Prospects go up, prospects go down. Let's talk to the pros. Welcome in everybody to Fantasy Pros. This is the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. It is be Joey Pa Joe Pizapia, and today it's all about the kids. We're giving back to the kids. That's right. It's about the prospects, the ones that are rising and the ones that might be falling
in your Fantasy Baseball stock rooms. And nobody better to talk about that than the host of Prospects One, the guy who covers all the minor leaguers, the guy who writes for the Fantasy Black Book twenty twenty two, and our host here along with me on the show on MLB. It's of course the Welsh, that's right, the Welsh. A man of so many talents, so many hats, yet he's not wearing one today. And might I say, Welsh, the
hair is very exceedingly high. I'm very impressed. He gained a whole full inch here.
Well, we're trying well, you know, every inch counts show, and we're just trying to move it up a little bit. And yeah, it's it's been very big hat season. As my wife keeps reminding me, So we trimmed up the hair and as much as I cannot. Once this show starts going into April, will be a lot less hats. But I'm out at spring training. I'm out at all the backfields and stuff, so usually when I come back, it's just a disaster. So we trimmed it up we
thought would get good. We got a couple episodes that are going to be earlier before I hit camps, which I'm actually gonna be hitting a camp later today. And it's funny you mentioned the young guys and everything. Today's actually the start of minor league spring training, so we've had a lot of the prospects that have been jumping
into games. But minor league spring training action starts up really important because guys are going to be playing with their relative affiliates, so we're going to kind of know where some guys are going to be going, and we're just going to get a ton of prospect action and hopefully I will be their front and center out here in AZ.
Yeah. And look, the game has changed so much in the last five ten years. Where it used to be monitoring these guys, to putting them on the watch list, to drafting them late and now some of these guys are just gonna make enormous impacts on the twenty twenty three season. We've seen in the last five years, these rookies, they rock it through. You know, teams like the White Sox really push their young players. We're can talk about
five guys who are going on the upswing. Before we get to those guys, I just want to do a shout out to our audience, our watchers on the YouTube channel, our listeners, because we see you and we just hit a milestone this weekend, ten k on the YouTube channel in terms of subscribers. You made that happen. We didn't. I just want to thank you. That's a huge thing. In two years, we've gone from zero to ten thousand
subs on YouTube. If you haven't already subscribed, please do so because we're leading off is going to start in just a few weeks. Every single day we want you to be a part of it live. We've got a live mock draft episode happening with ten of our friends, actually seven of our friends, three of us because it's a ten team league, two of us and Scott Pianowski from Y'ah who's going to be in that league, So we're taking seven of our good pals from our discord.
Some guys and gals are gonna draft against us, probably kick our rear end because they're so damn smart. But I'm telling you YouTube dot com Slash and Fantasy Pros m LB. We've got some eat short form videos on there, We've got all the podcasts. Leading off, I just want to say thank you for supporting the channel because you guys are amazing. We see your comments and the activeness of you guys on the YouTube channel is tremendous and in two years Welsh, that's something to be proud of.
It's quite a bill.
Hey hey, I mean I will say that, like, you know, if we weren't having that type of growth, I probably wouldn't be here. So I'm really happy that everybody.
Well enjoy the growth of that hair.
Help helps it's insight.
But the hair subscribe to the to the YouTube channel.
There to put on notifications just like you guys should. But yeah, no, you guys are awesome. We should keep the channel going. There's tons and tons of great content here and you are going to be five days a week with Joe and I as the season starts, so I'm excited that ten thousand more and I hope a bunch more are going to be joining us.
And we've also got don't forget, we got the waiver Wire video every week, the trade video every week two in season. So we're there to help you not just in draft prep, but all year through and again check out Wednesday Live three pm Eastern on the YouTube channel Amazing Mock Drafts. Canna be really fun with our listeners because we love interacting with you all, and we're gonna try to get some more of those going. So if you haven't, go join our discord Fantasybros dot Com. Last yet,
it's really cool. Okay, let's talk about some prospects. Enough of that, enough of you know, glad handing and saying nice things to things. Let's let's let's talk about the prospects. And the first guy on your list is a guy from Cincinnati Christian and Carnassio Strand is a guy from Oklahoma State University. Rocketed through a couple levels of the minor leagues last year, went from A to double A
and two different locations. And look, the numbers were really strong last year in the minor leagues with those three different teams that he played for there in the minor League's thirty two homers, one hundred and fourteen rubies. Again, it's still, you know, not quite triple A baseball yet, but hitting three zero four with a three sixty eight OVP and a five eighty seven slugging is pretty darn good.
