Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Stash Royce Lewis & Jordan Lawlar Concerns (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 Royce Lewis, remember the name. Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and Five. Today is Saturday, May 27th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. Let's get into the five prospects on the verge of getting the call. Royce Lewis with the Minnesota Twins, Jordan Walker, with the Cardinals, Christian Encarnacion Train with the Reds,

Starting point is 00:00:26 L.E. de la Cruz, also with the Reds, Gavin Williams, A starting pitcher with the Guardians. Just want to point out that it seems like every Thursday when we record this, one of Encarnacion Trend or Ellie de la Cruz does something crazy. Well, Ellie hit a 450-foot home run, 117.7 miles per hour off the bat. Crazy stuff. Scott, what's the latest on Royce Lewis? When might we see him?

Starting point is 00:00:52 And I know Jordan Walker is heating it up lately. Yeah, so we're waiting to hear what exactly the prognosis is for Carlos Correa, who has a case of plantar fasciitis. And if he ends up going on the IL, then it would almost make too much sense to activate Royce Lewis and install him at shortstop, which is his primary position, of course. He's been playing some third base on his rehab assignment. He's still, you know, he's working his way back from a torn ACL, so I'm not sure he's quite ready to go every day.

Starting point is 00:01:28 And regardless of what happens with Correa, that might delay Royce Lewis's arrival. but he's hitting well at AAA. He's running. This is a twice-torn ACL now, and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down or impact his explosiveness. And he looked great during the 40-at-bat stretch we saw of him in the majors last year before blowing out the ACL.

Starting point is 00:01:52 So I think Royce Lewis, regardless of how things play out with Coray, he'll be up soon. If it's not a shortstop, it'll be third base. And the good news is, you can stash him and I, an IL slot currently. He's still technically on the IL.

Starting point is 00:02:06 So that makes him easier to pick up than any other prospect stash here. Make sure Royce Lewis isn't unroastered in your league. Jordan Walker has actually started to pick things up a bit at AAA. And it's good timing for him because the Cardinals outfield

Starting point is 00:02:26 has been hit pretty hard by injuries. Both Dylan Carlson and Tyler O'Neill, currently on the aisle. O'Neill could be out for a while still. The way Walker was going at first, there was really no justification to bring him back, regardless of how injured the outfield was, but if he can sustain this hot hitting a little longer,

Starting point is 00:02:47 maybe we could see him come back soon. I'm at a point now where I'm not sure who's going to be up first for the Reds between Christian and Carnacian Strand and L.A. Dela Cruz. Encarnacio Strand is two years older. but Ellie de la Cruz is the one currently on the 40-man roster. There is also a scenario, I think,

Starting point is 00:03:12 where Ellie de la Cruz doesn't get the call at all this year because he is so young and because he is, he does have such a high ceiling, maybe they'll want to go the more financially advantageous route of holding him back till next year. I'm not saying that's the likeliest scenario. I think we probably do see Ellie de la Cruz at some point, but my point is just that wide range of timetables here for him.

Starting point is 00:03:39 Could be next week, given the way he's impacting the ball at AAA, or maybe not at all. So it makes him a tricky stash. I think the potential rewards are so high that certainly in deeper rotisserie leagues, it's worth doing at this point, though I will remind everybody, L.A. de la Cruz has some pretty significant strikeout issues.

Starting point is 00:03:59 And then finally, Gavin Williams of the Guardian, So I think is the best remaining pitching prospect in the miners. And he's up a AAA now. He has like a 150 ERA so far this year, a fastball that racks up, swings, and misses. The Guardians had a lot of bodies ahead of him in the pecking order, but they've pretty much burned through them all now. So I think Williams is probably the next up when there's an injury.

Starting point is 00:04:26 And so it's time to start thinking about stashing him. All right, the five prospects on the periphery. These are names that are doing something of note as of late. Nolan Jones, an outfielder with the Rockies. Sounds like he could be up this weekend. Brenton Doyle is dealing with an injury. Emmett Sheehan, a starting pitcher with the Dodgers. Kyle Hurt, a starting pitcher with the, also with the Dodgers.

Starting point is 00:04:45 Jordan Beck and Outfielder with the Rockies. Jordan Lawler, you probably know the name. You should know the name. A shortstop prospect with the Diamondbacks, a big name. Scott, he's on this list for the wrong reasons. Yeah. Yep, he's hitting well under 200. Though with decent power and speed,

Starting point is 00:05:02 but he's really struggling here in his return trip to AA. Didn't look great when he moved up there late last year, but it was a small sample, and whatever, you're supposed to struggle when you first get to a new level, so we didn't think much of it,

Starting point is 00:05:14 but it's only gotten worse this year. The Diamondbacks are spending it positively. Adversity is good, blah, blah, blah. And I'm not saying you should panic about Jordan Lawler, who was a consensus top 15 prospect coming into the year. But hopefully he turns things around soon, because this is not what we expected of, of him.

Starting point is 00:05:33 Nolan Jones, very interesting numbers of AAA, 356 batting average 12 homers, an 1192 OPS, and apparently it's not just, oh, he's hot at a level where he's too good to be playing. He's made legitimate improvements, according to baseball America, much better numbers against breaking balls.

Starting point is 00:05:53 How much will he play with the Rockies once he's up? It's hard to say he was up earlier this year and didn't get a single-up bat. So for whatever reason, they just don't seem that motivated to use him. But it's more likely to happen if he's on the Major League roster. So we'll keep an eye on that. And yeah, I want to talk about this pair of Dodgers pitchers here. Emmett Sheehan and Kyle Hurt.

Starting point is 00:06:16 Both of them have excellent fastball. Sheehan looks like one of the breakout pitching prospects this year. He just has that optimal, that optimal. that optimal arm angle to create the rising effect that causes hitters to swing under it and he's got plenty of that velocity on the fastball and he just looks untouchable right now at double A and Kyle Hurd this is

Starting point is 00:06:41 this is a kind of a I don't know he's even more obscure obscure than Emmett Sheehan he last year had a ton of strikeouts high-octane fastball but the problem for Kyle Hurt, 7.4 walks per nine innings. This year, Kyle Hurt, 2.3 walks per nine innings.

Starting point is 00:07:05 His most recent start, he struck out 10 and 4 innings. He threw 81% of his pitches for strikes. So that glaring flaw that kept him very low on prospect lists coming into the year seems to be completely corrected. The Dodgers have worked their magic again. And Kyle Hurt, if you're looking for the next Mason Miller, it might be him. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the fantasy baseball.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five, and we'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Report: Stash Royce Lewis & Jordan Lawlar Concerns (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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