12 TOP PROSPECTS Traded at the Deadline! (08/06 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Let's break down the prospects who were traded at the deadline up next on fantasy baseball today express Welcome into empty express on Thursday on the 6th I am Frank sample joy Hi, Scott white and we are gonna run through 12 prospects traded at the deadline and we will start with the best 7 and we will start with the hall the Tigers got in return for tarry scuba which included Zahir hope and River Ryan Scott what are your thoughts on those two headed to the Tigers? So I think hopes the best prospect traded at the deadline. I think I put River Ryan 4th best But I hope is I see him on the out I see him outside of the top 50 on some prospect rank list I think he's closer to top 25 maybe Maybe that's the fantasy analyst talking in me Just obviously concerned about offensive production. He had a monster July 372 batting average 10 homers six deals Impacts the ball As hard as you'd want a middle of the order slugger to do athletic enough to keep stealing bases Takes his walks, you know knows the difference between a ball and strike so I think Zahir upside has Sorry, I think Zahir hope has a lot of upside You know the Tigers recently graduated max Clark. They have Riley green there I think hope might have the highest ceiling of that trio at least offensively and Then River Ryan the big knock on him is he's 27 you don't see many 27-year-old prospects Part of the reason he's retained his rookie status all the way to age 27 is because Well, he's missed time with injury But also the Dodgers just have had such a rotation surplus That there was no need for them to activate River Ryan this year Currently down with a hamstring injury so there you go another injury But it doesn't sound like the sort of thing that will keep him side-line dressed of season So I think down the stretch will see Ryan pitch for the Tigers and some evaluators still think he has number two type upside even even for him being 27 The Orioles got a haul from the Red Sox in exchange for Adley Rushman and the name who headline that deal was pitcher Anthony Ionson who again went to the Orioles in that trade Scott what do you think the upside is here for Anthony Ionson? I think it's I think it's very high. It's higher than River Ryan That's why he's couple spots higher on this list a between high A and double A Ionson has a 132 ERA 89 whip 94 strikeouts and 68 to third innings had a 19% swing a strike rate Which is bad as good as you'll ever see from a starting pitcher He Was throwing harder earlier in the year the velocity has slipped a little bit over the course of time But the production hasn't at all and that's because the secondary arsenal is so good for Ionson I think the Orioles did well here to get him and I think I think he's Maybe the biggest riser among pitching prospects this season I thought the angels did very well as well trading away Jose Soriano to the blue jays in exchange They got Arjan namala who is a power hitting shortstop prospect. Scott what are your thoughts here on Arjan namala? So I've always been a little lower than the consensus on namala it seems like I'm still calm the third best prospect traded But he's he's struck me as more of a a project than you'd like a top prospect to be and even now a reaching double a this year the the numbers are a Little underwhelming The promise for namala is is big power from a player who can legitimately stick a shortstop defensively But it's still more theoretical than then fully realized denounce in the hands of the angels to realize it So I don't know how we should feel about that but namala is a good prospect and deserves to be discussed here I thought the carnal's did fantastic in the trade where they sent Dustin May and Jojo Romero over to the brewers in exchange They received Alexander Freyos and Josiah Ragsdale These are two names got that I know have really popped up this season as well Yeah, I kind of feel like this might have been the most lopsided deal involving prospects that they gave up Two exciting rising outfield talents for a couple months of dust and May Don't really get that but Alexander Freyos even though he's further down the ladder only 18 years old I mean the fact he's only 18 years old and doing what he's doing is part of the reason why there's so much enthusiasm for him He's hit a ball as hard as 117 miles per hour this year Which is a better mark than Aaron judge Ellie Day La Cruiser Nick Kurtz has reached this year and he's doing it at 18 So there is massive upside here the numbers look ridiculous Mostly that was in rookie ball. They they moved him up to to full season a ball and and he's he's kind of scuffled a bit there But again, he's 18 years old so that was an aggressive assignment and and the data the data is very Encouraging for Alexander Freyos and then Josiah Ragsdale. It's less about the data than the pure production for him. He The main thing he seemed to be lacking What gave him more of like a fourth alfielder type profile was power well he goes to the Cardinals During a binge that scene of Homer 10 times in 13 games So it's hard to say he's lacking a power And I think he honoured in his first game with his new organization. So I just continued for Josiah Ragsdale So now he's a 2030 guy with an on base percentage near 450 at double a I know Josiah Ragsdale's available on the lot or dynasty leagues, but that needs to change and The last name on this list the best seven prospects who were traded at the