And this guy's having a great spring as well. He's sitting six hundred at one point, got a couple bombs. So what do you see about Strand's path that might be changing? And is his time frame potentially moving up?
Yeah, so I wasn't like the biggest, biggest in Karnashian Strand guy. Early on, he was in Minnesota twin he came over with Spencer Steer and the Tyler Moley trade, big hard hit numbers, kind of like you said, a little bit older, a little bit older. He's twenty three years old. I guess he was twenty two years old at like a ball. So I don't that's not something I like jump out at when a twenty two year old is dominating a ball. But still he was on the radar, he was moving put up a solid season
last year with the Reds. He hit seven homers in thirty five games while hitting three hundred. He's essentially been a two ninety or higher hitter at every single level. But then spring training has rolled around and he's being given an opportunity to rock with positions like with starters. So I was at the Reds the other day and their reserve roster was Ellie d la Cruz, Noelvie Marte, Matt McClain, Austin Hendrick. I mean, their entire huge, big,
you know, prospect system. Those are the guys that were coming in, you know, after the sixth inning when all the starters lead except think Carnelian Strand was starting the game had been starting, and he'd been starting at first, which was really interesting. Joey Vado has been injured. He just came back, but they had been giving him that spot at first to start. He's obviously also a third baseman this spring, hitting five seventy seven for homers thirteen RBI.
It's got a seventeen hundred ops in twenty six games. And in the game I was a rocketed a triple down center field, and I was just really really impressed with the hard to hit with the patients, with the bat speed, his pitch recognition seems to be on because
right now his bat is the working tool. Defensively, I think he's fine, but knowing that the team was working him at first base kind of tells me a lot Will Myers came to this team and doesn't look like he's going to be a first base option like a lot of you know sites will have him listed at first base. In that same game, he was out in right field, so they didn't even have an opportunity to push him there. It was Strand, and I really think
Stran he could break camp with the team. I'm not one hundred sure if it's going to happen because Vado did return, but them working him at first tells me that the timeline has moved way up. He's been one of the best offensive prospects or just offensive players in spring training, and this is a guy that just beats up hard hit numbers. He's going to hit one ten left and right. He's kind of like a Red's version of Brett Batty, and he's getting more of an opportunity.
And I think he's going to produce a decent amount this year. So as far as prospects rising, he's actually he was the number one in my most recent update over on my Patreon in This League dot com.
I'll tell you what's funny. You mentioned Beaty because I think that guy is going to get a shot in Queens sooner than later. He's looked terrific this spring. He'd be on my list. But I'm not doing a list. You're doing the list. But Batty looks. I mean that left handed swing, it's so smooth. My only thing within Cornassio Strand and all the video I've watched of him
is he's got that circular load of his hands. And that's something I remember in my youth, my younger days when I was a hitting coach, not professionally of course, actually was pressure. I did get paid, I should say, for the Major League, you know.
Money, but it's true.
I mean, you know, and look the camp that I taught at, you know, when I was younger, who was in Wallingspoort, Pennsylvania. I mean, that's the elite of the leap of those young kids who are coming through, who were getting looks in college. And you know, I worked with those kids and when they would come through, and that circular load of the hands, it slows you up
on some of the better pitching. So my only thing is is he gets and progresses through the major league levels there and the Triple A and into the big leagues. That that circular load, that it holds you up a little bit and some of the breaking pitches and some of the guys who can really, you know, throw at a higher level. That's my only thing with this kid. And it's funny because you would think at a place like OSU they would knock it out of him, and they didn't.
