As the Dodgers suffered through their incredibly painful first half of 2011, besieged mostly by injuries and the ongoing saga of “will Frank McCourt make payroll this week?”, one of the fun diversions for Dodger fans was watching the progress of flamethrowing young righty Rubby de la Rosa. At 22, the organization’s 2010 Minor League Pitcher of the Year had added an improving slider to his overpowering fastball in eight starts for Double-A Chattanooga, striking out 52 in just 40 innings.

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Yes. No. Maybe? I don’t know. 2012 has been an enigmatic year for the 21-year-old Texan. After being rated highly coming into the year Shelby Miller is the not-so-proud owner of a 5.19 ERA with Triple-A Memphis. To make matters worse, his maturity and makeup have been questioned – or depending on who you speak to, continue to be questioned. But, his in last few starts Miller has surged. Is he  ready to face his most important task to date, helping your fantasy team? Read the rest of this entry »

Spinning off of the Baltimore Orioles’ surprising promotion of Manny Machado to the majors last week as they try to hang onto a playoff spot, it seems fitting to do a rundown of all the American League contenders and their prospects who might be in line for a call-up down the stretch, especially once rosters expand in September. Some of these players are on the verge of getting a shot, while others appear to be another half-season or so away — but then, so did Machado, and look how that’s turned out so far.

As for fantasy implications, the focus remains on 2012 impact, but this also will help any keeper and dynasty league owners whose settings require a player to debut in the majors before they can be acquired in fantasy.

Next time, we’ll examine the National League.

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Leading up to Tuesday’s trade deadline each of Major League Baseball’s teams had to decide if they were buyers or sellers. At some point fantasy owners will need to make the same determination and while it’s lovely to be in the money, it’s important to move your assets quickly if you’re not. If you’re selling or have a minor league roster spot open, target Cincinnati’s Robert Stephenson before the rest of your league catches on.

Stephenson joins Californian starters Aaron Sanchez, Taijuan Walker and Joe Ross as one of several high upside pitchers from the area who slipped in the draft in recent years. Now, teams who past over these highly regarded arms are kicking themselves now; their stocks have boomed and each ranks highly on the Bullpen Banter Mid-Season Top 100 and similar lists. Due to his promotion I was able to catch the rising star’s debut with the Dayton Dragons on Minor League Baseball TV and I couldn’t have been more impressed with his development. Read the rest of this entry »

There are so many ways to evaluate the trades over the past week or so, up to and including trade deadline day itself. In the interest of being as niche as possible, let’s look solely at the fantasy values of prospecty types whose roles for the rest of 2012 only could be — or already have been — impacted by the wheelings and dealings.

The players listed below are ranked in a very rough order of how much fantasy relevance they have from today through the end of this season only, based on a combination of their individual talent and their potential opportunity that opened up in the wake of a trade. Given that there’s only two months’ worth of games left, there’s a considerable skew toward players who have already been called up (or who could be soon), even if their current or future skillset rates behind some of the players below them.

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Keeping an eye on the future while reloading for the stretch run is just about as difficult in fantasy as it is in real life. The wrinkle is that the fantasy player universe is smaller, so fantasy players deal with stars for the most part. Non-elite or low-level prospects can easily get overvalued — there’s little use for an organizational player or a backup shortstop in fantasy ball, and Double-A separates the real from the Formica.

So I’m really psyched that I traded some of my stars for non-elite prospects this week.

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As news of Dillon Gee’s potentially season ending blood clot spread, Mets fans and fantasy owners began to speculate whether or not the Mets would call up Matt Harvey to assume Gee’s spot in the rotation. A slew of variables will weighted by Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta and company to ultimately determine what’s best for right hander and the club. But, here at RotoGraphs, all we care about is how Matt Harvey can affect your team should the Mets call him up. If Buffalo’s ace does to Queens, be wary. While his long term potential remains high — he projects to be innings eater with swing and miss stuff — he still has a way to go to get there.

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If starting Billy Hamilton guaranteed your team would win steals, where would you draft him? It would be arguable Hamilton is the best fantasy baseball prospect in the minor leagues, if that were the case. As everyone knows, the Cincinnati Reds shortstop has already surpassed the 100 steal mark, and season isn’t yet half way over. But – come on, you knew this was coming – there are still a few questions surrounding Hamilton. Read the rest of this entry »

One infielder, one catcher, one pitcher. What more could you want, really?

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Carlos Martinez – During a trip to the disabled list for a sore shoulder, yes I said during, Martinez was promoted to Double-A Springfield. While many were perplexed by the decision, I jumped for joy. More Carlos Martinez to watch! After his first start I wondered whether the organization had changed his mechanics since last year. His arm action looked a lot shorter and his arms and legs weren’t gyrating like something out of cirque du soleil. Read the rest of this entry »