Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Elly De La Cruz On Fire! Ronny Mauricio's Improvements (5/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 20, 2023

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. Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Elly De La Cruz continue to mash in the Reds minor league system. Ronny Mauricio has made major improvements and AJ Smith Schawver is a name you need to know. 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

This past week, we got Matt McLean. When might we see the other Reds prospects? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into MBT in 5. Today is Saturday, May 20th. I am, for example, joined by Scott White. The five prospects on the verge of getting the call, Christian and Carnaccio and Strand with the Reds,

Jordan Walker with the Cardinals, Colton Couser and Jordan Westberg, both of the Orioles, and Ellie De La Cruz with the Reds. Scott, we know Matt McLean made his debut, this week, when might we see the rest of these guys, Encarnacian Strand and L.A. Dela Cruz? Well, I'm a little surprised we haven't seen In Carnacian Strand already. I thought he would beat Matt McLean to the majors. The Reds have been forced to play Spencer Steer at first base, and it's probably not the best thing. He's a rookie himself. Probably

not the best thing for his development, considering he can play third base, he can play second base. Probably don't want him confined there. And there's certainly a way they could rearrange their line of sending Senzel, Nick Senzel, to the out. field sending steer back to third base to get incarnacion strand in there he continues to hit for plenty of power triple a the one issue i see is that uh the plate discipline's been pretty awful his walks are about zero not exactly zero but about zero and uh maybe they're hoping to see some improvement along those lines but you know at double a last year his plate discipline wasn't that much better i just don't think that's a big part of incarnacion strand's game so i still think

it'll be soon. I have Ellie de la Cruz here in the Five on the Verge now because I think it's probably between him and Jordan Walker who's the best prospect in baseball at this point. He's young enough age 21 and

raw enough that there's a chance he doesn't get called up at all this year. But I treat the Five on the Verges these are the prospects most worth stashing in fantasy and that doesn't, like proximity isn't the only factor there. It's also how impactful will he be when he gets called up?

And I think we're at the point now where Elie de la Cruz is, one of the top prospects to stash. Because who knows? Maybe he will get called up in the next couple weeks. And you certainly want to have him already stashed away if he does, because the upside is enormous. There is not a player in baseball. Minors or even majors. He has the hardest hit ball in baseball this year, Elie de la Cruz. So there's not anybody who can do what he can do in terms of quality of contact.

Just look at what Dela Cruz has done in the month of May, 15 games, betting 339 with five homers, five doubles, five steals, and an 1144 OPS. And I said he's raw. I mean, the biggest area where that shows is the poor plate discipline, a lot of strikeouts. But that's changed over the last week. He's kind of flipped the script as early Dela Cruz. A lot more walks, a lot fewer strikeouts.

It's a small sample, but it's exactly the kind of improvement that probably looking for from him. So that's another reason why. Not a bad idea to stash him away if you can afford to. All right. Let's take a look at the five prospects on the periphery. These are prospects making some noise recently doing something of note. Ronnie Maricio, a shortstop with the Mets. Justin Henry Malloy, a third baseman with the Tigers. Jackson Holiday, the top pick, the second, no, top, he was the top two pick in that draft for the Orioles. A.J. Smith, Chauver, a starting pitcher with the Braves. And, Azar Prito, a shortstop with the A's.

Scott, what do you have on this group? Well, Jackson Holiday was the number one pick in last year's draft. He was, right? Yeah. Yeah. He's hit 390 at each of his two stops in the lower minors, low A and high A. And he might start to challenge Jordan Walker and L.A. Delegre Cruz for the number one prospect and baseball honors soon enough

because he's been everything, he was advertised to being in some. Ronnie Maricio, this is an interesting one, of the Mets. Shortstop has also played some second base. Is that AAA? So, like, you could say he's on the verge, too, if they have an injury up the middle. He's hit about 360 at AAA this year. Has Ronnie Maricio? He always had a good power profile, long limbs, big eggs of velocities,

and he's delivering on that again. But Baseball America gave him only a 40 great hit tool coming into this. season. Another guy with very poor plate discipline. And now he's batting 360. And his strikeout rate has vastly improved this year. So it seems like Ronnie Maricio has turned his biggest weakness there into a strength. And if that's the case, he's suddenly a much more attractive dynasty asset.

Justin Henry Malloy, we talked about him a couple weeks ago, great on base skills and showing more power this year in the Tigers organization that he did in the Braves organization last year. Speaking of the Braves, AJ Smith Schafer, the Schaver, with a V, AJ Smith Schaver, this is one of the biggest risers in the prospect ranks right now.

And in the Brave system, he started the year in high A, made three starts there, moved up to AA, made two starts. Now he's headed to AAA. They're clearly fast-tracking this guy with all the injuries they've had

to their rotation. Very good fastball. When he was drafted a couple years ago, It was very new to pitching, took it up late in high school, pretty much just had a fastball and didn't know where it was going. He's made big strides with the command this year. The breaking ball, the slider especially looks like a good pitch. Brace have had a lot of success with these kind of out-of-nowware prospects the last few years. AJ Smith-Shawver might be the latest one.

All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today, and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.