Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Prospects to Stash! Where Is Sam Antonacci? (4/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: April 15, 2026Max Clark and George Lombard Jr. are off to great starts in their respective organizations! Charlie Condon has returned and hasn't missed a beat. When might we see Sam Antonacci and Didier Fuentes? ... Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @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/ 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
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What's going on in the land of prospects?
We'll discuss on Fantasy Baseball today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Wednesday, April 15th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White.
Let's start off with the five prospects on the periphery.
They're making some noise lately before we get to our countdown a little bit later on.
But Scott, the five you have here, Max Clark of the Tigers, Kate Anderson of the Mariners,
Theo Gillen with the raise, George Lombard Jr., with the Yankees,
and Tanner Franklin with the Cardinals.
What do we have on this group?
So let's start with Max Clark.
We already have Kevin McGonagall up.
Max Clark is pretty close in terms of prospect rankings.
So how soon before we see him?
Well, he's doing really well at AAA.
He in particular is getting on base a ton.
The walk rate is very high and legitimately good plate.
discipline.
Power, you know, he's got eight doubles, a triple, but no homers yet, stealing a lot of bases.
He did show some power last year.
I think he's pretty close to a finished product, and I wanted to include him in the five
on the verge with Parker Meadows, their intended center fielder, expected to miss multiple
months now with an injury.
They have a need there, and maybe that was going to clear a path for Max Clark, and maybe it
eventually will, but they haven't called him up yet. To quote manager, A.J. Hinch, no, he wasn't
a consideration to come up. We've been very consistent with him needing time to continue to develop.
He's taken everything that we've asked him to do and has started to apply in AAA, and he's
gotten off to a good start himself. We obviously expect him to factor in more and more as these
things develop, and he continues to develop himself, but once C.L. Perez was the clear option.
I understand why they'd go with Perez over Meadows,
but they're also playing Javier Baez a lot,
and I don't know why that needs to continue.
So I'd still keep an eye on Max Clark,
but I couldn't put him in the five on the verge just yet.
Kate Anderson was the third overall pick last year for the Mariners,
did not debut then in the minors,
but he has now in his second start at AA,
so they put him straight into AA,
five no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts.
He is very close to a finished product already,
as a deep arsenal, Kate Anderson.
And there may come a point this year when he's in the five on the verge for as early his career is.
George Lombard, George Lombard Jr. of the Yankees, kind of disappointing, especially after getting to double A last year.
He's back there this year, make a better swing decisions, a great whiff rate.
Batting 469 so far.
He had five hits on opening day.
And I think three of his last four games have also been multi-hit games.
So 469 batting average, two homeruns, two steals.
It may not be long before George Lombard Jr. moves up to AAA.
Theo Gillen, Ray's outfielder, still in A ball, but high A.
And he's, it took an offer here on Tuesday, but the previous two games were both two homer games,
which is encouraging for Theo Gillen because power was kind of the last tool he needed.
needed to develop.
And we're already seeing early evidence of it happening.
He has great on base skills.
He has good, like barrel control, just somebody who should hit for average and get on base a ton, steal bases, like a great leadoff profile.
If he adds power to his game, which again, back-to-back multi-homer games, is a good sign of that happening.
Young enough, obviously, where it's, it wouldn't be that surprising to see it happen.
and Theo Gillen might be a big riser this year.
And then finally, the name that is least known in prospect circles,
Tanner Franklin of the Cardinals,
who was not very good in college in particular,
struggled with control,
but the Cardinals invested a second round picking him anyway last year
because they thought the stuff was that good.
Lo and behold, here at High A,
already has 16 strikeouts in just six and two.
thirds innings.
And he's thrown enough strikes.
He's got a great fastball optimal approach angle and the sort of ride that's going to
make it a swing and miss offering on its own.
And the cutter might be even better.
So the stuff is definitely there.
You're seeing it in the strikeouts.
Just got to throw enough strikes so far.
Tanner Franklin at high A is doing that.
Back to George Lombard Jr.
Just for a second here, he was going up against Zach Wheeler on Tuesday night.
