Top Prospects to Stash! What Are The Mariners Waiting For? (08/20 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Xavier Isaac: From Brain Tumor to Top Prospect Who are the latest prospects to stash? Find out next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express. Welcome into FPT Express on Thursday, August 20th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White. And let's start with the five prospects on the periphery. These are five names that are doing something of note as of late. And we have Xavier Isaac, first baseman with the Rays, Brandon Compton and outfielder with the Marlins, Lonnie White and outfielder with the Pirates, Jacob Bresnahan, A starting pitcher with the Giants and Luis Fragosa, an outfielder with the Twins. What do we have on this group? Speaker 2 So Xavier Isaac's probably familiar to you if you've been following prospects for any length of time. He was a consensus top 100 guy in 2023 especially, which you don't often see for true first baseman in the lower minors. But that's how good of a hitter Xavier Isaac was. Followed it up in 2024 with a a a a strikeout rate that got away from him. And then in 2025 he was just plain bad. Hit two O 1 had his season ended early because of injury. It was only in the offseason though that we found out that what the injury was for Xavier Isaac and it was a brain tumor which caused system wide symptoms such as extreme fatigue. Kind of puts that two O 1 batting average in perspective. And while he wasn't hot out of the gate this year, Xavier Isaac has really turned it on lately. He entered play on Wednesday batting or I'm sorry, interplay Wednesday slashing 331-460-8653 in his last 34 games. That's with 11 homers and five steals in those 34 games. His strikeout rate, which remember first started to get away from 2024. It's still a 28% for the season, but during that Hot 34 game stretch down to 23%. I'm willing to give Xavier Isaac benefit of the doubt given what he's gone through physically, and he looks very much like a top prospect to me again, Brandon Compton of the Marlins, this was their second round pick last year. Unpacking Compton, White, Bresnahan, and Fragosa's Potential Supposed to have big power but trouble with pitch recognition, pitch selection and the strikeout rate is high this year, but I don't know what's gotten into him since he moved up to AA Pensacola. Wasn't that good at high A but got to AA Pensacola and he has just gone crazy here in 38 games Brandon Compton has hit 349 with 17 home runs, so nearly a home run every other game. A12O6 OPS strikeout rate again is still high, but it. It seems like he must have figured something out because moving up to AA you'd expect him to see a lot more, a wider variety of pitches and and he's killing it. So Brandon Compton needs to be on dynasty radars. Lonnie Smith, Lonnie White. Excuse me, Lonnie White of the Pirates. He was a prospect who started to gain some traction a couple years ago and never a top 100 guy, but the name was floated because he had an 881 OPS in the lower levels. That was in 2023. But then back-to-back years at Hi A, where Lonnie White just didn't do much of anything. He figured it out this year, moved up very quickly to AA and has continued to thrive there between the two stops. He's already a 2020 man. He's reached base at almost a 400 clip. Lonnie White has, and this was a former Penn Statewide receiver recruit. So good athlete and now with that high walk rate, especially, we're seeing Lonnie White develop a quality approach. I think he's I think he's back in the prospect conversation after two lost years there. Jacob Bresnahan, a starting pitcher for the Giants, His last outing, most recent one at high A was not the greatest. And yet even with that outing, last 10 starts there at high. AA15070, RAA .85 WHIP 10.5 K per 9. And you know even though still an 8 ball, the Giants let him go 6 plus innings and six of those ten starts so they're not handling him with with kid gloves. I think he's probably overdue for a promotion to AA at this point. 21 years old, dominating, throwing, working deep into games. But in any case, Bresnahan has shown us a lot this year and I think very much prospect on the rise. And then finally, Luis Fragosa of the Twins. This is a 19 year old only at Lowe, but he's 19 and numbers are really good, 317 batting average, 14 homers, 19 steals because he's in the Florida State League. We have stat cast readings too, and they look very strong. Exit velocities in the 70th to 80th percentile range. Expected stats in the 90th percentile range. There are strikeout issues here, chase issues for Luis Fragosa, but there's for. For a 19 year old, the power is impressive enough to think he might have a future. Speaker 1 All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. Who's Next? Salas, Velazquez, Anderson & More Welcome back FPT Express and let's countdown the five on the verge. Obviously, a lot of names have graduated from this list recently with Josh, Josh Baez and all the shortstops getting called up. But the five on the verge #5 is Ethan Salas from the Padres. Speaker 2 I want to make clear, I don't know that Ethan Salas is really the fifth most likely to be called up. I think there are a bunch of prospects that are equally likely to be called up in the next couple weeks. I say couple weeks because that includes September 1st when rosters expand by two. We're already inside 45 days to go, so all these players are going to keep their rookie eligibility. But that September 1st date is another milestone. I think there are really 2 clear standouts, which we'll obviously get to in a minute, but Ethan Salas is 1. We haven't