Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Red Sox Are Promoting TOP PROSPECT Roman Anthony! - Emergency Podcast (6/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Oh yeah, it's time. The Red Sox are promoting their top prospect, the top prospect in all of baseball, Roman Anthony. Welcome in to an emergency edition of fantasy baseball today on Monday, June 9th. I am the returning Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White. No kidding. The moment I walked back into my apartment, Scott, from vacation, I saw the notification that

Starting point is 00:00:23 Roman Anthony was getting called up. So here we are thrown right back in the fire. Massive news. Let's jump right into it. Roman Anthony, 21 years old, top prospect all baseball, second round pick back in 2022, crushing it the season in the minors as he has for most of his career, hitting 288 with a 423 on base percentage,

Starting point is 00:00:43 10 homers, three steals, 913 OPS, nearly as many walks as strikeouts, and wait for it, 95 mile per hour, average exit velocity, 116 exit velocity, and Scott, perhaps all of this was capped off, with a 497 foot grand slam that Roman Anthony hit this weekend. So he's 82% rostered on CBS. Check those 10-team leagues.

Starting point is 00:01:08 Make sure he's not out there. 48% on Yahoo. I mean, do what you got to do to get him on your roster? Scott, what are your expectations here for Roman Anthony? I mean, hi, it's the top prospect in baseball. We've been counting down to this day for months now. he's like you said already 82% rostered in CBS so it at least for our core audience who plays on our platform it it's not like we can even say pick him up you've you've had him for a long time already the majority of you anyway my expectations aren't and I don't think they should be for any prospect at this stage given given how this has gone over the past few years my expectations aren't that he'll just be a total stud who wins you your league from today forward.

Starting point is 00:01:58 It's possible, but that is the less likely scenario. He does have tremendous raw power. You gave some of the numbers there already, 95 mile per hour average exit velocity to put that in perspective. Only the big three, O'Neill Cruz, Aaron Judge, Shohei Otani. Those are the only one major leaguers

Starting point is 00:02:19 with a higher average exit velocity than Roman Anthony had at triple. that 497 foot home run. He hit on Saturday. Only four Major League home runs in the entire history of Stackcast have traveled further than that. So like it's transcendent

Starting point is 00:02:37 different stratosphere type of power for Roman Anthony. But that begs the question, why don't his numbers look even better? They look good. But 10 home runs, you know? And a big, reason for that is he just

Starting point is 00:02:54 was too much of that hard contact ground ball rate 52.2% I know his pull air rate is pretty low and these are some of the things the Red Sox have talked about when addressing why he wasn't up yet.

Starting point is 00:03:11 Do I ultimately think they were the reason he wasn't up yet? No, I think they'd like to see them improve, but that's something he can improve at the major league level. I think the main reason he wasn't up yet is because they just didn't have a spot for him. They have a dedicated DH and Raphael Devers,

Starting point is 00:03:26 who they tried to move to first base to make an opening for him. They have a full outfield. The reason he's coming up now, Willier, Bray went on the IL with a side injury. So that's a lot of ideas thrown at you all at once. But what I'm getting at is this. If Roman Anthony doesn't hit the ground running, if he's wasting too much contact in the ground,

Starting point is 00:03:49 if he just struggles like we saw from Nick Kurtz the first few weeks. I think Jack Caglione was two for 21 to start out. I had a four-hit game on Sunday. It looks a lot better now, but two for 21 to start out. If Roman Anthony gets off to that kind of start, and if Williour Brayu ends up needing just a short stay on the IL, and initially they were saying they thought this could be a day-to-day injury for him. So I'm not expecting a long absence.

Starting point is 00:04:19 for William Brayu. Is there a chance that doesn't end up being a lengthy stay for Roman Anthony? I'm not saying that's the most likely scenario, but I do think it is a scenario that you have to keep in mind. If someone was going to bowl you over with a trade offer right now in a redraft league,

Starting point is 00:04:41 obviously dynasty different story, Roman Anthony. You probably want to give up that kind of talent in a dynasty league. But it is something to keep in mind. There is still, once willier or Bray returns going to be that long jam. Are there ways around it? Yes, they can move Seyana-Raphael at a shortstop,

Starting point is 00:04:57 maybe kick Trevor's story to the curb. Maybe they're going to keep working Raphael Devers about moving to first base. Or, you know, if Anthony's just killing it, and they decide not to restructure their infield in any way to make room from the outfield, maybe they just start rotating four outfielders in three spots. Those are all potential scenarios. But I do think there is some element of Anthony has to live up to his end of the bargain here to stick around. He's not going to get quite the same runway of some other big prospect columns.

