Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Adley Rutschman ETA and Daniel Espino Upside (4/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. Adley Rutschman is on a rehab assignment. When might we see him in the majors? What did Max Meyer do this week? Daniel Espino and Andrew Painter are off to great starts. Who is Moises Gomez? 'Fantasy Baseball Today in 5' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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

Let's take a look at some top prospects next on Fantasy Baseball's Day in Five. Welcome into FBT and Five, as always. Make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, April 30th. I am Frank Staple, joined by Scott White, and let's take a look at the Top Prospect Report. Five on the Verge. A new edition, Adley Rutchman, then O'Neo Cruz, Nolan,

Max Meyer, Grayson Rodriguez. Scott, I saw in your article, Max Meyer struck out Ronald Acunae a few times. It's just, what can this guy not do right now? Talk to me about the five on the verge. Yeah, it just so happened. Max Myers, a couple of his starts lined up with games. Acuna was rehabbing in at AAA, and he got him with the slider. He got him with the fastball. Those are his best two pitches, but he's been incorporating a change-up this year. The Marlins really specialized in developing change-ups, and he has been near untouchable at AAA. So I expect to see him up soon.

Same with Grayson Rodriguez of the Orioles, who's considered the top pitching prospect of baseball. But yeah, Adley Rushman is the new addition to the five on the verge. He actually moved to the very top of that list. Amazingly, rostered in 76% of CBS Sports League's already. People held on to that extra catcher all that time. But that goes to show you what kind of upside this guy has.

I mean, I don't, I don't, like, I think it's possible he might be the best catcher. or prospect ever. Like, former top pick in his draft, a lot of the rank list have him number one overall. I just can't find anything negative that anyone has to say about this guy. He excels at everything right down to being a switch hitter and drawing walks and working well with pitchers,

like everything. So, you know, obviously Bobby Witt and Julio Rodriguez is a elite prospects in their own right, and they've gotten off to slow starts in the majors, no guarantees. Catcher's a particularly difficult position to break into. But if you are a standout catcher, then you're especially valuable because there are so few of them.

And the way Mike Elias, the Orioles GM is talking, like basically as soon as they're convinced Adelaidey Rushman's ready, he's going to be up. I think it's sometime in May. I think that's happening for Adley Rutchman. I don't have any sources. That's just me speculating on when we'll see Adley Ruchman.

Two Orioles on this list. Better days are coming. We can assure you, Baltimore fans. Five prospects on the periphery. These are prospects doing something of note recently. Michael Bush with the Dodgers, Robert Hassel with the Padres, Daniel Espino with the Guardians,

Andrew Painter with the Phillies, and Moises Gomez with the Cardinals. What do we have with this group? Very impressed by what I'm. I'm seeing from Michael Bush. I've always liked him as a prospect. He's still just a double A, so I think he needs to make another stop at AAA

before we're talking about him, debuting for them. But he's already 24 years old, and he's always reached base. He's always shown excellent on-base skills. You see a lot of comparisons to Max Muncie with Michael Bush because of, you know, they're kind of first basemen who play second base,

and they have great on-base skills and power and everything. but Bush has a better hit tool than I think we saw last year because he got hit by a pitch early on and that kind of impacted his numbers. 297 from July 1st on. He's off to a great start this year, five home runs in five games. Daniel Espino already has a 14 strikeout effort in the minors this year.

He struck out 30 of the 50 hitters he's faced so far. Wow. He's just blowing everybody away at AA and showing a better secondary arsenal than he has in the past. but I don't know that he needs one because the fastball is so good. Andrew Painter also has a 14 strikeout effort in the minors. He was the 13th pick in last year's draft, but lasted that long because he's coming out of high school,

and that's obviously a risky investment. But he looks like the real deal already, getting a lot of those strikeouts with fastballs, which whenever you can get swings and misses with that pitch, you know the upside's high. It's got a long reach, 6'7, it sneaks up on hitters. And it's not like there aren't secondary offerings there too. It's pretty far along for a pitcher so young.

And I do want to mention Moises Gomez, kind of somebody worth keeping an eye on former Ray's prospect who's really fell on hard times the past couple years. The Cardinals signed him as a minor league free agent this off season because, you know, the race would let him go. But he's still only 23 at AA. I mean, it's not really behind pace developmentally, and he is killing it.

far. Already double-digit home runs among the minor league leaders there. And that last look, he was batting over 400. I'm not sure what changed for him, but we'll see if he can keep it going. That's Moises Gomez. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Stitcher, your smart speakers or anywhere else podcasts are found. And thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five. We'll be back again on Monday morning. Bye-bye.