highlighted much recently and his call up would make sense. The Padres obviously fighting for a wild card spot. They're getting adequate production from Luis Campusano, but defensively he rates so poorly that he's only playing like half the time. Ethan Salas is a defensive stand out and it took him a while. Remember, he was a consensus top ten overall prospect when he reached AA as a 17 year old and then kind of stalled there. He's made a huge leap this year, still only 20. So it would be aggressive, but he's a 20 year old who's throttling the ball at AAA. And again, it would be a a clear defensive upgrade for the Padres as well. Three home runs in his fifteen games at AA, 10 extra base hits already the real eye opener, 99% zone contact rate at AAA, which, you know, obviously that's, that's a small impacted by a small sample, but even over a small sample, that's just an impossibly good number. I think Ethan Sallis, if the Padres are willing to be aggressive, he might be ready for the next opportunity. Speaker 1 #4 on the list is Ralphy Velazquez of the Guardians, and we know the Guardians are always looking for offense. Speaker 2 They are now. They did just acquire a left-handed hitting first baseman at the trade deadline, Nathaniel Lowe, and he's done fine with them so far. I, I, I imagine they weren't expecting Ralphy Velazquez to go off at AAA like he has 'cause he only recently got there. He's 21 years old. There are some chase issues here, so he could stand to have some more development time, but he has indeed gone off with eleven home runs in his past 16 games and the power's legit here for Ralphie Velasquez. He is one of those rare first base prospects who was a consensus top 100 guy coming into the season and has climbed the ladder all the way to AAA. Even with the addition of Nathaniel Lowe they could fit him in. They don't have a dedicated DH so got to be on the lookout for Ralphy Velazquez possibly. Speaker 1 All right #3 on the list is Quinn Matthews of the Cardinals, who made a start earlier this week but then was sent back to AAA after the start. Speaker 2 Yeah. And and it's going to seem a little underwhelming be because we have seen him come up for a couple spot starts and neither one was lights out. There were some good signs but they were short and had some some control issues as he always has. But I think he's this kind of just shows you the state of stashing prospects right now. I think it's almost 100%. He makes more starts for the Cardinals this year. I don't know how many more, but he will make more. Everybody needs more starting pitchers because of the amount of attrition, of attrition there. Your next pitching need is only a week away and Matthews has at least shown himself to be competitive. So he'll definitely be up. He'll be competitive and it's at a position where everybody has a need. I think if you're looking to stash a prospect, he's probably pretty high on the list. Speaker 1 All right, Next up we get to #2 on the list, and that is Walker Jenkins of the twins. It's a little baffling that it hasn't happened yet. Speaker 2 Yeah, a little bit, because the twins, among the many AL teams who are fighting for that third wild card spot, they were buyers and so they have a lot at stake here. Then it's important for them to claim that spot. They're still very much in it. Walker Jenkins can help. He could help if only because of how good he is it getting on base. That has been a standout skill of his from the time he was first drafted 5th overall in 2023. He's had a lot of injuries between then and now, but still finds himself on the cusp of the majors at age 21. That speaks to that skill level, those bat skills that are so obvious. The power may not be fully realized yet because the polar rate is not where it should be, but he hits the ball plenty hard for a 21 year old. And again, those on base skills are are are something the Twins could use as they're fighting for a playoff spot. So I think again I said that there's a clear top 2 to stash Jenkins. Here is number 2. Speaker 1 And the top prospect to stash, and has been for the majority of the season, remains Kade Anderson of the Mariners. Scott I'm starting to think that he might just stay in the Miners forever and just become the greatest minor league pitcher that ever. Speaker 2 Lived. You're not kidding about him being the greatest minor league pitcher whoever lived. So to put his stats in perspective, his ERA now sits at one O 6 and he's lowered it in four straight outings. In only two of his past 11 outings has he allowed even a single earned run. 2 of 11 during that 11 start stretch. It's an O 61 ERA .57 WHIP, 12.7 K per 9A129 batting average against. If you remove the one bat start. He had a five run outing on May 15th. He's given up six runs all season, which is good for an O 60 ERA. Speaker 1 Which is basically what Bryce Miller just gave up his previous start. Speaker 2 Well, and that's the thing. So we've been saying it would take the Mariners going with a six man rotation to bring Kade up Kate Anderson, which seemed plausible 'cause they did it for a while earlier this season when they still had Luis Castillo. But I'm not sure they even need to go six man anymore because Bryce Miller's falling apart. So they might just need to slot in Kade Anderson for him. Maybe they're waiting for rosters to expand September 1st, maybe not. In any case, he's already 73% rostered on CB in CBS leagues. People know the deal and I think in the long run you're still going to be happy if if you've stashed them. Speaker 1 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 FBT Express. And we will be back again this weekend. Bye bye.