Ottoneu Prospect Report: April 14, 2017

Like many ottoneu owners (and baseball fans in general), I’m a bit of a prospect hound, always looking for the next Mike Trout or even the next Kole Calhoun. Unlike many of our writers, I have absolutely no scouting chops, so I prefer to take a more analytic approach to prospect evaluation. That includes looking at prospect reports from John Sickels and our own Eric Longenhagen, as well as reviewing projections from Steamer/ZiPS and KATOH. That’s only part of the story though, and with minor league games well under way we have some actual performances to add to our evaluations. Using the fantastic website MLBfarm.com, I put together a list of the top ten hitting performances in the minor leagues so far (using ottoneu FanGraphs points scoring, and filtering on prospects in the organizational Top 10s).

I’m going to limit my commentary to only the prospects that are currently owned in at least 5% of ottoneu leagues, though the other players could potentially be names to file away for the future.

Jeimer Candelario tops the list of top prospect hitter performances in the early going, showing lots of power with a ridiculous .533 ISO. I don’t think he ends up being relevant in ottoneu despite the 9% ownership unless he is traded away from the Cubs to another organization this summer or offseason, and even then he’s probably a fringe 3B for the format.

Fell Iowa Cub Ian Happ has arguably been even better, when you consider he has just a .217 BABIP compared to .474 for Candelario. Happ has already hit five home runs to go along with very good plate discipline, and coming on the heels of a strong spring training performance the former first round pick might force the Cubs to either find a spot for him or include him as a headliner in a mid season deal. Happ should be owned in every ottoneu league.

Franklin Barreto was part of the package the A’s received in the Josh Donaldson trade, and he should be a contributor for Oakland in short order. He’s not likely to stick at short stop in the long term, but he’ll likely have SS eligibility in ottoneu through the end of the ’18 season as long as he plays 15 more games there in AAA. Barreto should also be owned in every ottoneu league.

Raimel Tapia failed to make the Rockies’ opening day roster, but has been lacing line drives in AAA with six doubles in his first seven games. Tapia will need to maintain a low contact rate and high BABIP in the majors to have much value in ottoneu points formats since he lacks power, but he’ll have the best possible home park to do that.

Trey Baughn wrote about Christin Stewart last year as a prospect ottoneu owners should keep an eye on, and while his ownership has ticked up to 13% he is probably still under-owned given his performance (.408 wOBA , .238 ISO, and 12.9% BB rate in his minor league career) and pedigree (34th overall pick of the 2015 draft). My guess is that he earns a call up to the Tigers in a month or two and shows power and patience while struggling a bit with making contact. That profile plays up in linear weights leagues like ottoneu points.

Cody Bellinger is likely the next Dodgers call up if any of their outfielders or Adrian Gonzalez suffer an injury. All Cody has done is mash the past two plus seasons, and like Stewart should provide lots of power and walks. Bellinger is another player on this list that should be owned in every ottoneu league.