Fantasy Baseball Today - Is Maikel Garcia This Year's Nico Hoerner? Kyle Harrison Undervalued? (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the Audacy App and wherever else podcasts are found. Can Maikel Garcia be this year's Nico Hoerner? He should provide batting average and steals if everything works out. Kyle Harrison is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and might be undervalued in redraft leagues. Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 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, @CTowersCBS, @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 in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 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

Two players you want to hear more about Mikel Garcia and Kyle Harrison. Up next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT&5 on Saturday, February 24th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White, and let's talk about Mikel Garcia, likely to be the starting third baseman for the Kansas City Royals. And if you remember, on our third base preview, I made the claim that Garcia could be this year's Nico Horner.

the ball hard, hits a lot of line drives, he's fast, he seals bases, plays on a team that wants to run. Scott, what do you think about Mikel Garcia? Well, I think it's a good thing he plays for the Royals, first of all. It seems like a utility infielder profile, but on the Royals, he is going to have a job all to himself at third base because they don't have anybody better. and so there's a chance he could make a fantasy impact mainly because he runs, he's fast enough to steal bases and he is willing to use it.

I think if you just look at the 23 steals he had in 123 games last year, it's easy to see him reaching 30 or potentially even exceeding 30 and that'll have value from an everyday player. It's also possible he bats lead off for the Royals. It's possible he bats ninth

for the Royals, and that makes a big difference, obviously, whether he bats lead off or ninth. But if he bats leadoff, then he could score a decent number of runs. He's not a... He has some pretty good on-base percentages in minor league track record, I guess. He reached base of a

323 clip in the majors last year. If that improves, then maybe he could turn into a pretty good lead-off hitter. But based on what we've seen from Michael Garcia and the majors. It doesn't look like he'll get on base enough in what figures to be a bad lineup to be like a run scoring specialist.

But, you know, he could score 80 plus, 85 runs, maybe. If he does get to bat lead off most days for the Royals, big if, but worth acknowledging from a potential 30 steel guy. And because he hits the ball hard, high exit velocities, because Michael Garcia has a high line driver, was pretty consistent with his minor league track record because he hits the ball to all fields, he profiles for a high BAPIP,

which should be a respectable batting average. I mean, he hit 272, his expected batting average was 274. That does seem like a legitimate part of Mikel Garcia's skill set. So it's a tough fit at third base, I would say, because normally you're looking for power at third base, and that is one thing Michael Garcia does not provide. but you could see a path here to him being somebody you don't want to take out of your lineup in Roto Leagues if everything goes right.

Let's talk about Kyle Harrison, one of the top pitching prospects in the game with the San Francisco Giants. He's 22 years old. And last year got a taste with San Francisco, made seven starts, a 415 ERA, a 115 whip, just over a strikeout per inning. Surprisingly, Scott, he improved the control from what we saw in the market. minors. A lot. And they let him go deeper into start, something we were not expecting. So those were the surprises. I guess on the other side of that is we didn't really see as many whiffs or swinging strikes as we wanted to. Right. How do you feel about Kyle Harrison this year as a potential sleeper? I mean, yeah, the talk on Kyle Harrison as a prospect, like heading into last year was,

oh, look at his K rates, 14K per 9 in the minors. If he could ever figure out how to throw a strike, he could be an ace and it looks like he figured out how to throw a strikes. It was his final three starts in the miners he went from having a 58% strike rate which is horrible. Those last three minor league starts

it was 64%. And then the majors was 65%. So it carried over. So it's obviously a smallish sample anytime you're talking about a pitch of prospect you're dealing with smallish samples but it was market improvement

in the one area that everyone said if Kyle Harrison does this, he's an ace. So why does it seem like his prospect stock has actually dropped? And you made reference to it already. As he was improving his control, we were also coming to realize that maybe his breaking ball isn't going to get, isn't going to be a big swing and miss generator.

He doesn't really have the secondary pitch that you would like somebody to have to be a strikeout pitcher. Now, his fastball, is great. His fastball gets plenty of whiffs, and that is, I think, the first indicator of upside for a starting pitcher is can he get whiffs with his fastball? Kyle Harrison can, but he needs to do some work on his secondary arsenal. The control, if it holds, was a big hurdle that he cleared. Can he develop a good enough secondary pitch to be more than a mid-rotation guy with the Giants.

But if you're talking about his downside is a mid-rotation guy, again, assuming this control holds, then you're still talking about a pretty good fantasy asset. And it seems like he already has a job locked up for the Giants.

Kyle Harrison in his seven-start stint last year in the majors, he had an 11 strikeout performance. That was the second start, six-and-a-third shot-out innings. So, you know, even with the concerns over his secondary arsenal, Harrison showed that he does have some bat missing ability. Again, that fastball certainly is capable of delivering them. I think he's being underrated in drafts right now,

not just as a prospect, but in drafts right now. And I'd target him just outside my top 50 at starting pitcher. Yeah, and the ADP is 264.4 as the 71st starting pitcher off the board. So yeah, quite a bit of a discount there on Kyle Harrison. For more extensive fantasy baseball, coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the Artesty app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.