If you were making a list of top prospects to stash on your Fantasy team based purely on talent and proximity, you could do worse than just picking a name out of a hat from the Triple-A Norfolk Tides lineup.
Look, right there at the top is Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, and a guy who we assumed was going to be on the Orioles Opening Day roster right up until he was sent down at the last moment. Hitting third for the Tides? Heston Kjerstad, a top-50 prospect in his own right, with top-15 guy Coby Mayo hitting cleanup. Right behind him? Kyle Stowers, who isn't a top prospect, necessarily, but who did have a huge spring and has 44 homers in 190 games at Triple-A in his career.
That Tides squad went absolutely bonkers on Wednesday night, scoring 26 runs, with those four posting these lines:
- Holliday: 4 for 6, 5 R, 2 2B, 2 RB, 2 BB
- Kjerstad: 5 for 7, 4 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 10 RBI
- Mayo: 5 for 7, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI
- Stowers: 4 for 7, 3 R, 1 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI
Of course, there's a problem with stashing those guys: The Orioles don't really have any room for them. That's not entirely true – second base is still pretty wide open for Holliday whenever he proves ready (and the Orioles have a financial incentive to promote him, I guess). But the Orioles already have Colton Cowser, a top-60 prospect in his own right, mostly stuck to the bench, having started just one of the first six games this season.
Talent isn't the only thing that matters when it comes to valuing prospects for Fantasy, in other words, and while the Orioles have an almost unfair amount of hitting talent in the high minors – including top-20 catcher prospect Samuel Basallo, who will open the season at Double-A as a 19-year-old – but for the most part, those prospects just don't have a clear path to the majors, which makes it tough to justify stashing them.
Which is why Holliday is the only one of the team's prospects to make it onto Scott White's "Five On the Verge" section of the first version of the Prospects Report column. Holliday is, of course, the top prospect in all of baseball to stash these days, going 10 for 25 with a couple of homers in the first week of the season. And he's joined by Junior Caminero of the Rays, Ricky Tiedemann of the Blue Jays, Paul Skenes of the Pirates, and Kyle Manzardo of the Guardians as the five prospects who could get the call anytime and are worth stashing on your Fantasy benches right now.
That I'm writing about a minor-league game from two days ago should probably tell you that Thursday wasn't the most interesting day in the history of Major League Baseball. There were just six games on the schedule, and nothing that interesting happened; no obvious, must-add waiver-wire targets jumped off the box score, and nothing too noteworthy happened in any of the games.
And that's okay. That'll happen sometimes, especially on Thursdays, when much of the league will be off for travel days. We'll still recap what happened the previous day here, but at least today, I'm eschewing my typical writeup of the top waiver-wire targets of the day, and instead focusing on a little preview of what I'll be looking out for this weekend. Below, I've written about 10 pitchers to watch this weekend, either because we might be looking to add them come Sunday or because it might already be time to cut bait with them. Plus, we've got the latest on Eury Perez, Royce Lewis, and more ahead of the weekend.
Let's get to it.
10 pitchers to watch this weekend
Bailey Ober, SP, Twins vs. CLE Sunday– We're almost certainly not dropping Ober no matter what happens this weekend, but … it'd be really nice if he didn't give up three homers and eight runs in 1.1 innings this time around! There was a ton of hype around Ober and his increased velocity this spring, but he wasn't fooling anyone in the first start. Was it a pitch-tipping issue? Or is there something about the extra effort Ober is throwing with that might make him a less effective pitcher? We'll find out a bit more this weekend.
Mackenzie Gore, SP, Nationals vs. PHI Sunday– Gore was also throwing harder in his first start, but the most interesting thing there was his changeup, as I wrote earlier this week. He actually took velocity (and spin) off the pitch, while throwing it more than he ever had in an MLB start. Gore has been looking for another pitch to round out his arsenal, and I thought his first start was extremely promising, despite forgettable results.
Jordan Hicks, RP, Giants vs. SD Friday – Hicks took three mph off his fastball in his return to the rotation, but also featured a splitter he threw 14 times – he threw it just 18 times all last season, so while it's not a new pitch for him, it might as well be. He got four of his strikeouts with that pitch, and if it can be that kind of weapon for him, we might have severely underrated his upside this spring.
Michael King, RP, Padres @SF Saturday – We've seen King twice now, and neither performance has been particularly impressive, as he has 10 walks and five earned runs allowed in 7.1 innings of work. Predictably, his velocity has been down in his return to the rotation, and if he's not going to command his pitches well either, we might be talking about dropping King before long.
Erick Fedde, SP, White Sox @KC Friday– Fedde never really built much hype this spring, but with seven strikeouts in just 4.2 innings in his debut, he gave us something to be excited about. If he can follow it up by going a bit deeper the second time out while remaining effective, we could be talking about him as a priority waiver add Sunday.
Kutter Crawford, SP, Red Sox @LAA Saturday – The whole Red Sox starting rotation has been pretty terrific to open the season, including Crawford, who struck out seven over six innings in his first turn. He prioritized his sweeper and got great results with it, and a second strong start in a row could make him worth rostering in all leagues.
Kenta Maeda, SP, Twins vs. OAK Saturday – Maeda isn't entirely without upside, posting a 3.36 ERA with 103 strikeouts in his final 88.1 innings last season. But he's also the kind of pitcher who really doesn't deserve much leash, because if he isn't performing, nobody in your league is likely to add him if you drop him. So, he's pitching for his job this weekend, at least in Fantasy.
Luis Severino, RP, Mets @CIN Saturday – I don't want to give up on Severino so soon, but given how bad he was last season, I'm not planning on hanging on to him long if he continues to struggle. There was some bad defense to blame for some of his struggles in his first start, but he also needs to get a lot more whiffs than the six he had in that first outing so we can at least dream on some upside.
DL Hall, RP, Brewers vs. SEA Saturday – The same goes for Hall, who had just five whiffs on 29 swings in his debut last weekend. His stuff just wasn't particularly sharp in his own move from the bullpen to the rotation, and we're going to need to see more from him to justify keeping him around.
Luis Gil, SP, Yankees vs. TOR Sunday – Gil looked pretty good in his first outing against the Diamondbacks, but he only made it through 4.2 innings on his 84 pitches. He'll need to be both more efficient and capable of sustaining his stuff for more pitches to really matter for Fantasy, but the stuff – aided by a velocity jump – played, at least.
