Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospects & Sleepers at the Arizona Fall League! (10/1 Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

Download and follow Fantasy Baseball Today in 5! You can find FBT in 5 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else podcasts are found. The Welsh is back to help us break down the Arizona Fall League? Who are the top prospects competing this year? Who are the sleepers to pay attention to? Which prospects have the most to gain? Who is The Welsh going to be watching most out in Arizona? 'Fantasy Baseball Today in 5' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank 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/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 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

The Arizona Fall League starts on Monday. Let's preview it. Up next on Fantasy Baseball, today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5. As always, make sure to follow and stream us on Spotify. Today is Saturday, September 30th. No, that's not true. Today is Saturday, October 1st.

I was looking at the wrong day. I am Frank Staple joined by my buddy, Chris Welsh, a.k.a. the Welsh. And you're going to be seeing a lot more of him in the upcoming months. Top five prospects in the Arizona Fall League. Jordan Walker of the Cardinals, Jordan Lawler of the Diamondbacks, Noelvie Marte of the Reds, Jason Dominguez of the Yankees, Zach Veen of the Rockies,

Welsh, what's crazy about all this? And for those who don't know, the Arizona Fall League, six different teams, they're made up of like all-star prospects, basically. Jordan Walker, Jordan Lawler, and Zach Veen are all playing on the same team. That is insane. It is stacked. And you said it right. It's five teams or six teams that encompass five major league teams with some of their best prospects out there. And it is littered at the top with awesome, awesome hitters. Jordan Lawler, probably the most prolific name if you really think about it.

From a fantasy perspective, 39 stolen bases, 16 homers. Jordan Walker probably going to break camp with the Cardinals' Excheonier as an outfielder. This is going to be an opportunity for him to show off some of those skills and why he could break camp. Zach Veen stealing all the bases. And how about Jason Dominguez? How about Jason Dominguez? When people are writing him off, the comeback getting all the way up to AA, this is going to be an opportunity to really shine a big light on the Martian, the guy who was one of the biggest names in minor league baseball, and we're going to kind of probably hopefully get back to that.

Yeah, and there's a bunch of other big names going to be at the Arizona Fall League as well. Henry Davis of the Pirates, Robert Hassel of the Nationals, Quinn Priester, also with the Pirates, Brennan Davis, he has a lot to prove here with the Chicago Cubs. Kumar Rocker. This is going to be the first time that we've seen Kumar Rocker with a professional, you know, in a professional setting. He hasn't played in the minor leagues yet. So it's going to be really interesting to track all these prospects and see what they do. Well, also I know you put together a few categories here. You have prospects with the most a gain. You've got some sleepers and you have names that you are paying most attention to. Which prospects fall into each of those categories? You're 100% right,

my friend. There's so much. And really, if you guys want to dive down a rabbit hole, go and look at these rosters and see because what these guys and what this league is, even though it's not televised across the board, it's going to give people the opportunity for you to take advantage of guys that are going to improve their stock or even hurt it a little bit in the off season when minor league season's not going on. And there are guys that have a lot to gain. One of those is Matt Mervis with the Chicago Cubs. Matt Mervis, this last minor league season, kind of an unknown name, hit 309, had a 600 slugging, 36 homers he hit in the minor league with 40 doubles. He's now going to go in, more of an advance hitter in a place where the Cubs actually had the AFL MVP last year, Sloan, where they're

hitting the Cubs training spring training facility, the very hitter-friendly park. You got a guy that just had 76 doubles and homers combined that's going to go into a bad pitching environment. In the minor leagues last year, he moved three levels. He improved his strikeout percentage every single level. It's crazy impressive. I think he's a guy that has a lot to gain, could break camp and is going to be a huge riser. Jordan Walker, who we mentioned. He's going to be moving to the outfield. This is going to be an opportunity for his bat to thrive and to show that that right field, which most likely he's going to play is going to be his destination. And there's a lot, a lot to gain from a fantasy value perspective, though his value was already up.

And Brennan Davis, you know, Brennan Davis really has fallen off the mark, got hurt, did have a bad minor league season. He ended it pretty well in the actual minor leagues. But this is an opportunity to stay healthy, be in his own home ballpark again, and reprove that fantasy value, which maybe would be him breaking camp with the Cubs if they don't sign a bunch of guys. So those are guys that have most to gain. If you're looking for some sleepers, two guys that might not be on your radar, Colt Keith with the Detroit Tigers, not a ton this last season.

season. Under 200 of bats, though, he hit 301, nine homers, four stolen bases, makes a ton of contact, and he's going to get an opportunity to thrive as well. Nico Cavadas with the Boston Red Sox. He had one of the highest hard hit percentages, according to some other place, if you go to Rotowires hard hit data, he had a 39% hard hit rate. That is going to play in the Arizona Fall League. We got, you know, no humidity, you've got dry skies at night, the ball's going to fly. This is a guy that is going to jump back up and has some sleeper capability. Guys that I'm going to be watching, though, Jason Dominguez. He had a huge, huge season that was a big bounce back.

And I think this is an opportunity where you could have bought low last year. If you are not sold, this good rise that he could have in the Arizona Falle, he could just re-boost that value and it might help you move off if that's what you want to do. But maybe guys like me that are going to be out there every day are going to be able to see something more that reproves not the just great prospect, but maybe he can get back to being this elite prospect that we all assumed. Kumar Rocker, who you mentioned, this is it. He's been out here in the complex level, not even throwing an instructs. This is going to be the first time we're going to see him outside of the slider and fastball

to see how the Rangers have worked with him and the development of the changeup. This is going to be huge because in first year player drafts, nobody wants any pitchers. They want to move completely away from it. Kumar Rocker, if he pitches really well in a points league format, you could see him go near the top, maybe not even at the very top. I wouldn't even discount that. and a really, really deep guy who qualifies as a sleeper and someone I'm going to be paying attention to. A little bit of a homer as a Diamondback fan.

Davis-Land-Dales Santos with the Arizona Diamondbacks had a phenomenal minor league season at only 19 years old, 22 homers, five stolen bases, one of those few under 20-year-olds that can hit 20 homers, hit 306 and move multiple levels. He's going to be one of the youngest players in the AFL, Davis-on-Dalas Santos. I'll be watching him, and you should too. And there's like a gazillion other guys for him that we should be paying. attention to in the AFL. Hey, two names I need you to pay attention to for me, Welsh. Edward Julian of the Minnesota Twins,

I'm really, really interested in hint. Warming Burnabelle is a name in the Rockies organization, too, that didn't really know much about them, but I looked into its minor league profile. Just massive numbers. So two names there that I'm paying attention to as well. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast,

Stitcher, your smart speakers, or anywhere else podcasts are found. And thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today in five. back again on Wednesday morning. Bye-bye.