Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Rays Top Prospect Wander Franco Getting Called Up! - Emergency Podcast (6/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

Wander Franco, arguably the top prospect in all of baseball, is being called up by the Rays this Tuesday! What do you need to know about the 20 year old? If he's available, how much FAB should you spend to get him? Where will he move up to in the shortstop rankings? Who will lose playing time in the Rays lineup? 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today 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

Now here's Frank Scott, Chris and Adam. After losing 6th straight, the Tampa Bay raise have waited long enough. It's time. Welcome into an emergency edition of fantasy baseball today. Banged up Frank Stanful here alongside a returning Chris Towers to break down some massive news. According to Mark Topkin, who covers the raise for the Tampa Bay Times, arguably the top prospect in the game, Wander Franco,

is being called up and will join them Tuesday when they face off against the Boston. Red Sox, the 20-year-old, was back. adding 315 with seven homers, 11 doubles, six triples, five steals, and a 954 OPS at AAA. Chris, what do we need to know about Wanderfranco? And if he's available, he's 78% rostered. So maybe some 10 team leagues. How much fab are you willing to spend on Wanderfranco?

I mean, there's not much you need to know about him at this point that you shouldn't already know because like you said, he's 78% rostered. He's been the top player to stash in the minors. since the preseason, he was someone who was drafted in a bunch of leagues. He's someone I certainly have on the bench in a lot of leagues, and I'm really glad to be able to use that roster spot now, Tampa Bay Rays. Yeah, if he's available in any leagues, he is arguably the biggest pickup that you can make this season. He should be, you know, someone you're willing to do half of your remaining fab for if you need the help at shortstop or middle end field.

He's someone who profiles, he's a SWIFT, he's a SWATTS. which hitter profiles as, you know, both a very, very good rhodo player because he is developing over the fence power. He's going to hit for a very good batting average if he does hit because he's got an 11% walk or strikeout rate right now. But he's also someone who should be a very, very good head to head points player as well because that plate discipline is so good in 2019, more walks than strikeouts. And he was doing that as an 18 year old playing at a ball. So he's the youngest player. at either AAA league right now as a 20-year-old. He's 323, 601 slug, 977 OPS,

five stolen bases in 35 games. He's about as good as prospects get. We're talking about a Vladimir Guerrero, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna level prospect here. Yeah, and specifically for me, it's just a plate discipline. Like, we've seen other prospects come up, Jared Kelnick, who has power, has some speed.

He'll strike out a little bit, and we saw that kind of rear its ugly head, and that's why Jared Kellnick got sent back down. The strikeout rate for Wanda Franco, entering this season was never above 8% at any level. It's just his combination of plate discipline, power, speed, hit tool. Everything is there for Wander Franco. A lot to be excited about this year. The plate discipline, 7% walk rate, 11.5% strikeout rate at AAA.

And again, he's doing that at 20 years old. So that age-adjusted production is just fantastic. We actually spoke about him on Friday, Chris, because we were like, wait a second, Wanderfranco is crushing it in June. There's a chance that he's going to get called up very soon. And I guess, you know, Tampa Bay losing these six games straight, falling behind the Boston Red Sox.

That is what is going to do it for Wander Fricco. Clearly they were listening. Yes. To the podcast. I appreciate it, Tampa Bay Race. How far are you going to move him up the rankings? Because you mentioned he's good for both points leagues and Roto, and I agree with you. So how far are we moving him up?

Is he like top 15 already? Or were you kind of ranking him based? on the possibility that he could get cold up any day. Yeah, he's been in like the 20 range for me pretty much all season. I do have to do a pretty major rankings revision coming back from

a little vacation there, but he has been 20th for me before this. So yeah, I think in that 15-ish range, like I don't know if I'm going to move him ahead of Chris Taylor. You've got

Corey Seeger coming back from the I. relatively soon within the next two weeks, hopefully. So, you know, it is starting to get a little crowded in the shortstop rankings. It hasn't been, you know, the position that we hoped it would be, but it's getting better. So I think in that 15 to 20 range right now makes sense. And, you know, look, we have all these nice things to say about Wanda Franco. He seems about as good of a prospect as you can ask for. The plate discipline should help him translate incredibly well.

but as we've seen this year, one prospects, rookies are performing worse than they have at any point in last 30 seasons. We've seen guys like Jared Kalanick struggle. We've seen other high profile offensive bat struggle over the last couple of seasons getting called up. Joe Adele being another high profile example last season. So, you know, there's no guarantee that Wander Franco just hits the ground running and, you know, is a must start player.

