Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Ranking the Shortstop Prospects! (08/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

It was a big way for Wire Weekend. Let's rank shortstop prospects up next on fantasy baseball today. Express. What's the man to empty stress on Monday August 10th? I am for example, joined by Chris Towers and we have more prospects. The twins called up Kaelin Colpepper over the weekend who was having a great season in the miners. He's got power. He's got speed. He's 31% rostered. He started two of three games. Didn't start Sunday against a righty, but they were also facing Jacob Miznirowski, who is the best pitcher at all baseball. So Chris, your thoughts on Kaelin Colpepper, the prospect, some expectations. And then rank the three. We have Kaelin Colpepper, George Lombard Jr. and on hell, Hanau, all called up in the same week. Yeah. So I think the first thing that's worth noting is if not for some injuries, Kaelin Colpepper probably would have beat on hell, Hanau and George Lombard to the majors by a couple of months. Maybe it seemed like he was on the way. You know, back in June and then I think he missed a lot of July with a glued injury and a hand injury. And if not for that, he probably would have been up already. And he's a really good prospect, you know, maybe in real life prospect rankings, he's not quite as highly ranked as Lombard and Hanau, but he's a top 50 prospect in his own right. I think if he's not ranked where those other guys are, it's mostly like plate discipline stuff where his strikeout rates closer to 20%. There's a closer like 16%. He doesn't walk quite as much though. He still walks planning. He doesn't strike out that much. Um, I think his skill set might be more finely tuned for fantasy than these two guys, at least in a five by five road O context, because in 133 games between double A and triple A over the last two seasons, he has 25 homers and 27 stall and bases. I think he is likely to be a bigger stolen base threat than Lombard and Hanau. And, you know, he might not have the raw power. Lombard does, but might be able to get to it more in games. So I, I would take Lombard at the top just because as long as he holds his own, he's going to be starting every single day for the end because I think there's no doubt about the playing time with Colt Pepper and Hanau. They should play every day, but I think they do have to burn it because, you know, Colt Pepper, we got the day off on Sunday, the, the twins, you know, they've got guys who can play shortstop if they aren't happy with him. So there is some room there and then Hanau, it's a very crowded infield in Cleveland. They've got Travis, Bessana playing the H. If it comes down to it, Bessana's been pretty bad for a couple of months. They might just pick an out over Bessana, but he doesn't have a natural spot right now, at least the spot all of his own. So I would rank them Lombard, Colt Pepper and Hanau, but Lombard's like twice as rostered as Kaling Colt Pepper. And when Fab ran on Sunday night, it was Lombard who was getting the really big bids. And Colt Pepper was kind of flying under the radar a little bit relatively speaking. And that's kind of what I expected. Lombard has a lot more hype playing for the Yankees will help. And if you were, I think, you know, maybe you view Hanau and Colt Pepper as kind of the consolation prizes, I think these guys are all so even as prospects that kind of just want whichever one's cheaper. And that was probably Colt Pepper in most leagues. Yeah. And what makes it harder is that all three have looked pretty good so far, right? They've all done something and I totally get that it's a really small sample size, but Colt Pepper's first game up. He hits home run. Lombard has only played five games. He has homework twice already on Hell, Hanau, his first game for hits. And then he also home over the weekend. So there, these were top prospects and they've come up and they're already making some noise. But I do think I agree with your ranking there of Lombard, Colt Pepper and then on Hell, Hanau. Welcome back to Jackson Job, who look good in his return at the Giants five shut out innings with four strikeouts. And his velocity was up nearly two miles per hour on his fastball in this first start compared to last year. He touched 100 miles per hour. Chris, would you see here from Jackson Job and he is 47% rostered. Do you view him as a must ad player after this season debut? Definitely not must ad. And I look over at Pittsburgh and how they've handled Jared Jones. And that would be the biggest concern that I would have with Jackson Job is one, the Tigers aren't totally out of it. You know, if they get a good couple of months from Jackson Job, maybe they can go on a run. But I think on the whole, the team that just traded Terrick Scooble, I don't think it's unfair to say they're not trying their hardest to make the playoffs right now. And so, you know, I think we're going to see some limitations on Joe. