Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospects in the 2023 Arizona Fall League! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Starting point is 00:00:02 The Arizona Fall League starts this week. Let's discuss on Fantasy Baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5 on Saturday, September 30th. I am Frank Stamfield, joined by Chris, the Welsh, who will be out at a ton of AFL games. So if you see him, go say hi. I'm sure you'd love that. Let's talk about the top prospects to watch in the Arizona Fall League. These are 10 names that are ranked inside MLB Pipeline's top 100,

Starting point is 00:00:31 and it includes Colson Montgomery, shortstop with the White Sox, Carson Williams, shortstop with the Rays, Ricky Tiedeman, a starting pitcher with the Blue Jays, Harry Ford, catcher with the Mariners, Jackson Job, pitcher with the Tigers, Kyle Manzardo, first baseman with the Guardians, Jace Young, second baseman with the Tigers, Kevin Alcansra, outfielder with the Cubs,

Starting point is 00:00:52 Chase DeLauder, with the Guardians, and Kevin Perada, catcher with the Mets. Welsh Camie, one or two names here that you're most excited to see, from this list. Yeah, I'll definitely give you the number one is Toronto Blue J starting pitcher Ricky Tiedeman. That is like the most excited. He was actually one of the very first names I had speculated on and it made all the sense in the world because he missed so much time this year. This is like a potential number one overall prospect pitcher in the game. He's kind of competing up against Paul Skeen's. You know, Andrew Painter was kind of in that list. There were a lot of

Starting point is 00:01:27 injuries this year with him. But in those flashes, we saw, major strikeouts. We also saw some major walks in AA this year. He ended up averaging over five and a half walks per nine, but six, almost 16.5K per nine. He also had a really weird line of, uh, in 32 innings, a five ERA, but a two four X FIP. This is all just to lead to one of the most exciting pitchers who has just been hampered by injuries. The Arizona Fall League is a weird environment. It cannot be friendly to pitchers sometimes, but I'm kind of excited to see if he can pull up double-digit strikeouts in maybe three or four-inning performances.

Starting point is 00:02:05 So he's number one. On the other side of a hitter that I'm really excited about, he's actually a guy that's been out here in Arizona. Sometimes I get hyper-focused on players that I've never seen before. I could definitely say Carson Williams is one of those guys simply because he has these big counting stats with some worrisome strikeout numbers. But I'm actually going to throw a different name at you,

Starting point is 00:02:25 and it's Chase the Lodder because I think this could be an environment where Chase the Lodder puts himself in a spot. where he could maybe be an MVP of this league. And this is a high contact, 366 in high A, hit 364 in AA, strikeout numbers under 12% or 12.5 at high A. Low strikeout numbers at the point, walks are there, makes tons and tons of contact, and if he's going to be given the full throttle go on,

Starting point is 00:02:51 which is probably one of the better teams, the best team in the AFL, Chase DeLotter is a guy that I think can shine and can improve his stock, and there's quite a few prospects out here. Kyle Manzardo, Colson Montgomery, a lot of players that can improve their overall stock value in the prospect game. But I just think he's one of those guys that we might look back and be like, man, he did hit 380 here and he's up for, or at least vying for the MVP of the league. All right. Let's do a quick rapid fire.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Some other prospects that are going to be out in the AFL. I'll give you five names, Welsh. You choose one and give me a quick, you know, 20 seconds on that player. So first up, this group, Gavin Cross, outfielder with the Royals, Wilmer Flores, a pitcher with the Tigers. Jake Eater, a pitcher with the White Sox, Zach Dezenzo, an infielder with the Astros, and Max Muncie, a shortstop with the A's. The two that jumped out were Jake Eater, just to see him out here coming from the Marlins, but the guy is Zach DeSenzo for me.

Starting point is 00:03:44 18 homers, over 20 stolen bases, also hit over 300 with the Astros, big-bodied outfielder that should another environment where he could really shine. I want to see how much of that 2020 is real, what the strikeouts look like, and if he's making really consistent contact coming off of a fantastic year. This is another guy that could really improve just his stock in the overall market of prospects if he shines here. This next group includes two Braves pitchers, Darius Vines and Dylan Dodd, two Cardinals pitchers, Cooper Jerpy and Toccoa Robey, and Nationals outfielder Robert Hassel. Who are you looking forward to here? You know, I think Toccoa Robe might be one of the best pitchers here,

Starting point is 00:04:25 but I'm kind of hyper-focused on Robert Hassel. I have a background of him when he was a Padre. I've seen him a ton and I just had all these hopes and dreams. And they kind of fell apart going with the Nationals. It has been atrocious since he's been over there. And I want to see is that for real? Because I think this is the make or break point of his development because it has just been trending in the wrong direction.

Starting point is 00:04:46 Can he turn it around? Guys have done that before. When Royce Lewis came to the AFL, he was coming off of a year where he was hitting like 200, hampered with injuries and people were like, this isn't working. Then he ended up hitting over 360, was an MVP and we kind of know where that went.

Starting point is 00:04:59 I'm not saying that'll happen with the hassle, but I'd love to see where the improvements, if there are improvements on him. So he's kind of a negative production guy to see if things have gotten better. All right, last group includes Jacob Berry, an infielder with the Marlins, James Trianto's second baseman with the Cubs,

Starting point is 00:05:14 Alexander Canario, outfielder with the Cubs, Yvonne Melendez, an infielder with the D-Backs, and Benny Montgomery, an outfielder with the Rockies. Ivan Melendez, the Hispanic Titanic, as he was nicknamed when he was, He was in Texas. That's the guy that I'm most excited about seeing out here in Arizona. Just 30 plus huge raw power.

Starting point is 00:05:34 This is a guy that could hit double-digit home run power out here in Arizona. He'll be in his home ballpark. Comfortability. It's a guy that could rock it up. Could probably play DH now. We've got to see where the strikeouts are going to go. But he's going to shine here. He's going to create a lot more value.

Starting point is 00:05:48 So even if you're not into him, he's going to boost up. There's no, I mean, I'm telling you right now, I promise you. He's going to boost up in prospect people's minds. So his value might be. even at an all time. It could get a little bit higher, but an all-time high to trade in the off season if you want.

Starting point is 00:06:02 But I think this is going to be a good spot to see your next 35 plus home run hitter. All right, there you go. If you're crazy like us and you just need more baseball, this is it. The Arizona Fall League. Hey, Jimmy.

Starting point is 00:06:13 Follow some of the top prospects in the game. Some of the top prospects on your favorite team, whoever they might be. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, 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

Starting point is 00:06:33 after the season is over. Bye-bye.

Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospects in the 2023 Arizona Fall League! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

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