Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Jordan Walker's Return & Oswald Peraza On Fire (6/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 Jordan Walker is back. Let's discuss on fantasy baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, June 3rd. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White, and let's talk about the return of Jordan Walker, who over his last 15 games at AAA kind of figured something out. He was batting 3-11 with a 403 on base, slugging 541, three homers, five doubles, one steel.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Plate discipline looked pretty good. as well. And Scott, I know you saw a few comments and interview about Jordan Walker, you know, talking about the things that he was working on. What did you find out? And is he a must add if he was dropped? Well, yeah, I think what changed for him that allowed him to take off like that was he stopped following the mandate to hit the ball in the air more. What he said in the interview was there's no point if I try to hit the ball in the air if I'm not hitting the ball at all. So he just went back to his usual approach, got his usual numbers. I have to say, you know, obviously it was reported all along that one of the reasons he was sit down was to work on

Starting point is 00:01:11 hitting the ball in the air more. But I thought there would be like, I thought that behind the scenes process was a little more detailed than that. Like I thought they were showing him how to hit the ball in the air more. And based on his reaction here, it sounds more like, no, they just told him, go down and hit the ball in the air more, figure it out, which doesn't seem fair. Like, that's not like a light switch thing you can just turn on and off. So I don't know what they were expecting. It just seems to kind of fit into the pattern we've seen with the Cardinals all year where they don't, they're not coming across as especially competent right now.

Starting point is 00:01:52 And I don't know if it's just a string of bad decisions or, I don't know. They've been a highly regarded organization for a long time, but weird stuff. But yeah, exciting Jordan Walker's back. And, you know, obviously he didn't exactly live up to expectations the first time he was up. But he's dual eligible third base in the outfields. He's arguably the top prospect of baseball still. And I think if you can afford to roster him, absolutely should. Again, he is 70% rostered.

Starting point is 00:02:19 So Jordan Walker could be out there in some shallower leagues. Let's get to your five prospects on the verge of getting called up. Ellie De La Cruz and Christian and Carnaccio both with the Cincinnati Reds, Ronnie Maricio with the Mets, Colton Couser with the Orioles, and Gavin Williams with the Guardians. It feels like every week, Scott,

Starting point is 00:02:40 we're here talking about these Reds prospects. When are they going to get the call? I think there's a little bit more smoke because we're seeing these articles come out about Jonathan India's availability and they might be looking to trade him. I think we're getting closer. I just, I don't know if we're there yet.

Starting point is 00:02:57 What are your latest thoughts on Ellie Dela Cruz? Yeah, I've noticed just in this last week, the folks on the Reds beat have basically come to the consensus. It'll be very soon for Elie Dela Cruz. And specifically, I noticed that the conversation around him has gone from, will he come up or won't he to what happens to the Reds infield when he comes up? I saw three different Reds beat writers basically write that same. article talking about Jonathan India, et cetera.

Starting point is 00:03:32 So it's going to be soon. We've seen L.A. Dela Cruz's plate discipline and improved dramatically. And so it should be soon. The other name I just wanted to ask you about real quick, Scott, before we sign off here, is Oswald Paraza. I know you wrote about him in your prospect report as well. And we're recording this on Thursday night.

Starting point is 00:03:52 He had another home run on Thursday. He now has something like 10, homers in his past 14 games in the minors, and he's crushing it right now. I just don't know where Oswald Parraza could fit in with the Yankees. Josh Donaldson coming back over the weekend, they still have Anthony Volpe. I don't think they're ready to pull the plug on Volpe yet. Do you see a way that Oswald Paraza works his way back in? I don't see exactly where the Yankees would put Oswald Parazza now, especially.

Starting point is 00:04:20 They just have had Josh Donaldson coming off the aisle. So things are even more crowded now. and we might have to wait for an injury to see him again. The thing is, as productive as he's been at AAA and it's been great, I don't think the buy-in will be as high on his return trip to the majors. It's hard to recapture that hype from the initial call-up, and obviously he disappointed us last time we saw him. It doesn't mean he can't go on to have a great career,

Starting point is 00:04:49 but I don't see him as a particularly high-priority stash, at least not relative to those other five names you rattled off. Ronnie Maricio, for instance, I think he is more likely to be up for the Mets before Parraza is for the Yankees. There's been some talk, some reports recently, that Ronnie Maricio could take over at second base with Jeff McNeil coming a full-time left-fielder.

Starting point is 00:05:14 So that may be happening soon. Also, Colton Couser, who's currently hurt, supposed to be back in the matter of days. Cedric Mullins just went on the aisle with a groin injury, though. And they're going to need to replace this production somehow. It's not going to be Aaron Hicks, I'll tell you that much. So I think once Colton Kouser is back in a matter of days,

Starting point is 00:05:35 they'll speed up his timeline to get him in the majors. 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 in Five. And we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye!

Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Jordan Walker's Return & Oswald Peraza On Fire (6/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

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