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 85 pitch count the rest of the way. And you have to be really good to matter in fantasy with your that limited. So I think there's some concern there. And there's just some concern about Jackson Job as a pitcher when we saw him last before the injury. The stuff looked great, you know, it looked good on the stuff models and the, the gifs, the pitching into gifs look great. And then the results were not very good. And he didn't miss nearly as many basses you would expect. He didn't get chases the way you would expect. And so I still have that concern. If he's throwing two miles an hour harder and the fastball can be more of a whiff pitch, that can help overcome some of what he might be missing in terms of whiffs from the breaking balls. But it's one star. I don't want to overreact too much, including to the velocity because first start back, there's going to be some adrenaline. I think there's a lot to like about Jackson Job. I think there's a lot to be excited about. Not close to a must add pitcher though, I think. All right. Let's take a quick break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back fantasy baseball today. Express and we are taking a look at waiver wire ads from the weekend. And a couple of their pitchers who have emerged here. Sean Monaya was awesome against the pirates. Seven innings of one run ball 11 strikeouts to zero walks. His velocity was up. His fastball was outstanding. And Tyler Malley look great in his brave debut. Six shout out innings. Nine strikeouts. He does have nine strikeouts and back to back starts. And his last five outings. He has a 273 ERA and a 104 whiff. So Chris, your thoughts here on Monaya and Tyler Malley. And then how would you rank all three? Monaya Malley and Jackson Job. I think I would go Monaya at the top. And part of that is just we've seen stretches where he's been really, really good. Before, including in 2024 in the final two months, he changed his arm angle, changed his approach to pitching, went on more like a criss-sale type approach, and kind of pitched like criss-sale for a couple of months. I think it's unfair to expect him to do that, but he always misses a lot of bats. He ditched his sinker in this one for his four seamer. That's probably a better move. Neither is going to get a lot of weak contacts. So you might as well get the one that can at least miss some bats. And his sweeper has been excellent. So I think Sean Monaya, just because of the likelihood of Job being limited. And I think similar-ish expectations. I would put Sean Monaya at the top. Malley, you know, it's first start with the new team. So you always want to see what they did differently. He kind of lowered his cutter usage through his four seamer and split or a little more. That's probably a good idea. The splitters is best swing and miss pitch. And Malley's a guy we've seen really good stretches from as well, including all of last season when he had a sub-3ERA. He's got a sub-3ERA over the past five starts. Don't really buy it, but, you know, little home team upgrade here with Atlanta. Maybe he can get something going. I don't think he's a nine-k, uh, nine-k's every six innings guy or anything close. But I think Malley can be useful. So if you're shooting for upside, I'll go Job ahead of him. But I think all three are pretty good ads. But Monaya is at the top. What about a stash at starting pitcher? Joe Muscrove through 39 pitches in his first rehab start earlier in the week. And then on Sunday, it was three and a third innings. Two strikeouts, a zero walks. His fastball velocity was up 1.7 miles per hour from the last time we saw him. He's 27% rostered. Chris, what do you think about stashing Joe Muscrove right now? Yeah, that velocity reading is pretty interesting. 1.7 miles per hour up over the last time we saw him. As you said, you know, he only threw 39 pitches in this one. It's been a very, very rocky road back from, Tommy John's surgery, I believe. But if we can get him back in a couple of weeks, it's a very good home ballpark. We've seen a lot of success from him there. I think it's worth considering it's just we're probably looking at at least two more rehab starts, maybe three before he's fully stretched out. So that's the biggest thing. You just don't have a lot of time left. Your playoffs might start by then. So I think Muscrove's a really interesting stash if you're playing all the way through the end of September. You know, it could be fully ready to go by September and could be really good. But in some leagues, that may not matter. Some relievers to add for saves. We have Hogan Harris of the athletics, Brandon Garcia with the D-backs, Dylan Smith with the Giants, and then some combination of the Angels guys, Sammy Natera, Jr. and Ben Joyce. Chris, how would you rank these four if you're in need of saves down the stretch? Boy, I think I would go with Brandon Garcia at your top, but I don't love that he came in the seventh inning in his most recent appearance. That's a little, just a little bit concerning. I'm not going to say it blows it up because, look, sometimes the highest-leverd situation is one out in a tie game with two runners on in the seventh inning, right? Like that. That's not a crazy time to use your closer. So I think you can excuse that. But he is a lefty. You never know if managers are going to be totally comfortable with that. I think he's the best pitcher in the Diamondbacks bullpen though. At this point, when you're talking about nobody being a shirt of a roll, I'll go with the guy I think is the best pitcher. I think that's Brandon Garcia. Garcia and honestly, Sam and Tara might be the second choice for similar reasons. I think he's probably the best pitcher in that. Angel's bullpen. He's been really good this season. He is a lefty. Some concern there. Obviously don't know what the role is going to be. I think he's only gotten the one save. So that's concerning. But I think he's just the best pitcher in that bullpen. So I'll bet on that. All right. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast, fantasy baseball today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts we've found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today, Express. And we will be back again later this week. Bye-bye.