And I understand it's got an easy swing. I understand it's got easy power of watched a lot of highlights. I keep waiting to see where it catches up him and I think it will eventually. But you can't discount the results he's getting right now in spring training because they've been spectacular. So keep an eye on him. The next guy. This is a guy that I really like, Oscar Colos. We've talked about him a lot on the show. Again, explosive hands. This is a dude that we all know
how the White Sox are super aggressive. So is Coloss the next guy that they're going to be super aggressive with and see a lot of playing time in twenty twenty three.
Well, I think that's the uh I think that's the idea. I think like right now they've kind of set him and lined him up as a guy that's going to be able to take over the spot, and he's at a really really hot Spring. I went away from the numbers. I'll pull him up in a second. But last year he was able to move two levels. If you don't remember, Oscar Colas was like at the time, hilariously, they called him the cuban Otani because he was pitching, and we all kind of knew that was going to go by
the wayside. And twenty four years old, twenty three to twenty four, the White Sox just said we're going to go full time hitting. And he was able to move all the levels last year, from High A up to Triple A and he was dominant hit three hundred across all levels. Triple A was a little bit of a stink with as far as like strikeout percentage go. It went up, but he was around twenty to twenty three percent guy at those other levels. He ended up having over
twenty homers, stole a couple bases. He's made really really good decisions out here in Spring and the White SOX have left that spot open. They haven't gone and brought in a you know, the Royds run in like a Jackie Bradley or they just have it. They haven't gone and brought in another name that just universally will take over.
Plus they've openly said that they are going to have Eloy Funny enough, they said they're gonna have Elay Moore at DH and I think the next day after they did that, they put him out in the field before he went to the WBC.
I hate it so much, Welsh, I hate it. Just please stop putting this guy in the field. It's the worst. But continue.
Yeah. So, so with a commitment to him going to DH, what that does is that just leaves that spot open that they're not going to screw around with us. And so far this spring I finally got those up four hundred with a four nineteen OBP. So he has not been walking an over thousand ops. He's got two homers. He has stolen a base and that's a really unique one. I was actually with Oscar co Loss a couple of
weeks ago in an event for a couple hours. And he's a big physical guy, like a big upper half does not look like a guy that's going to steal bases, but he's still doing it. I think long term it's going to go away, but this is a guy I think that could sneak into seven to ten stolen bases this year, especially with that little bit of advantage on the speed. And I think he's a twenty plus homer guy. I've kind of been saying it since the early parts
of spring. I think he's criminally underrated. Where we put our focus on George Walker and obviously the other big rookies, this is a guy that this team is all but given it a commitment to. He's dominated in spring, which was key for them to stick with that commitment. I think it's going to happen. I think he's going to break camp with the team. Oscar colass is someone who has been rising. Just hit a homer, like I said two days ago, so hitting over four hundred in spring,
that is answering a lot of those calls. And that's one of those guys, especially from a redraft perspective, has been moving up lists. But also you know, it's pretty high up on my prospect list. If you're looking at like the long term future.
Look if for in any sort of startup league this year with Keepers Dynasty, whatever it might be. Co Los has a gout to keep an eye on.
I'm with you.
He's a twenty home run guy in the big League's quick hands again, this is why I keep it. He's got easy power, quick hands, get to the baseball. Yeah, there's gonna be some strikeouts in there, but that's everybody nowadays. So he just he's a free swinger too, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's just the way he's built, and I'm okay with that. He's not a you know, we walked I think thirty eight times last year, so
it's not a huge amount. So he's gonna go take his hacks and I'm okay with that as long as he keeps making contact at the raid he does. Next guy on your list is a Seattle starting pitcher employe. They've been good the last few years between Kirby and Logan Gilbert Bryce Miller. The next guy on this list
now Miller. Last year another one went from A to high A to double A. And you know, certainly an opportunity here when you look at the overall numbers in those twenty six starts that he made a three sixteen era one hundred and thirty three innings, so he showed you quite a bit, including a strikeout rate that was pretty strong one hundred and sixty three k's and a one point zero four whip over those one hundred and
thirty three innings. The question is, Welsh, what's the time frame and is there room at the inn for him? Because the Seattle rotation is already really good.
