Top Prospects to Stash! Cole Carrigg Coming Soon? (5/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

It was a very busy week for prospects. Who's next? We'll discuss on fantasy baseball today, Express. (upbeat music) Welcome back to MPT Express on Wednesday, May 13th. I am Frank Samful-Joy, by Scott White. Let's start off with the five prospects on the periphery. These are names that are doing something notable as of late. And we have Edwin Aroyo of the Reds, Cooper Ingle of the Guardians. Devon Fitzgerald of the Nationals, Eric Hartman. That's a real person, Eric Hartman. Not the South Park character. This gentleman said it fast, Eric Hartman. This gentleman plays for the Atlanta Braves, well in the Braves organization, and Carson Mill Brandt of the Marlins. What do we have on this group? So yeah, let's start with Edwin Aroyo, who was thought to be. Not much of a power hitter. Previously in the minors, he home are just three times last year. Well now, he's already up to eight. So big step forward in terms of power for Edwin Aroyo, at AAA, he's slashing 348, 408, 590, has five stolen bases for good measure. It's primarily played shortstop there, but he's dabbled at second and third base. And as luck would have, if the Reds are pretty weak at both of those spots, Matt McClein not getting it done at second, Kebrian Hayes not getting it done at third. So if Edwin Aroyo continues to produce a AAA, it may not be long before we see him. I don't know the upside is enough to stash him, but he's making a pretty compelling case for it, I suppose, with his performance so far. That's Edwin Aroyo. Next up, we have Cooper Engle, who is an interesting catcher prospect in that he gets on base at time. That's always been true throughout his mind of Lee Carey. He's taken it to another level at AAA this year. Five, 43 is his on base percentage. Cooper Engle has of this recording, five, 43. Who is this guy, Barry Bonds? Well, no, 'cause he doesn't impact the ball quite, like Barry Bonds, the ex-philosities are modest, I would say. But he's not totally punchless. He excels at not putting the ball in the ground. Most of it manifests his line drives, which are of course good for batting average, but there's enough hidden in the air that he can hit some home runs. He also does not chase at all, which makes sense given how much Cooper Engle walks. He's a 24-year-old offensive-minded catcher in the Guardians organization, and I don't think any organization values difference from their catcher more than the Guardians, which is fitting that they just traded for Patrick Bailey. So there doesn't appear to be room for Engle unless the Guardians are willing to let him play a lot of DH. He did play some outfield in college, but it's been exclusively a catcher. But he's knocking on the door for sure with the way he's performed at AAA. Devon Fitzgerald, and I will note there is a hyphen between the Fitz and the Gerald. Devon Fitzgerald of the nationals, he came over from the Rangers in the McKenzie Gore deal this off season. And right now that is looking like a steel. Granted, it's a high A, but he's not too old for the level. It's where he's supposed to be Devon Fitzgerald. And so far he's batting 325, reaching base at a 451 clip with more walks than strikeouts, 10 stolen bases. And now suddenly he's up to eight home runs, that happened very quickly. Two of them just came Tuesday, five of the eight home runs have come in his last six games. And so basically, I mean, based on those numbers, I just read off, Devon Fitzgerald looking like and across the board talent. No weaknesses there offensively. He may be aged appropriately for high A, but I think he's gonna make the move up to AA very soon and is rapidly gaining value in Dynasty leagues. Devon Fitzgerald. Then we have Eric Hartman. Eric Hartman, as you would say, Frank, to distinguish from our favorite big-bone character. And Eric Hartman is killing it. He is killing it. He had a two-homer game Sunday to cap a series in which he went nine for 13, three doubles, three home runs in the series with that two-homer game. Also had a three-homer game earlier this year. That brings Eric Hartman up to 12 home runs for the season and he also has 13 steals. And you look, okay, is this guy getting buried in an avalanche of strikeouts? No, he's not. He's kept it respectable about 20% that strikeout rate. This was not a player I had heard of coming into the year. But a 19-year-old on the Braves organization showing power speed at high A, I think you need to respect his authority, Eric Hartman. And maybe pick him up in Dynasty leagues. And finally, for the five on the periphery here, we have Carson Milbrandt of the Marlins. Carson with a K, picture at AA, he's run a 148 ERA so far. He took a leap last year, kind of entered the prospect seeing Carson Milbrand. It seems to be taken another with a 140 ERA at AA, 11.9 K per nine, an 18% swinging strike rate, which is phenomenal. I mean, all those numbers are phenomenal, of course. And like these aren't baby outings either. Like he's had a big boy league AA and he's making big boy starts here. Three straight, six innings, two hits allowed in each of them. So 22-year-old, already at AA, already doing these kinds of things, you know, we just saw Robbie Snelling called up for the Marlins. We presume Thomas White is next in the pecking order, but he's having efficiency issues at AAA. I think if Carson Milbrandt moves up to AAA and keeps doing these kinds of things there, maybe he'll end up leapfrogging Thomas White and getting a call for the Marlins this year. