Welcome back to my weekly fantasy baseball prospect report at FantasyPros! The goal of this column is to give you the most fantasy-relevant prospect information throughout the last week, all in one place.
The format of this fantasy baseball weekly prospect report will be by level and we will go through players in order of their placing on my latest Top 150 Prospect Rankings. I won’t be hitting every prospect every week, but I will focus on the most relevant throughout the week and follow up on other notable players post my top 150. This column will not focus on any AAAA-type players or veterans in the Minors who have outlived their prospect status.
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Fantasy Baseball Prospects Report
Let’s dive into our weekly fantasy baseball prospect and rookie updates.
NOTE: Rookie status is determined by 130 ABs, or 50 IPs at the Major League level | All stats are as of Sunday, May 5.AAA Hitters
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- Season: .328/.391/.724 | 9.4 BB% / 21.9 K%| 11 XBH, 6 HR, 1 SB
- This Week: 8/18 | 6 XBH, 4 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: Junior Caminero is ready for the Majors and ready to destroy. Howeverm is Tampa ready for a player who could win Rookie of the Year?
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- Season: .327/.433/.467 | 15.7 BB% / 20.5 K%| 11 XBH, 2 HR, 8 SB
- This Week: 9/23 | 0 XBH, 0 HR, 3 SB
- Notes: James Wood is showing great discipline and has been hitting the ball hard (mostly on the ground) so far this young season. Wood should be in the Majors, but the Nationals likely don’t want him to finish near the top of the ROY voting because they would lose a year of eligibility. Otherwise, he would have just broken camp.
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- #30 Kyle Manzardo (1B – CLE) – Called Up!
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- Season: .305/.379/.629 | 12.1 BB% / 16.1 K%| 18 XBH, 8 HR, 0 SB
- This Week: 8/27 | 7 XBH, 3 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: Kyle Manzardo is on a three-week tear now and needs to be up in the Majors at this point; he’s been doing this for years!
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- Season: .323/.386/.662 | 8.3 BB% / 28.3 K%| 20 XBH, 11 HR, 3 SB
- This Week: 10/29 | 6 XBH, 4 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: Coby Mayo is off to a strong start XBH-wise. However, the plate skills need to look better if he gets a call-up, especially considering he might be battling Heston Kjerstad for a roster spot. He’s probably not coming up until the end of the year, though.
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- Season: .284/.425/.441 | 18.1 BB% / 29.9 K%| 11 XBH, 2 HR, 4 SB
- This Week: 5/16 | 1 XBH, 1 HR, 2 SB
- Notes: Owen Caissie might also be battling for a roster spot later in the season, but that depends on health and what spot might open up. It’s interesting to see some speed from him.
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- Season: .257/.373/.486 | 15.7 BB% / 29.1 K%| 14 XBH, 5 HR, 1 SB
- This Week: 9/24 | 4 XBH, 1 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: I compare Jace Jung to Nolan Gorman and he’s striking out a little too much like Gorman right now as well, but he had a pretty strong week.
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- Season: .279/.424/.462 | 19.7 BB% / 25.8 K%| 13 XBH, 3 HR, 2 SB
- This Week: 9/24 | 5 XBH, 1 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: Justyn-Henry Malloy (JHM) is looking to transfer full-time to a corner outfield spot and has shown the plate skills for the Majors already. Still, he needs to show good enough defense to get the call. He’s getting on base but is not doing damage right now.
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- Season: .287/.411/.461 | 15.5 BB% / 9.9 K%| 15 XBH, 2 HR, 13 SB
- This Week: 7/24 | 3 XBH, 0 HR, 1 SB
- Notes: Caleb Durbin looks like the next Jon Berti. But could he be more than a super-utility type?
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- Season: .290/.361/.589 | 8.4 BB% / 23.5 K%| 16 XBH, 8 HR, 0 SB
- This Week: 4/19 | 1 XBH, 1 HR, 0 SB
- Notes: I have never really been an Orelvis Martinex fan since the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. However, he’s playing pretty well despite the ridiculously high swinging strike rate, which I think will catch up to him in a Tyler Soderstrom-like way when he makes it to the Majors. The power is real, though.
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AAA Pitchers
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- Season: 23 IP | 39.8 K-BB%, 18 SwStr% | 0.00 ERA, 0.71 WHIP
- This Week: 6 IP | 7 Ks, 1 BBs | 0.00 ERA, 0.83 WHIP
- Notes: Paul Skenes will be a top-40 starter in baseball out of the gate and could be a top-20 pitcher now. His six innings showed he’s stretched out enough for the show.