So that's a big question is what is the room for him? That I can't answer. I can't answer with Seattle, but what I can tell you is when there is room, he's the top guy. I'm pretty confident over Emerson. Emerson Hancock would be the next. There's also Prelander Baroa who Preland Burrow is really really interesting, got incredible stuff. I kind of wonder if he would go to the back end of a rotation. But Bryce Miller, when they're ready
to make a commitment, is the guy. I spoke to him in spring, and I've already mentioned this before, but one of the most fascinating things there was this big change in how pitchers are throwing sliders and it's more of a sweeper it's now called So a lot of movement over and Bryce Miller, who hit double a last year but he's twenty four years old. He had struck out their starting catcher, Tom Murphy, and I grabbed him after and I was like, I was like, man, what
was that that you threw? Tom Murphy said it was a slight almost couldn't tell. And he's like, well, and then he tells me. He's like, well, you know, the sweepers are really popular right now. So I actually threw a sweeper, but I'm now throwing two sliders. I'm throwing a sweeper which he adjusted, and then a gyro slider. And he's like, but what I haven't done is I
haven't found quite the confidence. But I have my command on the sweeper, which is hilarious because a lot of people might cite that sweepers are a little bit less commandy. Yet this guy huge movement across the board, he's got a big fastball, he's just got pro command. He reminds me of George Kirby. I think it's the same pass. He's cool, he's calm, he's collected. Last year, you know, ten k per nine across the two main levels. We're not going to focus. He had one start in Loway,
that doesn't matter. Ere was solid, got a whole bunch of innings under his plate, around one hundred and twenty, and I think he's ready, and I think he's got like phenomenal phenomenal command. And in the spring he's gotten to two games so far he struck out six over five innings. Bryce Miller is an absolute dude. He's also one of those guys that after a couple graduations, I think it's pretty safe to say that Bryce Miller is going to be an easy top ten starting pitching prospect
in minor league baseball. And if he gets an opportunity, if there's an injury or there's just some rotation open, Bryce Miller is going to be one of those guys. I'm very confident he's going to get run this year. But as far as prospects that are rising, and we're looking at pitchers when pitchers are not Andrew Painter getting hurt, that's not good. Bryce Miller is one of the few that's moving up.
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and use the promo code fanimal MLB. That's fnimal MLB for twenty dollars off your first purchase. Check out Fenimal and experience more. And now back to the action. Another guy's moving up as Ronnie Mauricio, the New York Mets who all of a sudden over the winter became a grown ass man. I mean, this guy looks completely different, and he was a younger prospect. We all know the international guys get signed really young and they're literally still growing.
And Ronny Mauricio came into camp and Ronnie and Maurisio has been hitting balls just onto another planet. It felt like this spring. I caught more than one of his at bats, quite a few actually, and it just looked like such a confident player. Right now, we know the power is real. This Mets system, between Viento's and Mauricio and Alvarez and Baby, it's a lot of good pieces that they can move, and if they do, these guys
might get a quicker path to the big leagues. But still, some of these guys might be so good you can't keep them out of at bats at some point. Now, Mauricio is not going to make the big club. We all know that. But in terms of his stock, I think the spring has gone a long way. But you've got him on your list as well.
Yeah, you know, this is one that I hadn't. I haven't made the big move on my personal prospect list, which again I do think we can talk about it in two different ways. There's like prospect long term and then there's prospects that can help you for redraft right now. But I have to give a deeper.
Look at redraft guy just to be you know, clear, for everybody like Strand, maybe Miller probably a little bit a year away. Mauricio probably not right away either, but I mean, certainly I think he opens his eyes. I'd say the.
