Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! When Do We See Nick Kurtz? (4/19 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 When will Nick Kurtz get the call? Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FBT Express on Saturday, April 19th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White, the top five prospects most worth stashing right now. Number one, no surprise. Nick Kurt of the Athletics, followed by Zebby Matthews of the Twins,

Starting point is 00:00:23 Bubba Chandler of the Pirates, Roman Anthony of the Red Sox, and Jordan Lawler of the D-backs. Scott, Nick Kurtz is the talk of the minor league world right now. When do you think it could happen? I think it could be any day now. I think we're there. And part of that is we've seen Brent Rooker, their DH play three games in the outfield now.

Starting point is 00:00:48 And there was actually a report on the athletics official team site the other day. Their beat writer Martin Gallegos mentioning that they've even, even floated the idea of playing Tyler Soderstrom at third base at times as a way to get Kurtz in the lineup. And it sounds like it sounds like it's going to be kind of a rotation situation where maybe Rooker plays outfield sometimes Soderstrom third base sometimes. I don't know, maybe Nick Kurtz plays outfield sometimes. We haven't seen that in the minors yet, but I know it's been brought up before

Starting point is 00:01:22 as something they could experiment with. So they're clearly thinking about how they can make this work for hurts, and at least with Rooker moving to outfield on occasion, they're beginning to implement it. Mark Katsay, the athletics manager, mentioned he's hitting the ball extremely hard. The exit velocities are really high, the competition aspect as well. You look at the velos that he's facing and some of the prospects he's going up against. He's done as much or more than what's needed. I mean, he's pretty much saying he's ready.

Starting point is 00:01:59 and I mean if there if if if if if it's to the point where the beat writer for the team's official site is writing an article explaining with quotes how they're going to fit Kurtz in the lineup means Kurtz is about to join the lineup I think I feel like that's a pretty safe assumption let's see who else could we talk about here so you mentioned my five prospects to stash. Matt Shaw isn't among them, but truthfully he is. Truthfully, he's among the five prospects to stash. And I kind of want to talk about him since he just got sent down.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Obviously, it was disappointment. He did show a good walk rate 15%. And didn't get buried in strikeouts the way some young hitters do. But Cubs president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer said he felt like Shaw was in survival, survival mode, like just looking to make contact as opposed to do damage and avoiding strikeouts that way.

Starting point is 00:03:05 And that might explain why he averaged just 82.7 miles per hour on batted balls as compared to 89.3 at AAA last year. Like clearly wasn't making impactful enough contact. And Shaw himself pointed out that he had worked on some things in the offseason in anticipating higher velocities in the majors. He worked on starting his swing earlier. And I don't know if you've ever seen Shaw hit, but he has this really exaggerated and awkward looking leg kick that seems like that's how he generates his power. So it's so big that it seems like it could get out of sync really easily.

Starting point is 00:03:43 And I think that was a big part of his problem and also contributed to the lower exit velocities and the majors is because he was changing things up trying to anticipate higher velocity. the mechanics just got out of whack. And he said, I've realized that I didn't need to adjust like I did. And I think I was better off just sticking with what made me good. So he's going to need to get going at AAA, clearly. He's going to need to get his timing down again. But I imagine Shaw will be back very quickly once that happens because there really isn't a plan B at third base for the Cubs.

Starting point is 00:04:13 I guess pretty ugly there, their options otherwise. A few quick notes here. Bubba Chandler had another good start shy of four innings, but he peaked at 101.5 miles per hour in this latest one, which makes it, he's tied with Hunter Green. Among all professional pitchers, obviously Hunter Green in Major League are hardest thrown ball this year. Bubba Chandler tied with Hunter Green with that 101.5.

Starting point is 00:04:39 I think we see him in early May. Roman Anthony this past week set a career high for exit velocity, 113.1 miles per hour. And he has been racking up multi-hit games recently. not sure how he's going to get in the Red Sox lineup, but they're going to find a way sooner than later. I think versatility of players like Ceylon Raphael and Christian Campbell will help because an opening develops anywhere on the diamond for the Red Sox.