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- #55 AJ Smith-Shawver (SP – ATL)
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- Season: 17 2/3 IP | 15.4 K-BB%, 15 SwStr% | 5.09 ERA, 1.36 WHIP
- This Week: 5 IP | 5 Ks, 1 BBs | 0.00 ERA, 0.80 WHIP
- Notes: AJ Smith-Shawver is starting to stretch out a little now with back-to-back good starts and reaching 99 MPH. He’s probably at least another three-four outings away until he gets a longer look at getting called back up into the rotation. He’s just been pitching once a week on Wednesdays.
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- #59 Carson Whisenhunt (SP – SF)
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- Season: 23 1/3 IP | 21.5 K-BB%, 15.6 SwStr% | 5.40 ERA, 1.63 WHIP
- This Week: 9 IP (2 starts) | 15 Ks, 5 BBs | 0.00 ERA, 0.89 WHIP
- Notes: Carson Whisenhunt only gave up three hits this week in two starts and generated a ton of Ks, pitching in the PCL.
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- Season: 20 2/3 IP | 19.3 K-BB%, 16.0 SwStr% | 2.18 ERA, 1.45 WHIP
- This Week: 5 IP | 10 Ks, 1 BBs | 3.60 ERA, 0.80 WHIP
- Notes: David Festa has been striking out a ton of batters in the last few weeks. The question now is if he is ahead of Louie Varland in the pecking order in the rotation.
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- Season: 23 IP | 22.9 K-BB%, 16.3% SwStr% | 2.74 ERA, 1.22 WHIP
- This Week: 5 2/3 IP | 9 Ks, 4 BBs | 0.00 ERA, 1.06 WHIP
- Notes: Clayton Beeter has had a really strong year thus far as a starter when it appeared the Yankees would make him a pen arm, ala Michael King.
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- Season: 26 2/3 IP | 21 K-BB%, 10.4 SwStr% | 1.01 ERA, 0.90 WHIP
- This Week: 4 IP | 4 Ks, 3 BBs | 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP
- Notes: Mason Black is ready for the call up, but the Giants have a ton of starting pitching depth. It almost seems like they will pull back on the innings at this point until they need him if a mid-longer term injury occurs at the Big League level.
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- #117 Nick Nastrini (SP – CWS)
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- Season: 16 2/3 IP | 20.2 K-BB%, 15.8% SwStr% | 7.56 ERA, 1.86 WHIP
- This Week: 9 2/3 IP | 12 Ks, 5 BB | 7.45 ERA, 1.66 WHIP
- Notes: Nick Nastrini got rocked in his first start back to AAA, probably a little upset about being sent down. Still, he was locking in on his second start, where he had six Ks and one BB in six innings with no ER.
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- Season: 25 1/3 IP | 15.6 K-BB%, 11.7 SwStr% | 3.91 ERA, 1.30 WHIP
- This Week: 6 IP | 7 Ks, 2 BBs | 3.00 ERA, 0.83 WHIP
- Notes: Richard Fitts is a player who could be up soon with all the injuries to the Red Sox’s rotation. He’s a solid back-end starter but doesn’t appear to be anything special for fantasy.
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- Season: 32 1/3 IP | 25.4 K-BB%, 13 SwStr% | 1.11 ERA, 0.90 WHIP
- This Week: 6 IP | 5 Ks, 4 BBs | 1.50 ERA, 1.50 WHIP
- Notes: Cade Povich didn’t have his control last time out but still managed to limit the damage. He’s sitting as insurance for a major pitching injury to someone currently in the rotation.
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- Season: 25 1/3 IP | 29 K-BB%, 17.7 SwStr% | 2.84 ERA, 0.91 WHIP
- This Week: 5 IP | 4 Ks, 2 BBs | 3.60 ERA, 1.00 WHIP
- Notes: Jack Leiter bounced back for a couple of solid starts at AAA after the bad start in the Majors. He could possibly be back up to replace Nate Eovaldi in the Major League rotation this week.
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- Season: 35 2/3 IP | 20.6 K-BB%, 13.6 SwStr% | 1.77 ERA, 0.95 WHIP
- This Week: 13 IP (2 starts) | 12 Ks, 1 BBs | 2.08 ERA, 1.00 WHIP
- Notes: Sem Roberese is putting up some nice numbers at AAA. I watched him a couple of times this spring out of the pen, and I saw him get rocked once, though the stuff does look faster coming out of his hand as there’s some Joe Ryan-esk deception in his delivery.
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- Season: 8 IP | 21.2 K-BB%, 12 SwStr% | 5.63 ERA, 1.50 WHIP
- This Week: 4 IP | 5 Ks, 2 BBs | 9.00 ERA, 1.75 WHIP
- Notes: Robert Gasser was activated last week and will likely require another two to three starts before the Brewers are ready to bring him up to the Bigs, which also depends on how well he is pitching in these starts. The Brewers rotation isn’t exactly full of studs.
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