Top three are definitely more redrafty guys. Mauricio is in this weird middle. It's so funny because I remember him getting time a couple of years ago when he's like nineteen years old. At the Mets, and he was so much skinnier, And you are right, he is a grown ass man. He got big and last year he put up big numbers, twenty six homers, twenty stolen bases. One of the most important keys is a strikeout percentage. Didn't go nuts. It was twenty three percent, and that's huge
for him. He doesn't walk a ton, and his batting average has kind of consistently sunk. But he's kind of sitting in as like this two point fifty hitter who can run and can hit big homers this spring, like you mentioned four homers with a stolen base, hitting three to oh four in twenty three at bats, four homers in twenty three at bats, phenomenal, twelve hundred ops. They list them at sixty three, one sixty six. There's no way. I mean, the guy is probably pushing two hundred and
he's sixty three sixty four. He's going to move off that position. I do not believe he'll be a shortstop. The problem is is that the Mets team has been just so good. They've got all these corner guys, they got all these guys that are great, Mark Vientto's. You got to find a spot for Brett Batty is good in there, You've got DH spot with Francisco Alvarez. So I don't exactly know if maybe Maurcio would transition to more of like a third and Batty and Vanto's for
more first. So that's kind of think what holds him back. Also, he's, you know, twenty one years old. He's going to spend the year at tripa A and this Spring I think has built renewed confidence, which is so huge. And actually, what I like about him over the other three guys is I think Mauricio is a dirt cheap prospect to go and buy right now. I don't think his cost is now. Obviously Spring is gonna like push it up a tiny bit. But this isn't a big name like
the rest of the guys. This is a guy that hasn't really cracked top one hundreds as of recent yet he's still only twenty one years old and he's absolutely succeeding and he's doing what we needed him to do. Is he's putting the bat on the ball. This isn't like a high end is Anderston Simmons like defensive shortstop. Now, this is a big power bat and he showed us off in the miners last year that he could be a twenty twenty guy. He's carrying into the spring, which
is huge. Ronnie Mauricios Arrow is ticking up.
Yeah, absolutely, and I would say I agree with you, is the time to buy him, And whether it be for the Mets or another organization, you're gonna see him is an important year too. I think you want to see those players when they're those young international guys, by the time they get to twenty twenty one years old, start to physically fill out, because we've seen some of those guys not do that, and their stock starts to drop and they start to become the well it didn't
work out kind of group. One more guy on your list here before he get to some of the ones that are falling. Where I spend obviously more time on the guys that are rising because it's more important. But Ethan Salas san Diego Padres a young guy here, sixteen year old prospect. What are your thoughts here on Sallas because I was surprised to see him on this list.
Well, this is a this is a I want you guys to know and understand here. This is not a guy that's going to play this year. We can just put that out because he is sixteen years old. What I do for a couple of years. Well, but see, that's what's different about this show, and this is why. So when the j fifteen class, I just talked about the Sun prospect one, we did bold predictions, and one of my bold predictions I'll just tell you guys, is I think Ethan Salace by years in could be a
top twenty five prospect. Overall. I think he could do the version of Cheerio. I don't think he's going to get to double A. But Ethan Salas was one of the new international signees, and right when the class came out, everyone's on Felminceelston with the Mariners, and I actually went on team Ethan Salace because I'm enamored with his defense. I'm enamored with his bat. He's a five tool player.
He's really this incredible catching prospect. And then I was told by a source that this guy not only was going to be as a sixteen year old invited to camp, but has a shot to go and start at low A, which is unheard of. Well, sure enough, I go to Pattery's camp, and I meet Ethan Saalace. I talked to him physically impressive. He's more impressive than guys two or
three years above him. And then we get this article that comes out Joe that starts talking about the Hall of Fame potential of Ethan Saalace, and it blew my mind of what I was hearing. And they had also confirm that the Padres are giving consideration to sending him to low A. The story gets better. He played in again, a sixteen year old prospect played in a spring training game the other day. He caught Ryan Weathers in like the sixth inning, which was phenomenal. You get to see
his framing, you get to see his catching work. Didn't do anything with the bat, but he gotten at bat. All of these things were the storytelling side that the sixteen year old really might start LOWE and that might give him the potential to finish at high A and barely over seventeen years old. That's the type of rise that no one expected. You know, this is usually Felon Selston, for example, is going to stay and play in the Dominican Summer League this year. He didn't come stateside. He's
going to stay there. Ethan Salas might start next year at High A or Double A as a seventeen year old. So you say he's not going to come soon, he is going to come sooner rather than later. This might be our next nineteen year old major league debuter, and his rise is going to be huge. He's going to break the curse of the internet bad international guys. I have been very, very big on him, and it was
a bold prediction I put for Ethan Salas. But if the bat plays like I think it is, he's a linked defense and the padres are just going to move him. He was in a spring training game. Go and watch that video. It's wild. So Ethan Salas is a huge, huge prospect riser, but it is definitely more for deeper dynasty and you're gonna have to wait a little bit.
