The Prospect Stock Watch has been taking a tour around the minor leagues while reviewing rising prospects. These are prospects that likely won’t be on Top 100 lists or on your fantasy rosters just yet but they could become targets in dynasty leagues over the next year or two. We finish up the series today with a look at the American League West.

Previous Articles:
NL East
NL Central
NL West
AL East
AL Central

Seattle Mariners

Jake Fraley, OF (AAA): Fraley was an astute pick-up by the Marines in a trade last year with the Rays. Injuries kept the 2016 draft pick to 96 games combined between 2017 and 2018 so he didn’t get a full opportunity to show what was capable of with consistent playing time. Fraley’s breakout began in Double-A ball this year and he was recently promoted to Triple-A. Between the two levels, he has 16 home runs and 20 steals, making him a legit threat to become a 20-20 (HR-SB) player. He’s a left-handed pitcher who hangs in well against southpaws and can play all three outfield positions; he looks like a future regular at the big league level. ETA: 2020

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Hey y’all! Another week of baseball in the books. With July coming to a close, this week’s Stash List is filled with guys most likely on your waiver wire. It includes an outfielder in the Braves system that is not getting much love, a defensive minded catcher that has found his hitting stroke, and two pitchers that are performing well to little to no attention.

Trey Harris (ATL AA) OF Age: 23 ETA 2021

While Cristian Pache and Drew Waters are killing it in AA this year, there is another outfielder having a breakout season. Trey Harris put together an excellent college career at Missouri before the Braves selected him in the 32nd round of last years draft. The 5’10” outfielder is a great athlete and has a projectable body. After being drafted, the Braves assigned him to rookie ball. In 31 games, he struck out less than he walked, 9.8 K% to a 15.9 BB%. The Braves promoted him to A ball to finish out the season, where he had a 0.286 AVG. To start out this year, the Braves assigned him to A ball.

In his first 56 games, Harris hit 0.366 with a 0.437 OBP and smacked eight ball out of the park to go with his fourteen doubles. A+ ball was no match for Harris. He had a 0.303 AVG with 0.388 OBP and picked up another four home runs. He swiped three bags to call along with four in A ball. Going forward, I would not expect many steals from Harris. In Rookie ball, he was four for seven and then in A ball this year he was four for eight. It is great to see an advanced college bat like Harris killing the lower minors. He was recently promoted to AA and this will be a big test for Harris. In deeper leagues, I would keep him on my watch list.

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The Prospect Stock Watch is taking a tour around the minor leagues reviewing rising prospects. These are prospects that likely won’t be on Top 100 lists or on your fantasy rosters just yet but they will likely become targets in dynasty leagues over the next year or two. We began with the National League but switched over to the American League late last week with the east division. Today, we have a look at the central division.

Minnesota Twins

Jhoan Duran, RHP (A+): The Twins traded Eduardo Escobar to the Diamondbacks during last year’s trade deadline and came away with a very interesting prize in Duran. The 21-year-old hurler has always shown good stuff but he’s spending more time in the upper reaches of his velocity range (93-98 mph) and is displaying improved secondaries. He has an impressive K-BB of 90-28 through 74 innings this year. Duran has also shown the ability to induce ground balls at a well-above-average rate. Jordan Balazovic has been a breakout pitcher for the Twins in 2019 and is earning much more press recently but Duran deserves a lot of attention, too. ETA: 2021

Griffin Jax, RHP (AA): Jax hasn’t been on many radars as a prospect despite being a third-round pick back in 2016 because of his previous commitment to the Air Force. That requirement kept him to just 40 innings over his first two pro seasons but he can now focus on baseball full time. Jax has moved swiftly through the minors despite his lack of innings and could soon find himself knocking on the big league door within a year. He might be best suited to relief with a solid fastball-changeup combo but lack of a reliable breaking ball. Jax is also said to have a bulldog mentality, which would suit him well in a shorter, high-leverage role. ETA: 2020

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It feels like the season is winding down, but there are still two-plus months left so we will still see plenty of minor leaguers come up and get a shot. Today I want to look at a group of K-BB% leaders who haven’t appeared in the majors yet (min. 70 IP at Double- and Triple-A).

Nabil Crismatt, SEA – 24% K-BB

The 24-year old started his big season in Double-A and has definitely slowed down in Triple-A, despite still striking out 34% of the batters he’s faced in 22 innings there. I’ll defer to Alex Chamberlain for more info on him as he recently featured Crismatt in a Peripheral Prospects piece.

Alex Faedo, DET – 23%

Faedo has improved in a repeat of Double-A, jumping in K-BB% from 15% to 23%. He was ranked 15th in the Detroit prospect list this spring, but these 99 innings have helped his outlook. While he hasn’t hit Triple-A, he might not need much time there before getting a look in the majors. He and the next guy on the list both appeared in Peripheral Prospect 1.13.

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Hey y’all!  This week’s stash list should be a good one for all of you deep fantasy league players. I’ll be reviewing two pitchers with excellent K-BB percentages, that could help your ratios in a few years. I also bring to you a Houston hitter, that is not Kyle Tucker, unable to crack the Houston lineup. I also profile a very young San Francisco Giant killing low A and begging for a call-up.

I hope you got a chance to read my Top 100 prospects list. If you hadn’t, what are you waiting for?

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The Prospect Stock Watch is taking a tour around the minor leagues reviewing rising prospects. These are prospects that likely won’t be on Top 100 lists or on your fantasy rosters just yet but they will likely become targets in dynasty leagues over the next year or two. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve reviewed the National League. This week, we begin the American League with the east division.

