Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Stash Riley Greene & Scout Mark Vientos (6/4 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 5, 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. Grayson Rodriguez unfortunately suffered a lat injury and will miss some time. Riley Greene should get the call when ready. Who is this Luisangel Acuña fella? What is Mark Vientos doing lately in the Mets farm system? '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 talk prospects, including an unfortunate injury next, on Fantasy Baseball today in 5. Welcome in to FBT and 5. As always, make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, June 4th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Five prospects on the verge of getting the call. Vinnie Pasquantino with the Royals, Riley Green with the Tigers, Miguel Vargas with the Dodgers, O'Neill Cruz with the Pirates, and unfortunately, Grayson Rodriguez. was on this list. He is arguably the top pitching prospect in baseball. He plays for the Orioles,

but he is now dealing with a lat injury. So, Scott, what do we do with Grayson Rodriguez? Well, I'm not sure yet that I'm ready to remove him from this list. Of course, the upside is considerable such that you feel pretty confident Grayson Rodriguez is going to make an impact when he does get the call. But yeah, when will that be? We don't know the severity of the lat strain yet. It's the kind of injury that a team should be pretty careful with because it's hard to feel confident that it's gone away completely. It's not one that if he's handled properly, it's not one that should alter the trajectory of Grayson Rodriguez's career

in a significant way. But we've got to know the severity. It's possible it means that it's very unlikely we're going to see him at all this season. But it's also possible that, you know, after the All-Star break or something. It's still very much on the table. So let's wait and see, but it's disappointing because Grayson Rodriguez

was tracking toward a promotion in the very near future. Among the others on this list, Vinnie Pasquantino, I think it's any day now for him. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't happened yet, given how bad Carlos Santana's been really the last three seasons, but especially this year,

and Pasquantino, we talked about him last week, he's gotten even hotter since then and was just named the player of the month for the International League among the home run leaders and the minors while making contact at a very high rate, close to a one-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio. It's really hard to find fault in him as a hitter, but obviously he can only play first base in DH,

so that's part of the reason for the delay. Riley Green was on track to make the opening day roster for the Tigers before fracturing his foot late in spring training. Well, he's back now. He started out as a rehab assignment. He's now just been straight option to AAA. So he's a minor leaguer now in the truest sense. But I think, you know, as soon as he finds his footing at AAA, it'll be a quick promotion for him, given where he was in spring training. So it's time to stash him again after that.

that long wait. Miguel Vargas, we talked about him last week, too, and there has been a notable change since then. Max Muncie's gone on the I.L. with elbow inflammation, and he and Justin Turner were splitting starts at third base, which is Miguel Vargas's position. Sounds like it's supposed to be a short-term absence for Muncie, but this is inflammation in the elbow where he has a torn UCL.

So, and obviously his production's been down all year. hard to think of that's not related to the injury. So if it turns into a long-term absence for Muncie, I think the Dodgers might bite the bullet and call it Miguel Vargas at that point. All right, these are the five prospects on the periphery. They're just doing something of note recently, and it includes Mark Vientos,

the third base prospect with the Mets, Hunter Brown, a starting pitcher with the Astros, Ezekiel Tovar, a shortstop with the Rockies, Michael Massey, a second-based basement, with the Royals, and Luis Anhele Acuna, shortstop for the Rangers, who Scott tells me is the brother of Ronald de Cunia. It's true. Yeah, it's true.

And he's looked a little bit like Ronald de Cunia this year. Very limited playing time because he missed the start of the season with the strained hamstring. But the power has been better than in previous years in the minors. He's only 20 years old. So obviously the book is very much still being written for Luis Anhele Acuna. but he's been stealing a lot of bases. He's been getting on base. He's looked great in that small sample

with the move up to high Class A this year. So, you know, obviously we need to see more. He's not as big as Acuna. Not that Acuna's that big, but this Acuna is even smaller, and he's a shortstop. But he's a good defensive shortstop. So that should help him to move up the ladder as well.

Yeah, some of the other ones here, Mark Vientos is a AAA now for the Mets, but he's a 22-year-old at AAA. So it's kind of understandable. He got off to a slow start this year. That very much changed in May, though. His production's starting to look more like it did last year. Where, by the way, win, by the way, he hit 25 home runs in 83 games.

So that's sort of like a 50-home repose, right? Over 160 games. Pretty close to it anyway. Feels very much like Pete Alonzo, but at third base. Not saying that's exactly how Viantos' career is going to play out, but he has that kind of power potential. And Ezekiel Tovar of the Rockies, who you mentioned, he is feeling a lot like this year's Anthony Volpe

in terms of being a non-top 100 prospect who is positioning himself to be a top 10 prospect by season's end. He's actually at the same level as Volpe AA, and he's performing much better than Volpe, with double-digit home runs and stolen bases already. And of course, being in line to play at Coors Field, that can't be a bad thing for dynasty purposes either. And then Michael Massey, kind of an overlooked prospect in the Royal System.

He's a 24-year-old at AA, which is kind of old. Professional career was delayed by a back injury early on. But he has good power and a good batting eye and even runs a little bit. And I think we could see him in the majors before season's end. All right. 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.