All right, before we get to the guys who are falling on the prospect list. I want to remind everybody cheating is okay. When you use our cheat sheet creator or fantasypros dot com slaft Draft Wizard, that's where you want to go. So say out of the endless hours of research, because the cheat cheet creator again, you could select your favorite experts me and the Welsh or anybody out there to customize your cheat sheets to fit your league settings and your approach, and you get a clear
advantage over your competitors. So try the cheat seek creator today and take your fantasy game to the next level or fantasypros dot Com slash Draft Wizard Again. Cheating is encouraged. You ain't cheating, or at least cheat cheating, you ain't trying. I'm gonna keep that like that. What do you think of that? All right, let's get some of the guys on the downside. We'll spend a little less time on these guys. Andrew Painter has got to be the first one.
He's got the UCL sprained. There was a lot of rumors this guy was going to make the rotation. How is it gonna work? You know, we don't see a lot of nineteen year old pictures that shades of Dwight Gooden nineteen eighty four. But I mean, it's disappointing. I'd
be very surprised if he doesn't have Tommy John. You know, four weeks the UCL spray and then we're gonna say, I mean, come on, I've heard this story so many times, so This is a huge bummer obviously twenty twenty threes in jeopardy, But long term, what's your projection here for him? I know, short terms, definitely a guy that's falling because he's not going to be available for probably my guess is at least this season.
Yeah, he was going to do I think Julio Arius was the last nineteen year old pitcher to make the major I think they just stop as a WBC playing for Mexico. But yeah, no, it's a huge disappointment. They were giving legitimate consideration of him breaking camp and using those innings at the major league level. I don't feel optimistic that that UCL is going to feel good. I don't think the team really cared about the timeline. So that's why I think they're just going to sit on
it for a month and that they come back. They just give Tommy John and it's just going to push. The next year is already lost if that's the case, So I don't feel optimistic about it. What's really interesting is there's a lot of conversation right now in the prospect world about like where and how does he fall? And there was a trade offer I had saw someone was like whould you rather have Tyler Soderstrom or Andrew Painter, And multiple prospect people were saying that they would actually
take Tyler Schoderstrom right now. And that's not the case for me, just because, like year old, it's a nineteen pitcher. I don't want to give up prospect timelines don't usually change necessarily off of injury. I don't love that he's having that he could theoretically have Tommy John, but there's also kind of a sense of like, well, got it out of the.
Way and maybe he closed this time young two, and he was a very highly regarded, you know, top five pitching prospect and it worked out pretty well for him for a few years on a last years of down year. But we already talk we're buying back in. So I'm not too worried about Painter long term, but for this year there's absolutely the stock down. What about Daniel Aspino,
uh Cleveland starting pitcher two. This is another guy that's, you know, part of an organization that's done a pretty good job over the last twenty years of you know, creating some pitching prospects here and cashing in on them. So what do you think of his Spino why is he going in the wrong direction for you?
Well, also injury related stuff he's got, I believe he had. He had left shoulder soreness and swelling that happened after a throwing session in January. Now people don't know. Also, Daniel Espino completely retransformed his body. It's wild. He looks like a body builder in pictures he'd shared this offseason, much more lower maintained type of guy who's it just says, it was like off the charts to me with how
he looked. But in all of that, and I think this has been a very common thing we've seen I've seen in young players, is when that body overtakes a big, massive change, there's there's a time period that they've got to readjust to it, whether it is, you know, losing weight or gaining muscle or whatever it is. And maybe that played a role in it. But Daniel Spina is one of the hardest throwers in baseball and to also have like shoulder soreness and swelling, that's really really bad.
