Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Oneil Cruz Coming Soon? Scout Dustin Harris (6/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 19, 2022

DISCLAIMER: We recorded this episode on Thursday night, before Alex Kirilloff and Riley Green were promoted. Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. What's the latest on Oneil Cruz and Alex Kirilloff? When might we see them with their respective teams? What about Vinnie Pasquantino? Dustin Harris is doing big things lately in the Rangers organization. What's going on with Kahlil Watson? '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

Where is Alex Kirillov? Let's talk prospects next on fantasy baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 as always. Make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, June 18th. I am Frank Stanful, joined by Scott White. Five prospects on the verge of getting the call. O'Neill Cruz with the pirates, Alex Kirilloff with the twins, Riley Green with the Tigers, Vinnie Pass Quintino with the Royals, and Miguel Vargas with the Dodgers. we know Alex Kerloff is crushing it right now, so he's been in the news.

As has O'Neill Cruz, there was some talk about Super 2 deadlines, and he could be up within the next week. What do you think about those two? Yeah, I think, you know, first of all, the Super 2 thing, we don't have an exact date. We won't know the date until years from now.

So it's just kind of a guess based on, you know, the past, how, what exactly the cutoff is going to be for that? But it is normally near the end of June, and we're coming up on that now. So I think it's more likely than not O'Neill Cruz is up by the end of the month. He has been much better after a miserable start at AAA. There was no way the pirates could call him up when he was hitting under 200. But he's looked more like how he should have looked all along over the past month or so.

And top of the scale, exit velocity, you know, could be a massive power speed threat. if he makes enough contact. So I think if he got dropped in your league after the early season hype, it might be time to add O'Neill Cruz again. Kiroloff is, I might be almost as excited about him because the way he's been producing at AAA is,

frankly, as good as we've ever seen. As much power as we've ever seen from him if nothing else. And he had some great minor league seasons before, but he's just, you know, barely a day goes by where he doesn't Homer right now, clearly too good for the level. And we have hardly seen him at full health than the majors before. I feel like everyone's kind of over Alex Kiroloff,

but he's been playing with that bad wrist most of last year and then early this year, landed him on the IL. But he seems, just based on the performance, he seems to be past it now. and, you know, Rocco Baldelli, Twins manager says it's just a matter of finding an opening for him because the places where they play Kirillov, they feel pretty happy with the options they have there. However, Trevor Larnock has cooled off.

Jose Miranda, after showing signs of coming around, he's cooled off as well. And I think they might be on the verge of making a switch there soon. Let's see. Vinny Pasquantino, unfortunately for him, Carlos Santana has kind of picked it up at the plate, which he hadn't really produced since 2019.

So it's really bad timing. But I think the Royals are trying to see if they can redeem anything for him in a trade as the deadline approaches. And so maybe they're going to slow play it with this with Pasquantino. Obviously can't use him as DH because Salvador Perez and MJ Melendez are splitting time there when they're not catching.

Riley Green, it's going to be any day now. I mean, he had made the opening day roster before he hurt his foot. So I think probably the Tigers are just waiting until they're confident that the Super 2 cut off his past because at this point, why not? Fair enough. All right, let's move over to five prospects on the periphery. These are names that are doing something of note as of late. And we'll start with Dustin Harris with the Rangers.

Ken Waldschuck with the Yankees, Khalil Watson with the Marlins, Sadane Raphael with the Red Sox, and Joe Boyle with the Reds. Scott, Dustin Harris, you think there's any chance that we see him this season with Texas? I think it's unlikely.

He hasn't reached AAA yet. And he'd been kind of underwhelming to begin the year. He picked it up lately. He, you know, At one point he had nine home runs over a 21 game stretch after a very slow start to the season. But I should point out his start to last season was even slower. He had one home run on June 24th last year and then ended up having some of the best numbers of any minor league hitter.

So it seems like somebody who may heat up with the weather and impacts the ball well is elevating even better than last year. That was the key to his breakthrough last year. And he's done an even better job of it this year. He's eligible at first base in fantasy, but he's been playing mostly outfield in the minors this year, so that helps Dustin Harris. His fantasy prospects. Ken Waldichuk's numbers are ridiculous at AAA,

the strikeout rate, ERA, whip, everything. He's an unusual pitcher. He's one of those who thrives more on deception than pure stuff. So it's kind of a gimmicky thing. The slider does have a lot of sweeping action, and I don't want to undersell him. I mean, people used to say that about Joe Ryan and obviously if you bought into Joe Ryan,

you're happy with that right now. So it's a good idea to make an investment in Ken Waldichuk who's probably highly available in a lot of fantasy leagues, but he doesn't earn particularly high marks in a traditional prospect sense. Khalil Watson's on here because it's just been a disaster for him. He was one of the four big short stops

coming out of last year's draft. We weren't sure what order to draft them in dynasty leagues. Jordan, a Luller, Marcelo Meyer and Brady House being the others. They've all done fine, especially Luller and Meyer, but Watson is like the strikeout rates over 40%. He just still good tools there,

but there's a lot of work to be done. So I'd be a little worried about him in Dynasty at this point. And I want to mention this, Joe Boyle for the Reds. He has made, at least as of this recording, early Friday, has made all of 10, I'm sorry, all of nine starts in the miners this year. Nine starts for Joe Boyle, he's allowed 10 hits in nine starts. Yeah.

Wow. Way too many walks. So I worry how that's going to go for him at the higher levels. But when you're preventing hits in that way, clearly that says something about your stuff. All right. The name there again, Joe Boyle with the Reds. 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.