Starting point is 00:05:10 They can probably find a way to make it work with Anthony. Jordan Lawler performing well AAA, playing mostly second base, which is noteworthy because they're Star Second Basement, the Diamondback Star Second Baseman, I could tell Marte has been out with a hamstring injury. He is starting to ramp up again. So there may not be, the Diamondbacks may not,

Starting point is 00:05:31 may decide there may not be a time to introduce Lawler before Marte comes back. But they got to find an opening for Lawler at some point because he's overdue, I would say, for a call up at this point. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in, FBT Express. five more prospects who are doing something of note lately. Alex Freeland of the Dodgers, Robbie Snelling of the Marlins,

Starting point is 00:05:59 C.J. Kaffis of the Guardians, Noah Cameron of the Royals, Otto Kemp of the Phillies. Scott, anyone here that you'd like to touch on real quick? Yeah, a few of them. Alex Freeland of the Dodgers shortstop prospect. Consensus top 100 guy coming into this year.

Starting point is 00:06:16 It was kind of an unknown before that. So they've been playing Tommy Edmund, and center field more, I think, because Andy Paez is doing nothing out there. And if that becomes more permanent, Edmund and center, that would free up an infield spot. Heissom Kim would be the odds-on favorite to fill it, and he's performing pretty well at AAA himself. But Kyle Freeland's a dark horse to do so. His average exit velocity so far is like 97 miles per hour.

Starting point is 00:06:44 So he is just really stinging the ball down there and obviously has upside. Robbie Snelling, who heading into last year, was considered one of the top left-handed pitching prospects in baseball. Had a really bad year. Ended up being part of a big package of prospects for a couple months of Tanner Scott. Padres dealt them away to the Marlins. And thanks turned around for Snelling pretty much right after he joined the Marlins. 367, ERA 124 whip, 10.3K per 9 after that point.

Starting point is 00:07:14 And now his stuff seems to have ticked up even more. He is averaging 95 miles per hour on his fastball, about what he was peaking at last year. And he's thrown 70% of his pitches for strikes so far. So Robbie Snelling quickly emerging as a top pitching prospect again, I'd say, if he got dropped in a Dynasty League because of how last year went, definitely want to scoop them up. Noah Cameron is an interesting pitcher for the Royals after getting to AAA last year,

Starting point is 00:07:45 had a 241 ERA 10.4K per 9. the scouting reports aren't glowing despite those numbers average is about 93 on the fastball but it has a really good shape, a lot of carry through the zone. And it's up about a mile per hour this year. So it's playing even better off to a good start of AAA, Noah Cameron I imagine we'll see the left-hander

Starting point is 00:08:08 at some point this season. And finally, real quick, Auto Kemp for the Phillies, because this was a completely new name to me. He went on draft coming out of college, had a injury-plagued career there, and didn't do great in his 2023 professional debut. But last year, 16 homers, 20 steals, and 881 OPS.

Starting point is 00:08:30 So he kind of put himself on the map. Auto Kemp, we're talking about, of the Phillies. And then he starred in the Arizona Folly, put up great numbers there. So far this year at AAA, it's a 25-year-old to AAA. So he's like knocking on the door already. The Auto Kemp has an average exit velocity of 93 miles per hour and a max exit velocity of 1-11, a guy with really good on base skills, dash of speed,

Starting point is 00:08:58 played second, third, and first already, so he's versatile. I don't know at 25 that it's a high priority for the Phillies to break him in, but with that versatility, I think there's a good chance that happens at some point. I don't know, this profile. Auto Kemp seems pretty interesting. interesting to me. All right, for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast, Fantasy Baseball today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found.

Starting point is 00:09:27 Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.

Fantasy Baseball Today - FBT Express - Top 5 Prospects to Stash! When Do We See Nick Kurtz? (4/19 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.