deadline Ramon Marquez went to the giants in the Luis Arifes trade. What do you have on Ramon Marquez? Well, I was raving about Anthony Ionsen's 19% swinging strike rate in the miners this year Ramon Marquez is 24% Yeah, mostly on the strength of a change up that might be a true 80 grade offering The fastball is good in its own right and so that makes for a good pairing That's about all he has now and he's pitching an a ball So you know, he might need to broaden out his arsenal from there But it's it's a lot to work with for Ramon Marquez. He's been another big riser among pitching prospects and And it needs to be needs to be added in all dynasty leagues where he's available I'd say all right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this Welcome back FBT express we have five other prospects who were traded at the deadline whose numbers command your attention and first up to my dismay the Yankees traded Henry Lelane to the giants in the Elliott Ramos trade and Scott I was not happy about this one as Yankee Finn Big lefty. I think there's a lot of upside down the line if you could say healthy Yeah a few years back He was still a teenager and he he looked like he was trending toward being the Yankees best pitching prospect and then he kind of fell off the map for a couple years because of shoulder issues came back strong this year big six foot seven lefty Was getting a lot of strikeouts. He's 22 now and he's still in a ball. So that gives him a lower margin for error but obviously he He Improved to stock enough Henry Lelane to be included in this trade The Metz received semi stifora from the pirates in the Luke Weaver trade what do you have on semi stifora So he was on a power binge sort of like Josiah Ragsdale was at the time of this trade Sammy stifora had homer 16 times in his past 22 games And he during that same stretch she had improved his strikeout rate to 25% now that's still a high strikeout rate particularly for a hitter in a ball where they're not seen much secondary stuff But it's improvement over his season long 30% mark which just gets into Prohibitive territory It's it's a clear fall first of firah. It's gonna have to be worked out as he ascends the ladder But you know in addition to all those home runs he has 20 steals He's a plus defender shortstop. It seems like and so that should continue to earn him chances as he moves up the ladder Next up we have Boston Smith who went from the white sucks to the mariners in the Luis Castillo trade What do you have here on the power hitting catcher Boston Smith So I feel like this has been the most under discussed prospect from the trade deadline and You might not even see him show up on everybody's top prospect list but I Feel a little salty about it because that was been rice at one point in time. He was He was the catcher putting up bonkers numbers at double A and Nobody was willing to admit he was a prospect. I think because Nobody gave much of a chance at staying at catcher. That's a big part of it And and maybe Boston Smith doesn't have that like much of a chance of that either. But it looks like a really freaking good hitter. And like with Ben Rice, if that continues, then he'll find us bought somewhere. Boston Smith has a swing that's grew for power, I would say, in that he pulls the ball a lot in the air and the home run production 22 and 269 at bats. He's also reached base at a 444 clip, walks a ton. And again, he's already reached AA, doing stuff like that. I'm very interested in Boston Smith. The last two names here on the list both went to the Marlins, Braden Taylor and Jonathan Long. What do you have on those two? This is kind of the Marlins MO. They did this with Kyle Stowers. They did this with Jacob Marcy. They found a player who had kind of reached the end of the line in the minors and his current organization and it put up numbers there. But the team didn't really have a path for him and they were kind of aging out and they just needed to go somewhere. So the Marlins were happy to take those two off in Stowers case the Orioles and then Marcy's case the Padres off their hands. And it's worked out pretty well. Braden Taylor was the race first round pick, 19th overall in 2023. But it took him until this year age 24 to put up numbers to be fitting of that. 24 is getting pretty old for a prospect, but near 900 OPS between double and triple A near 2020 production there. I think we could see him on the Marlins sooner than later. Jonathan Long's even older and he was repeating at triple A this year because he's a true first baseman. And obviously few teams have a path for a true first baseman. The Cubs didn't with Michael Bush there. Long has more raw power than he shows in the minors. He tends to hit the ball to the opposite field. A lot which helps with batting average. But you know might be undermining his power potential a little there still. Good numbers of triple A this year slash 305 404 479 there last year and the Marlins don't have a first baseman. They've usually used that position as catcher and outfield overflow this year. So we could see that this trade gives a long a chance of mattering and we could see him get that chance soon. All right, for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage listen to our full lane podcast fantasy baseball today on Spotify Apple podcasts or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to fantasy baseball today. Express and we will be back again this weekend. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Paramount podcasts.