Zach Wheeler rehabbing down in AA right now.
And Zach Wheeler faced George Lombard a few.
times in that game. And he said, quote, he was taking good swings all night. You could tell he's a good
strong kid. He has a good bat path. Good bat path. He's going to be a good player. Hopefully I don't
have to face him too much. So pretty high praise from one of the best pictures of his generation.
Again, that was Zach Wheeler there talking about facing George Lombard Jr. Let's take a quick break and we'll
be back right after this. Welcome back in. FBT Express. Five prospects on the verge of getting called up.
These are names that you could look to stash right now, if you so please.
And we will count them down with number five, Charlie Condon of the Rockies.
Charlie Condon, remember last we talked about him, he was coming back from having a cyst removed in his back,
which seems surprising to me that he was already coming back that soon.
But in his second game back, he had three hits in a home run.
And then later, Sunday, he had three hits in a home run again.
So he has seemed to pick up right where he left off, is slashing 325, 438, 675.
After a huge spring, remember, the exit velocities look great.
The strikeout walk numbers look great.
He is swinging and missing more than you'd like in the zone on actual strikes.
So that does, if you're looking for a red flag, that's the one for Charlie Condon, but everything else looks great.
And obviously it wouldn't take much to get him in the Rockies lineup.
Moving on to number four, we have Peyton Tolly.
of the in the Red Sox organization.
I know he's off to a great start as well.
Yeah, his first start was a little shaky,
but the next two have been very good.
Five shoutout innings in the latest one with six strikeouts to one walk.
He is throwing more sinkers and cutters this year
to go with that great four-seem fastball,
which probably does need some different looks.
The little bit we saw of him in the majors last year didn't go well.
But that fastball is such a weapon on its own,
and totally AAA is shone.
is showing he's he's going to be the first up when the Red Sox have a rotation opening.
Number three is Sam Antinacci of the White Sox.
We got a report last weekend that he was getting called up.
Where is he? Scott, where is Sam Antenachi?
Apparently, they decided against calling him up.
It was going to be on the same day here Tuesday, same day as Noah Schultz.
But instead, he got two hits at AAA, which brings his on-base percentage back up to 500 for the year to go with five steals and two home runs.
He was an on-base freak in the miners last year as well.
Playing a lot of left field, even though he's a natural second baseman,
White Sox have more of a need in outfield.
Honestly, the trading Lenin Sosa seemed like it might be clearing a path for Antonacci,
but not yet.
Still, where there's smoke, there's fire.
It's likely to happen soon.
Number two is Didier Fuentes from the Atlanta Braves.
Scott, do you think there's any chance he makes a start before Spencer Strider does
or they're just waiting for Strider to come back
and then the next opening would maybe go to Fuentes then.
Oh, I think there's definitely a chance
because Strider's got to make a few rehab starts, right?
They've already designated Martin Perez for assignment.
They may be able to get away with going with just the four starting pitchers
through the rest of this week because of an off day Thursday.
So Gide Fuentes may have to wait until next week to debut,
but I think he's the next time they're,
need a fifth starter.
I think it's going to be him.
He went seven innings in his latest
rehabs or in his latest minor league start,
which was just Tuesday.
Seven innings, only 83 pitches.
So it was very efficient.
He didn't miss as many bats as he usually does.
He had entered that start with 14K per 9.
And a big reason we've seen Fuentes make this leap this year
is because he has a new breaking ball that's awesome.
Slider when in the past he was more like sweeper and curveball.
Obviously, between
spring and the miners, it's gone great.
I think Didier Fentes will be up soon.
And the number one prospect to stash right now is Bryce Eldridge from the Giants.
And he has been ever since Connor Griffin came up.
He had been cold at AAA Eldridge, but not anymore.
Nine for 14 over his last three games with two doubles and a home run.
Still striking out 30% of the time in AAA.
I'm not sure he's ever going to get much better at that.
like six foot seven he's always going to strike out a lot but
he needs to go on the kind of hot streak that
makes it so the giants
can't justify keeping him down and we may be seeing the start of it now
how tall is he caught six seven
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