,

Starting point is 00:00:25 Bubba Chandler of the Pirates, and Joe Boyle, who has... After another pretty bad start from Tosh Bradley, Scott. I'm starting to think maybe Joe Boyle could get a shot here. Take Tage Bradley's spot. What do you think? Well, before we get to Boyle, I think the biggest things to point out here. And you mentioned one already.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Chase Burns is up. But also Bubba Chandler is down. Bubba Chandler, who has been on this list every single week this season, sinking like a stone you would imagine with the passage of time he'd be all the more close to

Starting point is 00:01:06 joining the pirates but he's kind of not pitching all that well so over his last eight starts he's thrown just 59% of his pitches for strikes that is terrible

Starting point is 00:01:23 and he has a 360 ERA during that time 20 walks and 30 innings is what that amounts too. And he hasn't had a five-inning start in his last three turns. So I kind of get why the pirates haven't called up of a Chandler yet, and I'm not sure they should. There aren't a lot of candidates to replace him on this list entirely, so he's still on it.

Starting point is 00:01:49 But he's definitely dropped behind Burns, who now has made two AAA starts. And this latest one here on Wednesday was spectacular, as pretty much they've all been, pretty much all of his minor league starts. But he had seven innings this time, did Chase Burns, and in those seven innings struck out seven, only one run allowed. I believe, I think he had like 17 swinging strikes or something. It's the exact numbers aren't really that important.

Starting point is 00:02:28 It just continues a trend of dominance for the second overall pick in the draft last year, a guy with the killer fastball and slider who looks like he's not being challenged at all on the minors. And it would be certainly not unprecedented for a pitcher with that kind of pedigree doing, making this kind of work of the miners to get called up that abruptly. I mean, the pirates did it with Paul Skeen's last year. So I don't know, we're getting toward the end of June now. If the Reds don't think they're going to make a sincere playoff push, you know, it's just a couple more months until they call them up and potentially preserve his rookie eligibility for next year,

Starting point is 00:03:12 which has certain incentives. So I can't say for sure that Burns is a couple weeks away from being promoted, but he might be. He might be with his as well as he's performed in the minor. So that's why he's third on the list. Status quo, I would say, for the top two names on this list, Logan Henderson and Chandler Simpson, who have already shown they can be successful in the majors, at least from a fantasy perspective. We were worried about innings management for Henderson, but they've kind of let that go.

Starting point is 00:03:48 He's gone five innings or more in his last two starts at AAA. So I'm not sure that's a huge number. incentive, a major reason why he's down, and next time Brewers have an opening, especially now that Jacob Mizorowski is up, I expect Henderson to fill it. So getting back to your original question about our guy, Joe Boyle, is it time for them to swap out Tosh Bradley for him? I mean, it's kind of been time. It's kind of amazing, especially given how dispensable the rays are with their pitchers.

Starting point is 00:04:23 how dispensibly they treat them, that they've just had the same five all season long. They called up Joe Boyle, remember for a spot start on April 13th, he threw five no-hit innings against the Braves, and they haven't managed to bring him back since. Even though, get a load of these numbers, since being sent back to AAA,

Starting point is 00:04:43 since that spot start where he no-hit the Braves over five, Joe Boyle has a 141-ERA in 10 turns. He has got to do some quick math here He has a 0.86 whip in those 10 turns He has 11.1K per 9 in those 10 turns And most importantly of all, he's thrown 64% of his pitches for strikes Which isn't a great number, but it's a great number for Joe Boyle. Like the raise seem to have gotten past the control issue

Starting point is 00:05:19 that's plagued him his entire professional career. I don't know if Todge Bradley, if they're really ready to option them, he does have a couple options. It could happen. But something's going to happen. Something has to give in that rotation eventually. A lot of young pitchers there.

Starting point is 00:05:35 Attrition will have it say at some point. And I think you want to have Joe Boyle stashed whenever that happens. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll talk about some more prospects right after this. Welcome back in FBT Express. And let's take a look at the top prospects on the periphery right now.

Starting point is 00:05:53 And this group includes Bryce Matthews, a shortstop with the Astros, Travis Socorah, pitcher with the Nationals. Max Anderson, a second baseman with the Tigers. Brock Wilkin, third baseman with the Brewers. And Esmerlene Valdez, an outfielder with the Pirates. Scott, what do you have on this group? So Bryce Matthews, mostly playing second base at AAA.

Starting point is 00:06:14 The Astros don't really have a long-term plan there now that Jose Altuva is primarily an outfielder. And he's hitting well at AAA. He does have some swing and miss issues, particularly on pitches in the zone. And that's concerning. That makes Bryce Matthews less than a sure thing. But he's performed in the minors.

Starting point is 00:06:34 He can hit the ball hard. I could see him playing a major role in the second half for the Astros. Travis Sikora, you know, Chase Burns is the top pitching prospect in baseball, and it would be hard to put, Travis Sikora ahead of Andrew Painter, Bubba Chandler, the guys we've all been waiting for. But I think once that group graduates,

Starting point is 00:06:56 Travis Sikora of the National is pretty clearly going to be the best pitching prospect. You'd be hard pressed to find a minor league pitcher with better numbers than him the last two years. He recently moved up to high A, so getting against some starting to face some legit competition now. and he's begun to work five innings with consistency. He's done at three starts in a row. Travis Sikora has since moving up to high a 14.8K per 9, a 128 batting average against six foot six frame.

Starting point is 00:07:31 He's still growing into it. The best may be yet to come. Really impressive pitcher is Travis Sikora. Max Anderson of the Tigers, he is somebody who, can only play second base and not very well, so he needs to hit. But he is hitting. 347 batting average with 11 homers and 97 OPS at AA for Max Anderson.

Starting point is 00:07:57 And he was a second round pick two years ago. Like this is the player he profiled as doesn't have great on base skills, which puts a lot of pressure on that batting average, which is we don't see a lot of high batting averages in the majors these days. So it's not a sure thing that Max Anderson will work. but it's an interesting profile and he's certainly doing it at AA. Brock Wilkin was the 18th pick in the 2020-3 draft

Starting point is 00:08:21 and was kind of got a lot of attention in Dynasty Leagues heading into last year ended up having a horrible season. Well, it turns out on April 11th of that year, 2024, took a fastball to the face, needed facial reconstruction surgery and came back and just did not look the same. had his vision tested.

Starting point is 00:08:46 Apparently the injury, the recovery wreaked havoc on his depth perception. It measured in only the 50th percentile. So he spent the offseason doing eye therapy and rehabilitation and got off to a slow start this year. It wasn't clear that it had an effect, all the work he put in with his eyes. But suddenly he's turned it on here. Last 13 games, Brock Wilkin batting 340 with six homers and nine doubles. a guy who in theory has a lot of power, a lot of on-base ability. Hopefully, the hard work he's put in is helping him get back on track after that devastating injury early last year.

Starting point is 00:09:24 And then finally, as Merlin Valdez of the Pirates in high A, always had good power. He worked to develop a flatter bat path this offseason, has cut his strikeouts way down, is putting up huge numbers at high A. if you're looking for a really deep name there, Esmerlene Valdez is a riser. All right, for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-land podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found.

Starting point is 00:09:53 Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.

Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! Could Joe Boyle Replace Taj Bradley? (6/19 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

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