Baltimore Orioles

Dean Kremer, RHP (AA): Baltimore is slowly but surely building up a little pitching depth at the upper levels of the minors with lower ceiling guys like Keegan Akin and Zac Lowther. The club also has higher ceiling prospects like DL Hall and Grayson Rodriguez in A-ball. Currently at Double-A, Kremer falls somewhere in the middle. Obtained in the disappointing Manny Machado deal where Baltimore focused more on quantity than quality, this right-hander could easily come away as the best player received in the deal from the Orioles’ perspective (I’m not a big Yusniel Diaz fan). Kremer has enough fastball velocity (up to 95 mph) to be interesting when you toss it together with a couple of above-average breaking balls. His control is ahead of his command but there is potential here for some strikeouts from a player with the ceiling of a No. 3 starter who might settle in as more of a solid No. 4. ETA: 2020

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Hey y’all!  All of the full-season leagues have had All-Star games and are into the second half of their seasons.  I thought it would be a fun exercise to put together my top 100 prospects.  This list is mostly a fantasy list but also has a real-life winkle in it.  In fantasy, I value batters over pitchers.  I do factor defense but has more of a tie-breaker between players.  I have also removed prospects eligible players currently in the majors and who should remain on the big league club, like Yordan Alvarez and Keston Hiura.  Enjoy!  I’ll see you in the comments and on Twitter.

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The Prospect Stock Watch is taking a tour around the minor leagues reviewing rising prospects. These are prospects that likely won’t be on Top 100 lists or on your fantasy rosters just yet but they will likely become targets in dynasty leagues over the next year or two. Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at the National League East and Central divisions. Today, we finish up our look at the NL with the West division.

Colorado Rockies

Grant Lavigne, 1B: Lavigne’s numbers don’t jump out as a first base prospect — especially for one that went 42nd overall in the 2018 draft – but he’s had a respectable season. The assignment to full-season ball was challenging despite his pedigree. Lavigne is from a cold-weather state (New Hampshire) so he didn’t get the same opportunities to play all season long like those from Florida or California. The 19-year-old prospect is finding ways to get on base this year (.368 OBP) despite a .246 average, which has been driven down by his 24% strikeout rate. The K-rate wouldn’t be such a big deal if he was producing power but his isolated slugging rate (ISO) is just .100 through 87 games. Lavigne is hitting line drives and has a 6-4 frame build for home runs but he’s hitting far too many balls on the ground. Once he buys into the launch angle revolution, watch out.

San Francisco Giants

Sean Hjelle, RHP: Tall pitchers usually take longer to develop because they have to learn to repeat their delivery with long levers but Hjelle is ahead of the curve. Standing 6-11, he’s walked just 21 batters in 95.2 innings this year. If all goes well, he’ll have four average-or-better offerings. The most impressive skill he’s showcased so far, though, is his ability to induce ground balls at a rate of almost three times the big league average – which is huge in this homer-happy era. Toss all this together and you could have an innings-eating, mid-rotation arm.

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Hey y’all!  This week’s Stash List should be a pretty good one.  I dug deep to find guys having great seasons that should be available on most waiver wires.  One guy is a forgotten guy in a recent trade with some power and speed.  One guy is destroying baseballs in A ball and then we have two southpaws putting up some crazy strikeout percentages.

Mason Martin (PIT A) 1B Age 20 ETA 2022

The Pirates picked up Mason Martin in the 17th round of the 2017 draft.  Martin has massive power. After being drafted, he was assigned to the Appy League.  In 127 at-bats, Martin swatted eleven dingers to go along with eight doubles. He picked up ten more in 2018 before being promoted to A ball.  So far this season, in 301 at-bats, he has 23 home runs to go along with 19 doubles. As with most power prospects, Martin has strikeout issues.  The lowest strikeout rate in his professional career was 24.7% and that was in his first taste of professional ball. Martin is a pretty patient hitter, and some might say passive, with double-digit walk rates.  Being a right-handed first baseman, Martin will need to continue to hit to make it to the majors. If you are willing to take the risk, Martin is a power guy to stash in your minor leagues.

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The Prospect Stock Watch is taking a tour around the minor leagues while highlighting rising prospect values around baseball. These are prospects that likely won’t be on your fantasy rosters or radars just yet but they will likely become targets in dynasty leagues over the next year or two. Last week, we started off by looking at the National League East. Today, we tackle the prospects in the Central Division.

Chicago Cubs

Brennen Davis, OF (A): The second-round pick of the Cubs in 2018 is coming on even quicker than expected. When selected, there was thought that Davis’ hit tool was one of his least developed tools but he hit .298 in his debut and is hitting .302 this season through 36 A-ball games. He’s making an excellent amount of contact for his experience level (18.5 K%) and he’s also showing outstanding patience (11 BB%). Once he adds some more good weight/muscle to his 6-4 frame, he should have above-average power. Davis also has the speed to steal 20+ bases. ETA: 2022

Oscar De La Cruz, RHP (AA): Signed out of the Dominican way back in 2012, De La Cruz has shown flashes of potential but has struggled with injuries and inconsistencies. He also spent parts of four seasons in short-season ball but is finally holding his own in Double-A. De La Cruz has been a starter in the minors but looks like someone that might really take off if shifted to the bullpen. He has an average fastball but the curveball shows plus potential. Those two pitches — especially if he sees a little more fastball velo with the move — could make him a solid seventh- or eighth-inning reliever. ETA: 2020

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