Kicking Rocks: September Stash Busts

Whether you like it or not, it’s time again for me to throw a tantrum reminiscent of a nine-year old sore loser, stomp my feet, and threaten to take my ball home as the real baseball world, once again, ignores my fantasy needs this season. It is the savvy fantasy player that does the necessary research and scouting to put together a strong list of potential September call-ups to supplement their fantasy roster in an effort to either stave off challengers for first place or to make a strong late-season push for a championship run. You not only look for talent but opportunity as well and assuming it’s the MLB bottom-feeders that will likely turn to their youth late in the year, you select a strong group of young up-and-comers. But apparently an organization’s desire to win a minor-league championship trumps their desire to see their youth face big-league competition and now my bench is littered with promising names that may never see any action at the major league level this year, thus rendering my list of September stashes useless to me in a fight for a title.

While I firmly believe in the young talent that adorns the Kansas City Royals roster, I don’t see them really becoming relevant to the playoff discussion for another three years. Players like Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas are all future all-stars, but without the necessary pitching, this team isn’t going anywhere. So when you see a group of prospects as talented as Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi and Ryan Verdugo, you expect the team to bring them up when rosters expand in September and give them a legitimate opportunity to play and compete at the big-league level. With a month’s worth of playing time, all three stood a chance to positively contribute to a fantasy roster. However, with the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers clinching a spot in the Pacific Coast League playoffs, the organization has said that all three will remain in the minors until the title run is concluded.

Now I’ll be honest and say that I don’t know exactly how much a PCL championship brings to an organization, but I can’t imagine that it is so substantial that a team would prefer a minor league title to a legitimate test of their youth’s talent on the big league stage. After all, what is the organization’s ultimate goal — a Triple-A championship or an MLB World Series title? Wouldn’t you rather see what your team of the future needs to work on in an effort to compete in MLB rather than have them beat up on inferior competition that they’ve whupped all season long? I know I would.

And what do I do with a guy like Myers now who has been stashed away and taking up a roster spot for over a month now? The Royals couldn’t unload Jeff Francoeur and open up a spot for Myers and now that they don’t even have to, they’re still not bringing him up so he can help bring a title to Omaha? What is that? With catcher eligibility in most leagues, imagine the hole he could have filled on fantasy rosters nation-wide.

And it’s not just the Royals here either. Apparently, you now have to go and look at the Triple-A standings to figure out who else you might not see come Saturday morning. Will the Diamondbacks leave Trevor Bauer in the minors because the Reno Aces are in first in the PCL Pacific division? How about Adam Eaton or A.J. Pollock? Will Houston bring back J.D. Martinez with the potential of Oklahoma City making the playoffs? There are plenty of names that could make a short-term impact for fantasy teams this season but apparently that’s not important enough for certain organizations to give up reaching for the brass ring that hangs just above a much shorter step-ladder.