Fantasy Baseball Today - Top Shortstop Prospects to Target in 2023! (Fantasy Baseball Today in 5 Podcast)

Episode Date: November 25, 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. Shortstop is loaded with amazing prospects! Ezequiel Tovar is the one most likely to help in 2023 redraft leagues. How can the Yankees work both Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe into the mix? When might we see Jordan Lawlar with the Dbacks and Elly De La Cruz with the Reds? '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 with the promo code 'FANTASYBASEBALL20': 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 FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 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

Shortstop prospects are loaded. Let's break them down on fantasy baseball today in five. Welcome into FBT and 5. Today is Friday, November 25th. Hope Thanksgiving was fun for everybody. I am Frank Sanfell joined by the Welsh. Make sure to follow him on Twitter at Is It the Welsh. Let's start off with our top shortstop prospects,

specifically for redraft leagues this upcoming season. And that includes Ezekiel Tovar of the Rockies, Anthony Volpe with the Yankees, Jordan Lawler with the Diamondbacks, Ellie De La Cruz with the Reds and Oswald Parraza also with the Yankees. We'll start up top with Ezekiel Tovar. Welsh, I don't think that he has the most upside of this group. And that's not why we rank him number one here. It's because he's probably the most likely outside of Paraza to start with his respective team.

Yeah, I think he said to bet. I think he's got the least offensive upside across the board. I mean, it's a good batting average. He had a great minor league season, even though it was kind of stunted by injuries. 14 homers, 17 stolen bases, hit close to 3.3. 20 and he got major league time suffering off of that injury, which is something I never expected. But you're right.

This is more about playing time because he's the only guy on this list who currently on roster resource is set as a starter, unfortunately hitting nine. But, you know, he does have some of those qualities. He had in 285 at Bats, he put up those 14 homers and 17 stolen bases. So your mind can start to wonder and what you would want to project on him, especially being in Colorado. He continues to steal and he shows the ability to hit like he,

did in the minors, which he didn't do with the majors. He had 33 at bats. He did hit one homer, didn't steal any bases and hit 212. If he adds on like he's done the last two years, Tovar is, of course, the only guy you're going to get real production out of, but it could surprise a whole lot of us. And he's coming at a pretty good cost, I think, right around 380P on early NFBCs. But yeah, he's the only guy with the actual guaranteed playing time with the rest of these guys are all big major questions.

All right. Well, talk to me about the two Yankees on this list, Anthony Volpey and Oswald Parraza. Parraza we saw towards the end of last season. They still have a lot of names on the roster. They have Kiner Folefa. They have Glaver Torres. So it's no guarantee that he is the starting shortstop for the Yankees. And then Volpe, I think he has a little bit more seasoning at AAA, but he could be up at some point. Maybe it's second, maybe it's third base. Let me know what you think about both of those guys, Volpe and Paraza. Yeah, from a talent perspective, I'm all about Anthony Volpe. I'm way higher on him, even compared to what he did last year. He had a really great second half where he started, you know, under 200.

The first two months, the next three months, he ended up putting close to 300 batting average seasons or stats. And he ended up with a really, really great counting stats across the board for what was considered kind of a mediocre season. He ended up getting his batting average back up to 254. I think he's a five tool player. I think he's a face of this team. Like you said, it's kind of far off right now.

Paraza would be the guy you would bet on if you're trying to get production now. I think the offensive upside is. better for Volpe. But at the end of the day, we do have to see what do the Yankees do during the offseason? Is Glaber Torres really on the trade market? Do they go and try to maybe sign one of these big short stops that are out on the market? That's going to be telling if Glaber gets traded and they don't try to go after any of these guys, I think it's open season. Both of these players are going to be up sooner rather than later. I think Paraz is a guy that gets the early run. But Volpe I think, I really think Volpe has a potential put up video game type of stats once he gets to the majors. That's how highly

I think about him. Speaking of video game type stats, that brings us to Jordan Lawler and Ellie De Laughler Loller with the Diamondbacks, Dela Cruz with the Reds. Both of those gents got up to AA as 20-year-olds this past season. The upside is massive for both.

I think we're going to be talking about both of these names for a while for fantasy baseball purposes. The problem is, you know, maybe their second half of the season kind of guys, June, July, August, something like that. So the upside is sky high. I just have no idea when we're going to see these guys.

Yeah, I mean, they're probably better for like draft and hold and redraft right now. If you're playing in those like, you know, 50, 50 player roster things or best balls, anything like that, that's probably the way to go. If you have minor league spots that you can stash, I think they're great stashes for the year. Otherwise, they're probably going to be players you're going to be paying attention to once May and June start to click in. Lawler moved four levels with the Diamondbacks. He touched four levels, dominated all of them, had a fifth with the AFL, which I think has been really telling. and I think they're going to push him really hard. But I just don't know if it's going to be in June

or if it's going to be closer to September, like what happened with Corbyn-Carrul. L.A.D.A. LaCruz, I think, has a little bit more seasoning to go, though they did send him out to the Dominican Winter League. And he, I expect, that could push AAA. I think both of these guys could start AAA. I think the Diamondbacks have the better potential to push further, but the Reds just got a stop gap, shortstop,

and Kevin Newman to come in. But if they're winning any games, They're not any rush. They've also got Jose Barrejo, Brayo, both, both really, really talented offensive upside players, but with just not a full line of sight on when they're going to be there, we have to put them in this spot. They're going to get playing time.

I think both they're going to get 2023 playing time. I just don't know exactly when it's going to happen. You know what? We could say the same thing about Royce Lewis, who is still prospect eligible for the Minnesota Twins and unfortunately has now torn his ACL twice in a two-year span, but when he played this year, he flashed that upside. He's got power.

He's obviously got a ton of speed. The problem is we probably don't see him until June or July. What do you think? Yeah, I think you're right. That's kind of the timetable that's going on right now. But you want to think about like how this team views him. It's part of the reason why Carlos Correa is gone. You know, Carlos Correa is not back because Royce Lewis can be the face of that shortstop position.

And if he's not super versatile, he played every other position but shortstop when he played in the AFL the prior year, there's speed, there's power, the leg kick he got figured out. It's just the injuries that are holding him back. So he's in an interesting spot where he actually might be, have a better upside in redraft this year than Lawler and Lale-Dalekruz and Volpe if he returned sooner. All those guys come up in August or September, Royce really could probably be the number two on this list,

but we just don't know what that timetable is going to look like. He could be ready for June, but maybe that's just ready to start working out. So cross our fingers. All right. 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. We'll be back again next week. Bye-bye.