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in to FBT Express. Let's count down the five minor leagueers on the verge of getting the call. Number five, Braden Montgomery with the White Sox. We just saw a different outfield prospect get promoted to AAA and then promoted up to the meds. That was AJ Ewing. Maybe the same thing could happen here with Braden Montgomery. And Ewing was on the five on the verge last week and that turned out to be a good call. Actually three from last week's five on the verge got called up last week. So going with a fresh slate here, Braden Montgomery slash 313-429-606. At AA and now as a AAA. And off to a pretty good start there, hitting the ball hard has good on base skills. You look at the state of the White Sox outfield right now. It's pretty bleak. If some injured players, they're currently giving Jared Kalnik playing time, which seems about three or four years later than anybody should be doing that. And so if Braden Montgomery takes to AAA as well as he took to AA and the White Sox have been promoting guys all year, I think it's possible. We could see him in the majors. Number four prospect on the verge is Cole Carrig with the Rockies. I know a couple of years ago he played all over the diamond. Scott was like catcher center field. Where's he playing nowadays? What do you think? He's pretty much settled in center field though that he has been dabbling a short stop. Still gave up catcher and the low minors. But he's in the highest level of the miners right now. AAA and he is doing some impressive things there. The last 11 games especially is betting 460 with three home runs and nine steals in his last 11 games. That brings him for the season up to a 369 batting average and 24 steals. And the home runs aren't exactly lacking either. It's just those two numbers are eye popping. The eggs of a lot. These are pretty modest for Cole Carrig. So I'm not sure he's going to be more than a fringy source of power. He's in line to play half his games of course field and has those kind of contact skills, is stealing that many bases. It's I think he's restored his prospect style. He's gone a long way to restoring his prospect stock and Brenton Doyle struggles the fact that Troy Johnston's playing a lot of outfield for the Rockies, which is probably not a great thing for their pitching staff in that big ballpark especially. I think Cole Carrig might be knocking down the door here soon. Number three on this list is Colt Emerson from the Mariners. Would it take an injury Scott to get him called up? I just don't really see another way that he would get to call it at this point. Well, especially since Brendan Donovan is back, he just came back from the I.L. So that takes care of third base. But Cole Young's been iffy at second and JP Crawford in his last year of control is been iffy at shortstop. Look, the Mariners signed Colt Montgomery to a long-term deal prior to the season. Colt Emerson. Colt Emerson. Colt Emerson to a long-term deal prior to the season. And usually that is, usually that marks the arrival of that prospect because it takes away the service time. issue. So I think, you know, they're paying them like a major league or not to blame the major leagues right now. They have every incentive to get them up once he proves ready and sluggish start for Colt Emerson at AAA, but last six games, 357 with two home runs, two stolen bases. He may be coming around. I'm not saying it's immediate. Like I think probably the chances of him getting called up in the next week are less than Colt Kerrig who I have below on the list, but Colt Emerson is the higher end prospect and probably more deserving of a stash. Number two on this list is no Elvymartay from the Reds. No, he's not a prospect, but he is in the minor leagues where he has been crushing it. I guess what has made this a little bit more difficult is JJ Blade got called up recently and he's been performing really well. I think there are a few other spots that they can work Martay in. I'm a little surprised they haven't called them up yet. Yeah, and I bumped him down a spot because of that. It doesn't feel imminent. His numbers, while still fantastic, have taken a step back. He's only batting, believe it's 367 now at AAA, but only three home runs there for what's become a sizable number of bats now. And then there are all the defensive concerns. He's been playing some center field, I think, just as a way to get more reps in the outfield and maybe take, maybe get him some straighter angles off the bat. 370 is what he's batting now at AAA, but yes, with just the three home runs in 103 plate appearances. But they seem content to let him ride for now as well as he's hitting. And that could change in an instant, I suppose, but the need is not there like it was before. The top prospect to stash right now on the verge is Cade Anderson of the Mariners, who has a 44% strikeout rate at AA. He is absolutely dominating that level. I don't think that we will see him there much longer until he gets promoted up to AAA. Yeah. And so I compare this to Chase Burns last year, who was also making his professional debut after being a very high draft pick the year before. And he started at AA and was as dominant as Cade Anderson's been there. And it's up only making two starts at AAA before he was coming up to the big leagues. So it'll probably be several weeks before Cade Anderson is up, but it might be too late to stash him if you wait too much longer. Just the way he's dominating 0.6 OERA 14.1 Kpern and his six starts at AA at a 150 batting average against. Like they just minor leagues are helpless against him. And I don't imagine the ones at AAA are going to fare much better when Cade Anderson does move up. 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'll be back again that later this week. Bye bye. [MUSIC] Kpern, podcast.