And then he had a it was a tear of like a capsule in his shoulder. Bottom line, He's missing about eight weeks. This was as of like February, and that's going to take him into some of the minor league season lost. But this is another one of those pictures with like a severe arm injury that's going to go into the year, and this kind of takes back
the timeline. So like Andrew Painter, this isn't a guy that I want to tank in value, but this guy has had multiple injuries in miss time and is worth consideration of, like how high do we really want him? Could this be the next Alex Reyesk Could he be better for the back of a bullpen if he can't stay healthy. So what I think has happened is Daniel Espinho's moving into this territory where he was battling Ricky
Tiedeman and Yuri Perez. He was in that range, and I think he's moving back to being like do we really want to risk him over tink Hence or even Bryce Miller at this point. So I think he's moved back a tier because of this injury, which is another back to back season injury, and this one is coming before the start of the year, and there's just like
a lot of lost potential right now. So Daniel Espinho is one of those guys kind of been out of sight, out of mind recently, but it's because he's just not on the field because he's injured.
Marco Luciano just got optioned by the San Francisco Giants back down to Double A. He had a injury riddled twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. Now it's I mean, it's a huge show me year for him. He's twenty one years old. He's been a big time prospect for a while now, and I understand. You know, when he gets end back down, your stock's gonna go down. Nobody's
I think too shocked about this. But where do you stand here with Lucian or are you a guy that you are buying on him right now because it's at a rock bottom price, or are you staying away because maybe this is one of these guys that just doesn't quite ever realize his potential.
So I definitely am all about buying in on really talented players. And I'll tell you this, Marca Luciano is a incredibly talented player. I've got to see him at multiple different levels. It's crazy, crazy batspeed with crazy power. He kind of moved away from running a little bit, and I think he could be moved off this position that's kind of been thought of forever. But I'm starting
to get into a space where I'm over it. You know, he came up in the same rookie level as C. J. Abrams and Corbyn Carroll, And I've cited this before and look at those guys. Those are both you know, major league starters. Corban Carroll has got one hundred and eleven million dollars and Marco Luciano can't hit double A and he consistently gets hurt, he underperforms, He was hurt all last year. He hurt himself in the Dominican Winner League.
His back that he's recovering from, his timeline has slowed, and that is really turning me off. So like if, and I've been a defender of Marko Luciano for a long time because I think offensively he really has the potential to be an elite player, but the strikeout numbers have been worrisome. Overall contact rates I think are going
to drop as it gets to higher levels. So at this point, I'm off of Marco Luciano and I hate to do it because I think he's a really talented player and he could be a buyback if someone's on him real cheap. But I think his stock is falling. The Dominican Winter League injury was just one more bad notch in his belt, and I don't think there's any time there's any feasible way we see him this year. So he's at least two years behind his peers for merkey ball.
All right, next to get on the list with somebody actually going into the year. In spring training, you were pretty high on was Mattmrvis, Chicago Cubs first baseman. So why are we souring Welsh?
That's Matt Nervis. Well, okay. One of the things I can tell you about Matt Nervis was I thought this was going to be handed to him. It seemed like it was going to be handed to him, and the Chicago Cubs did everything possible to not give him the job. They signed Eric Costmer, they signed Trey Mancini, they brought in Edwin Rios, and we said, okay, well, you know, he was phenomenal year last year. One of the few prospects.
One of the most impressive things I've ever seen is first off, the seventy six I think extra bases he had between doubles and homers. He also improved a strikeout rate at every single level last year while walking more. All great stuff. He was good in the AFL, but there's something off, and you could see in the AFL like that it was going to be like high velocity fastballs and good pitch mixes were going to mess with him defensively. I didn't know if he was up there
and just something seem off. As they kept signing players, well, he's had the conversation around this was, oh, well, Eric Cosmer can't hold him down, blah blah blah. Okay, you gotta have a good spring. If you have a good spring, I think you can get this team off at even though I think they brought Hasmer in for leadership, you could push him off. Matt Murvers has not had a good spring. He's hitting one a eighteen in seventeen at bats. He's got a three eighteen OVP. His ops is four
ninety four. He has two total hits. This is not the spring that he needed to crack that roster when they've got all these first basemen. So where he was moving up in like NFBC drafts, we saw him like crack the top two hundred. That's gone. That is completely gone with Matt Murvis, and I think it's gonna take some Triple A seasoning. It's going to take a bad
bat for Hosmer. And where if he had been good in spring and they still sent him down, I would have been like, all right, may he could come up. I think this is a halfway through the year where the Cubs have to have a realization they're out of it. They move on from Hosmer and then Mrvis comes up, so I think their worry has kind of moved over to me in really the huge jump that he's been given.
