Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospect Report: James Wood Coming Soon? Zac Veen's Bounce Back (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 James Wood is tearing up AAA. Let's discuss on fantasy baseball today in five. Welcome into MTVT and 5 on Saturday, May 18th. I am Frank Stamfield, joined by Scott White and the five prospects on the verge of getting the call. Junior Camerro of the Ray's, Jackson Holiday of the Orioles, James Wood of the Nationals, Kobe Mayo of the Orioles, and Miguel Vargas of the Dodgers. Technically not a prospect anymore, but doing some interesting things and still. super young. Scott James Wood last week, five home runs in a three game stretch. He's improved the plate discipline

Starting point is 00:00:39 dramatically this season. A, do you think there's any chance we could see James Wood in the next month or so? And what's going on with Miguel Vargas in the Dodgers organization? Well, I will point out that my selections here are partly a consequence of there being like this recent surge of prospect promotions.

Starting point is 00:01:07 We've had a ton of them just in the last two weeks. So we went very quickly from having a real struggle fitting all the potential call-ups and the five on the verge to now we're kind of stretching to get to five. And, you know, Jackson Holiday, Junior Cominero, Miguel Vargas, they all have major league experience already. So there's not going to be the same enthusiasm for them when they get called. up, but James Wood, there is genuine enthusiasm for, I would say, with the recent home run, Benji's been on his, you mentioned how improved the strikeout rate is, and that's especially

Starting point is 00:01:48 encouraging because that was long thought to be something that would just be a permanent part of James Wood skill set. You know, big six-foot-seven guy, he's going to have a big strike zone, he's going to strike out a lot. but he's not anymore. And that's, I think, the clearest indication that he's about Major League Ready, but there is the issue of him putting the ball on the ground way too much, over 50% rate. And at least by the way Fangraphs measures fly balls,

Starting point is 00:02:18 that looks even worse for James Wood. His fly ball rate is only 16%. Very low, very low. So he entered last week with only two home runs all year. Everything else looked great, but only two home runs, you think, okay, this guy needs to elevate the ball better if he's going to get promoted. And then suddenly that was corrected because he homered five times over a three-game span. So still a very low fly ball rate for James Wood, but with the numbers looking as good as they are and the strikeout rate being so improved, I just, I would say that with the promotion of Paul Skeens and the fact that Jackson Holiday and Junior Commonero have already gotten their show. James Wood is among prospects who haven't debuted

Starting point is 00:03:01 and are at AAA, he's clearly the one with the microscope on him now. And that's going to put a lot of pressure on the nationals to call him up. They may wait to that Super 2 date, which usually falls in late June about a month from now, as you say. But they, I think they're going to call him up this summer. I think it's going to be before the All-Star break, unless his production just takes a turn for the worse.

Starting point is 00:03:25 As for Miguel Vargas, I kind of put him here because I wanted to highlight what he's doing. He's crushing it at AAA, or OPS over 1,000, 1-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio, power speed. It looks great. He's always hit really well on the miners. So I don't know that it's anything different for him. The exit velocity readings are still kind of meh. And that's my biggest concern about Vargas now.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Plus, he's in the outfields. He doesn't play Enfields anymore. So there doesn't appear to be a clear opening for him, especially with Jason Hayward coming back. But you've got to figure, high-end prospects, still very young, doing what he's doing, the miners, already started service time with him. Miguel Vargas is going to get a shot at some point this season.

Starting point is 00:04:12 I don't know what it'll take, but it will happen at some point this season. And so this is just a reminder that he's, he has intriguing upside and is young enough to make good on it still. Real quick, the five prospects on the periphery. These are names doing something of note lately. And we have Zach Veen, outfielder with the Rockies, Aidan Miller, shortstop with the Phillies, Zebby Matthews, a pitcher with the twins,

Starting point is 00:04:36 Adrian Del Castillo, a catcher with the debacks, and Nico Cavadis, a first baseman with the Red Sox. Scott, I know a couple of years ago, Zach Veen was the talk of the Arizona Fall League. Last year he dealt with injuries. There's lots of speed in the profile here. Any chance we see Zach Veen at some point this year at the Rockies? Oh, there's definitely a chance.

Starting point is 00:04:57 He's still at AA. It's his second year. Let's see. It's the third year where he's played a lot at AA. And the reason why he's back there is because the first two years went horribly badded well under 100. But it turns out for all that time, he was dealing with a hand injury that didn't get resolved until last year with surgery. And so I've, you know, Zach Feene, a lot of people were riding him off prior to this season because the production had been so bad for so long at AA. But prior to that, when he was still in A ball, you know, former high draft pick, top 25 prospect overall.

Starting point is 00:05:38 Like people went from loving Zach Veen to hating him very quickly. And I thought, let's wait and see how it goes now that he's back from surgery, now that he's had that issue corrected. And it's gone very well, batting well over 300. power, plenty of speed, walking a lot. To me, he's totally redeemed himself and is back to being a stud prospect. We'll see if he takes a step back when he eventually does move to AAA, which you've got to think is happening soon. But then once you're at AAA, you can get called up any day seemingly.

Starting point is 00:06:10 So Veen is back to being a dynasty asset. I also want to highlight real quickly here, Zebby Matthews of the Twins, who, as of this recording, had an issue. issued a single walk in the miners yet. And not only that, the buddy's throwing harder than in the past. Peking at 98, big 6 foot 5 guy, lots of extension. So his stuff is better and his control is second to nobody, Zebby Matthews. He's doing that at, I guess, no, no, he moved up to AA recently.

Starting point is 00:06:47 So he's facing legit competition now. It's a name to file away for those deeper dynasty leagues. Zebby Matthews of the Twins. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or anywhere else podcasts are found.

Starting point is 00:07:05 Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today and Five, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospect Report: James Wood Coming Soon? Zac Veen's Bounce Back (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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