My expectation is he should be a very, very good fantasy option moving forward. But it is worth at least considering that this might be the best opportunity to trade Wander Franco and turn him into someone like Corey Seeger because, yes, I do still think when Corey Seeger gets back in a couple weeks, he's supposed to start his rehab assignment, I believe on Thursday or Friday of this week. He should be better than Wander Franco. As good as Wander Franco can be, that's not an insult. So if you could do something like that,

I think there's still value in that just because even if he doesn't fail, like Vladimir Guerrero, his first two seasons, he didn't fail. He didn't get sent down. He wasn't, you know,

as bad as Jared Kellanick was. He wasn't as bad as Joe Adele was. But he wasn't an impact fantasy player. He was pretty replaceable. He was a solid guy to have around, but he wasn't making a difference for you. It's more likely than not that that's what Wanda Franco does. He's a good but not great fantasy player.

Maybe someone, trying to think of a good comp for him, but maybe, uh, maybe like a Danesby Swanson, you know, like the, the not like,

you know, Danesby Swanson has obviously been very streaky, but like the, the normal Danesby Swanson production, I think that's a reasonable place to set expectations for Franco, a little bit of speed, a little bit of power, hopefully better batting average than Swanson's given you,

but, you know, not necessarily someone who's going to carry you to a championship, but what makes him worth, stashing all this time. And what makes him worth, you know, that big fab bid is the potential that he has a Juan Soto, Jordan Alvarez type of rookie season. He could still run away with the AL rookie of the year. Yeah. And I like the point that you bring up about the possibility of shopping him. It's tough because we've waited all season long for him to get called up. And,

you know, I think he's probably the top prospect in the game. So there's, look, there's a lot of hype around it. But what's that cutoff, Chris? If you were looking for a player in her turn, You brought up a name like Corey Seeger. Are you looking for a top 50, a top 75-ish player? If you're just looking for a pitcher, is it like a top 20 guy, maybe like a Joe Musgrove, a Sandy Alcantara,

a Lance Lynn type. If I could get any of those guys, I would do it, yeah. For Wonderfranco. Yeah. Yeah, I think like if I could get a top 50 guy, I would probably,

I would think I would have to do it in that situation. And even like a top 75 guy, I think you would probably have to do it still. Yeah, and I hope people don't think they were coming off as like pessimistic, obviously, to front of but you have to be realistic with it too based on what we've seen from other prospects there's a chance that he is way better than every other prospect like many people

think there's a chance that he struggles a little bit I just wanted to end with what do you think this does in terms of the Tampa Bay raise lineup Chris like who's going to lose out on playing time here because looking at his games by position in the minors this year he played 30 at shortstop seven at third base three at second base so he can move around a little bit and I'm sure Tampa Bay is going to love to have more versatility, right? Like they need more of it. But who do we think is losing out on playing time here? Are they going to continue to roll with Taylor Walls at shortstop?

Is it they move someone like Brandon Lau out to the outfield and Wanda Franco play a second base? What do you think in there? Yeah, I think it's going to be a little bit of everything. This being the Tampa Bay raise, I would be surprised if they just set him at shortstop and say, all right, that's your position forever. But, you know, when Taylor Walls got called up,

my thought was, well, you know, maybe this is kind of them giving him a month to see if he can be more than a utility guy. And so far, he's looked pretty utility guy-ish. So, you know, it could be a situation where Franco, I think the expectation should be that they play him pretty close to every day, you know, 85 to 90 percent of the games at least. And there's no shortage of places that he could play. You know, Brett Phillips out in right field hasn't exactly been great. Taylor Walls, has been fine. So I think there's, there's opportunities there with Wanda Franco being a guy who can play pretty much every

infield position that I think playing time is not going to be a concern for him. And I would guess nobody fantasy relevant is going to lose much playing time here. All right. Let's get one of Vidal Bruhan next. That would be fun for the Tampa Ray's. Though he has struggled in June. So I think they want to see him turn it around a little bit and then maybe it won't be long before we see Vidal Bruhan on the Tampa Bay Race roster.

as well. Again, arguably top prospect in baseball, Wanderfranco being called up this Tuesday by Tampa Bay to face off against the Boston Red Sox a huge series in baseball and in the American League East as well. Chris is looking at moving him right outside that top 15, right inside the top

15, he's on that border at the shortstop position for fantasy baseball redraft leagues. If you can turn him around for a top 50-ish player or a top 20 starting pitcher, something that you should look into doing but a lot to be excited about here with Wander Franco for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching this emergency edition of fantasy baseball today.

We'll be back again later on. Bye-bye.