Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospect Report: Shane Baz Coming Soon? James Wood Is Back (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Could we see Shane Boz up with the Reyes soon? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, June 22nd. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and five prospects on the verge. James Wood of the Nationals, Noel V Marte of the Reds, Shane Baza of the Reyes. Kind of cheating. I know he's not a prospect anymore, but just barely. So stick with us.

Starting point is 00:00:27 Christian Scott with the Mets and Kobe Mayo will. With the Orioles, Scott, what do you think needs to happen for Shane Boz to get the call? For Shane Boz to get the call, I think the Rays need to decide that they're ready to turn the page on. Either Aaron Savale or Zach Lattel. Savale's just been horrible, so maybe he's the more sensible choice. Lattel's been kind of meth lately and has more bullpen experience, so maybe he's the right call because, you know, they could just bump up into the bullpen. Savale would be less clear what they did with him. But they're both weighing the rays down.

Starting point is 00:01:07 And they need to make up some ground in the standings. And Boz is much better. I mean, Boz had seemingly already earned his spot in the rotation when he succumbed to Tommy John's surgery two years ago. His first eight major league starts, he had a 261 ERA, 0.97 whip, 10.9K per 9. I remember this was a guy coming into 2022 was considered the second.

Starting point is 00:01:29 best pitching prospect by most publications after only Grace and Rodriguez. His ninth major league start was a disaster and kind of skewed the numbers. And then he had Tommy John surgery. So I think it's fair to dismiss it. And just look at those numbers that rattled off for his first eight starts. Really impressive stuff from Shane Baas. And his last three minor league starts here, his rehab assignments over. He got optioned because he wasn't quite ready yet.

Starting point is 00:01:54 But the last three starts in the minors this year, he's looked much better. It's got that fastball averaging 96, peaking at 99, like before the injury. The control has been a lot better, getting a lot of whiffs with the slider. Not throwing the curveball as much and it in the slider. He kind of uses both at a 40% whiff rate on each last time we saw him. So maybe he needs to mix in the curveball a little more. Does boss before the raise pulled the trigger. But he's cleared the biggest hurdles, clearly, in his recovering from Tommy John.

Starting point is 00:02:24 and we need to start thinking about stashing him in fantasy again. If I could just make a couple quick points here about a couple others in my five on the verge, James Wood is back from the minor league IL. Remember he was out three weeks with a hamstring injury, and he's come back playing left field. He was more center field before that. And Mark Zuckerman of Masson seems to think they're playing him left so that because that's where he'd fit in the outfield

Starting point is 00:02:55 alongside Jacob Young and Lane Thomas. Eddie Rosario has dropped off since then. He's kind of a wasted spot in the Nationals lineup. So they could use James Wood. Meanwhile, Noel V. Marte, not great numbers on his minor league rehab assignment, rehab assignment since he's coming back from a PED suspension.

Starting point is 00:03:17 But, you know, that kind of makes sense. Obviously, he's getting back into the swing of things. eligible to return Thursday. So I think he'll be back Thursday, regardless of how the next few games go. And could be an impactful player for you at third base. Yeah. Should we call that a suspension assignment?

Starting point is 00:03:37 It's not a rehab assignment, I guess. But yeah, I hope we see Noelvi-Marté when first eligible. That would be a potential boost in fantasy. Five prospects on the periphery. Lots of interesting names here. Jean-Censi Noel of the Guardians, Owen Casey of the Cubs, Brandon Sprote of the Mets, Bryce Matthews of the Astros, and Moises Bayesteros of the Cubs.

Starting point is 00:04:04 I read your article, your prospect report, which I encourage everybody else to do as well. Brandon Sproat, you said, might be the crown jewel of the Mets prospect farm system, even higher than Christian Scott. That's pretty high praise. Yeah, well, the, the, the, the, Mets are building a reputation as an organization that's good at developing pitching.

Starting point is 00:04:29 And yeah, Brandon Sprote seems to be the crown jewel there. His numbers in the minors, at last look, it was an ERA south of 150, and that's pitching most recently a double A. So he's not overpowering a bunch of 19-year-olds at this point. He's got a fastball that hits triple digits, blows it by hitters up in the zone. His change up is a true knee buckler of a pitch. And I'm seeing a lot of buzz for Brandon Sproats suggesting he needs to be mentioned among the best pitching prospects regardless of organization. So he's a big riser for me.

Starting point is 00:05:10 Jean-Kinsey-Noelle is a player who popped an A ball as a 19-year-old. put up ridiculous numbers then and got picked up in some dynasty leagues. The next couple years, he was exposed as somebody with bad pitch recognition, bad swing decisions, but a bad numbers. But that's

Starting point is 00:05:31 all turned around this year as he's advanced to AAA. Huge power. And especially over the last month or so, this is a stat from, this is an observation, I guess, I should say from Chris Clegg. Over the last month, his chase rate

Starting point is 00:05:47 is way down his zone contact rate way up close to 90%. Wow. And he's generating huge eggs of velocities. I think Jean-Kinsey-Noelle could make a impact for the Guardians. And like a Fran Mill Reyes sort of way, if you remember him. He had some seasons of note for fantasy. And yeah, I guess I'll leave off here with Moises Bayesteros of the Cubs. Really short, thick-bodied guy.

Starting point is 00:06:17 kind of an Alejandro Kirk comp there and has really good back control the way Kirk does too. Makes a lot of contact. I was watching some highlights of him. It's almost surgical how he handles the barrel of the bat. Like he's good at, it's not just haphazard contact. Like he seems to have a plan behind where he hits the ball. And that helped him hit for the cycle, even with that really thick body, his second to last game at double A. He's now up at AAA as a 20-year-old.

Starting point is 00:06:46 You don't see that for catcher. very often. Cubs are not exactly settled at catcher at the major league level. I don't know that Moises by Astero's is up to the challenge defensively, but he's a really interesting bat. 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. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospect Report: Shane Baz Coming Soon? James Wood Is Back (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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