Starting point is 00:05:32 All right. Before we hit a quick break, Scott, I just want to prompt you for this because I didn't bring it up beforehand. I want to get a high-end comp. If everything works out for Roman Anthony, what can this look like at the Major League level? So with that, I'll take a quick break. And when we return, we'll talk more about Roman Anthony right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. again, big news. The Red Sox are promoting the top prospect in all of baseball. Roman Anthony,

Starting point is 00:05:53 Scott, if this all works out, let's just say he hits the ground running. Ground ball rate isn't an issue. He's hitting for batting average. He's putting up some big home run numbers as well. What does this look like? What can the high-end outcome look like here for Roman Anthony? The high-end outcome for Roman Anthony. So the plate discipline is great. The exit velocities are great. I hesitate to say Juan Soto because his plate discipline is on a different level. Maybe like Kyle Tucker who doesn't steal as many bases. Something like that.

Starting point is 00:06:32 It would be a first round caliber bat, I would say. Anthony, I think he's stolen only three bases at AAA. So he's fast enough to play center field. I haven't seen exact sprint speeds. he probably could run more, but it hasn't been a priority for him in the minor. So I'm not counting on that being at least not a major part, maybe 12 to 15 steals over a full season, something like that. But yeah, it should be really good.

Starting point is 00:07:02 It should be I guess a Wyatt Langford type player, but with more premium exit velocities than that, which I think would make him Roman Anthony a borderline first rounder. Yeah, you mentioned he only has three steals in the minors this season. Had 21 last year, so perhaps there's more in the tank here on the base paths with Roman Anthony. While William Arbrius out, Scott, do you just expect Roman Anthony to play every day? Because I was looking into his splits in the minors. And this year and last year, he actually performed really, really well against left-handed pitching.

Starting point is 00:07:33 So do you think he plays every day while William Abraeus out? I think he'll play as much as he deserves to. So I think that's how it'll start out. Yeah, I think they'll give him every chance. to stick around during this period while your Brayu is sidelined. But if it ends up not paying a lengthy absence for a bray, nobody else gets hurt in the meantime. And Anthony doesn't hit the ground running.

Starting point is 00:07:57 That's when they may have some tough decisions ahead of them. I don't know if you've thought this far ahead, Scott, but just kind of eyeballing your rankings and talking through it, where do you think you're going to move Roman Anthony up to in your rest of season outfield rankings? So I've had him, I believe, around, 60th, yeah, on 70th, while waiting for him to be called up.

Starting point is 00:08:21 So I think I could pretty easily get him in the top 40. That would put him ahead of names like Tommy Edmund and George Springer, put him around Brent and Doyle. I'd probably put him ahead of Doyle at this point. I think, yeah, I think about, I think between. 35 and 40 is where Roman Anthony would slot for me, which would put him around players like Ian Hap and Elliot Ramos.

Starting point is 00:08:52 Obviously, there's more upside for Anthony than those guys, but he just got called up and we don't know. We don't know how it's going to go. So you have to kind of safeguard against the downside too. And I'm just seeing now the Red Sox updated their lineup here for Monday. Roman Anthony in the lineup, batting fifth in right field. And this is a pretty cool moment for Red Sox fans. Roman Anthony batting fifth, Christian Campbell batting sixth,

Starting point is 00:09:16 Marcelo Meyer batting seventh. So names that we've heard about for years now, finally all in the same Red Sox lineup together. Scott, if you've waited this long, do you just throw Roman Anthony in your lineup this week in weekly lineup leagues? It kind of depends what the alternative is, I would say. Most three outfielder leagues, since I'm saying 35 to 40 in my rankings,

Starting point is 00:09:39 that a 12th team, three outfielder league, one through 36, I can understand maybe not having a weak enough third outfielder. Like your top three outfielders are too strong for you to roll the dice on Anthony, not knowing how it's going to go. The only league I have Anthony in is a deep 24 teamer. And oh, yeah, I made sure to drop everything in that moment and get them in the lineup. But that's obviously a very different story. I was sitting, I think I was sitting like Gavin Sheets or somebody like that,

Starting point is 00:10:13 Anthony. So if you're able to go that deep, those are the kind of alternatives you're talking about, then yeah, absolutely get Anthony in. All right, Scott, I really just wanted to get in and get out here and, you know, obviously talk real quickly about Roman Anthony. Is there anything else that you want to bring up about him potentially before we wrap things up? I think I've said everything that I have to say. I don't think there's any anything that's been left out. All right, fair enough. The top prospect in all of baseball Roman Anthony is being promoted by the Red Sox.

Starting point is 00:10:45 He's in the lineup batting fifth tonight. If you have him, I think in most leagues you're going to go ahead and throw him right into your lineups here on a Monday. Let's get that done. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

Starting point is 00:11:00 And we will be back again later tonight. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.

Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Red Sox Are Promoting TOP PROSPECT Roman Anthony! - Emergency Podcast (6/9 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

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