I still think he's a great prospect. I think he's got huge power, he's going to find a good spot, but I think there might be some bigger questions about the type of quality contact he's actually gonna make, and we're going to see it this year with whatever full season of Triple A before he's brought up to the majors.
Last guy on the list is a Yankee. A lot of Yankee prospects are getting a lot of helium Volpi do Mingez Parraza, not so much. Austin Wells. The only thing he's really got going for him right now is an amazing Rick sarone esque mustache because I love this picture of him here. But let's talk about Austin Wells right now, catching prospect for the Yankees. What are your thoughts on him? Why is he also somebody that's falling in your ranks?
Well, it was just the injury. Again, these are very injury focused. I think it's hard at this point in spring training to really pick on a lot of prospects and players to be major followers. I mean, one I would have thrown at you, is Kumar Rocker? Really incredible of how bad Kumar Rocker has been in spring and how inconsistent he's been in bullpen sessions, and maybe it's good. I want him to be good. I desperately want him
to be good. I love it. I think his slider is his key to everything, kind of like how Hunter Green was that it's just not happening. The confidence consistency's not there. So a lot of these outside of those tiny specific ones have to be more tangible things like an injury. And Austin Wells, who I think was moving up a little bit, had a fifteen to fifteen season bat's been pretty live, has not moved out that position. Either.
I interviewed him in the AFL like a year and a little over, yeah, year and a half ago, and I'd asked him, you know, would the team consider playing him anywhere else? And He's like, the team has never talked to me about it. He's never been talked about moving off that position. So one of the reasons I think that's kind of a negative is I don't think he's particularly a crazy high end defensive catcher, and I just don't. And when you have Travilla, you already have
Jose Travino and Kyle. I don't think they're going to be like that's a position that he's going to be able to crack anytime soon. So if he were to be moving and playing some other spots, I feel a little bit more optimistic. But just suffered an injury that's going to set him back a little bit for the start of the season. I think positionally that's out there, and it's also kind of flooded with catchers. I've moved him down just a little bit. But this is the
barrage of injury. It's Matt Mrvis and the injuries. That's a new band name. It's Matt Nervis and all the injuries for the five that are moving down.
I heard they're playing Coachella this year. It's gonna be awesome. Just to recap everybody. The prospects that are falling. Andrew Painter, pitcher for the Phillies, Danie Lspino Cleveland starter, Marco Luciano shortsaut for the Giants, Matt Murvis first basement for the Cubs in Austin Wells, New York Yankees catcher the ones on the rise, Christian and Carnacion Strand corner guy for the Cincinnati Reds, and Oscar Colas from the White Sox.
Outfielder Bryce Miller on his way up for Seattle. And the starting pitcher Ronnie Maurizio, the short stuff of the New York Mets, grown boy now and Ethan Sallas the young boy for the San Diego Padres. The catching prospects. So there you have it. Make sure you drop a comment below the prospects that you are watching. You're in our YouTube channel, and again, congratulations, fam we did it ten k sobs. Now the next goal's got to be fifteen.
So if you haven't already, go subscribe YouTube dot com Slash Fantasy Pros don't forget Wednesday, three pm Eastern Scott Pianowski, the Welsh, Joey P and a bunch of our pals here from our crew are going to be mock drafting it up head to head category style, so join us for that. And if you ain't cheat sheeting, you ain't trying Fantasypros dot com Last Draft Wizard go check it out, download the app. I want to thank the sponsor of
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