Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Oswald Peraza Update & Impressive Catchers (8/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 28, 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. Could Oswald Peraza be promoted soon by the Yankees? Where are Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson? Pay attention to these young catchers plus Sal Frelick could make an impact for the Brewers in September.  '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 art thou, Gunner Henderson and Corbyn Carroll? Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball today in Five. Welcome into MBT and 5. As always, make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Happy Saturday, August 27th. I am Frank Stanful, joined by Scott White, the Five Prospects on the Verge. You might have heard these names before. Gunner Henderson with the Orioles, Corbyn Carol, with the Diamondbacks, Josh Young with the Rangers, Miguel Vargas with the Dodgers,

and Oswald Parraza, the shorts. stop for the Yankees. I believe that he is a new addition to this list, Scotty. He is. He replaces Alec Berluson, who had been on there for a long time, Cardinals' prospect, but with the way Lars Neutbar has caught fire for the Major League team, not so confident we're going to see Burleson soon. I think as Walt Paraza of the Yankees makes more sense, given the disappointing performance of Isaiah, Kynar Philefa this year. Of course, he never provided much offensively, but he was a defensively. but he was a defensive standout in the past, less so this year.

And Parraza has been crushing it at AAA for the past two and a half months, basically. Look at the season stat line and it's, okay, it's whatever. But he's been a monster since June 11th, batting well over 300, plenty of power, plenty of speed. And he doesn't have, you know, he wouldn't be a defensive liability. a lot of times young short stops that is a concern for them but it doesn't seem like it would be for Oswald Parraza.

Now, Brian Cashman, the Yankees GM, has downplayed the idea of calling up Paraza saying, I don't know that we'd have a place to play him. They recently called up Oswaldo Cabrera who is

a lesser prospect, more of a utility profile, and that's why they called, according to Cashman, and that's why they called him up because he has more experience at different positions and that's the role they needed to be filled.

So it's kind of, you know, given Isaiah Connor Folefa a vote of confidence, but I think more likely Paraza and Gunner Henderson and Corb and Carol

are all in the same boat in that. They are going to be up at some point in September, but they don't, when they do come up, you know, the idea would be to play them every day.

And they don't, the people running those teams don't want them to exceed 130 at bats and lose rookie eligibility for next year. Because the whole point of calling them up now would be to let them get their feet wet so that they can hit the ground running next year, be there on the opening day roster, and potentially put those teams in position to net a draft pick if those prospects go on to win awards over the next few years or to place an award voting over the next few years. a new rule introduced by the CBA to curb service time manipulation. And, you know, that's the buzz right now. The teams are going to start doing that with their top prospects, calling them up late the year before they otherwise would have called them up

so that they can be ready to go on opening day and put them in a position to get some draft picks, hopefully. I almost wonder, Scott, if this is going to work as almost like the inverse of service time manipulation that we've seen before, where we have to wait to see a prospect that season. But now, like, for example, say that the Orioles thought Gunner Henderson was ready in July. But now they want to wait until September so that you can still have that eligibility for next year, right? So I think this might actually be something that we deal with moving forward where, you know, even if someone's ready in like July or August,

a team might wait until September just to have that rookie eligibility for the following year, as you mentioned. So yeah, I mean, obviously it depends. Well, we saw the Braves call Vaughn Grissom up because they had a need and he's filled it well and it's probably going to lose rookie eligibility in the process. So it's it's never been an all or nothing thing. Right. Any kind of service time manipulation. But of course, I mean, GMs are going to act. If you give them incentives, they're going to act in the way that allows them to take advantage of those incentives.

So like I just I just think it's unreasonable to think they're not going to take advantage. of whatever you give them. But, you know, at least this way, at least this way, we'll see more top prospects on the opening day roster, I think, which will be less frustrating for fans. Yeah, no, that's a good point. Five prospects on the periphery.

Sal Freelick, an outfielder with the Brewers, Mark Viento's third baseman with the Mets, Blaise Jordan, a third baseman with the Red Sox, Edgar Quero, a catcher with the Angels, and Dalton rushing a catcher with the Dodgers. What about these? So, yeah, a couple catchers there who have gained a lot of traction this year.

Logan O'Hoppy, who the Angels just acquired from the Phillies and the Noah Cinderguard deal, he's probably the biggest breakout catcher prospect of this year. But the second biggest might be another guy in the Angels organization, Edgar Carroll, who you mentioned. And only 19 years old, but a switch hitter just seems to have really good hitting instincts, hitting for average, low strikeout rate, good walk rate.

Definitely somebody you need to be aware of in dynasty leagues. And Dalton rushing, I think this is the first time we featured a 2022 draft pick in this segment here. And it's the 40th pick of the 2022 draft. But like that just, like it's the Dodgers coming through again with this diamond in the rough, the way they so often do, keeping their farm system strong, even though they're consistently picking late in drafts. Dalton rushing has really caught the eye of scouts with his early performance so far,

handles the catcher position well, good on base skills, makes a ton of premium contact, hitting long home runs already a left-handed hitter for a catcher, which is always a nice bonus. So Dalton rushing could be a big riser in Dynasty leagues over the next year or two. Oh, and by the way,

I want to mention Sal Freelick of the Brewers, who was you included here. We could see him taking over in Centerfield at some point in September 2. The Brewers are currently playing Tyrone Taylor out there. He's not offering much. They're fighting for a playoff spot. Sal Freelick doesn't have a lot of power,

but good hit tool, speed. I could see him having a ceiling along the lines of like a Stephen Kwan, maybe even a little better. So even in redraft league, Sal Freelick is somebody to keep in mind. 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.