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Rookies and minor league players to watch in 2018. Michael Grennell lists the top fantasy baseball prospects that owners should be following in Week 11.
In this week's edition of Hot Prospects to Watch, we'll take a look at another top prospect getting the call up to the majors in catcher/outfielder Francisco Mejia.
While fantasy owners are happy to see the highly touted Mejia get the call to the majors, there is some concern with the 22-year-old after his struggles throughout most of this season at Triple-A. He's started to turn things around recently, which we'll get into more later on, but his current .214 average, .605 OPS and 21 percent strikeout rate are all career-worsts. These numbers aren't cause to write him off yet, but they definitely merit closer scrutiny from fantasy owners.
We'll talk more about Mejia in a moment, but for now let's take a look at some of the other prospects worth keeping an eye on this week.
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Un-Bo-lievably Fast
OF Bo Bichette - New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Double-A: Toronto Blue Jays)
Upcoming games: at Akron 6/12-14, at Altoona 6/15-17
Playing on the same team as Vladimir Guerrero Jr it's easy to see how Bichette can end up being overlooked by many fans and fantasy owners, but Bichette has been putting up solid numbers this year at Double-A New Hampshire. Over his last 10 games, Bichette is hitting .361 with a .925 OPS while also tallying three doubles, a triple and five stolen bases. With those five steals, that now brings up Bichette's season totals to 20 — nearly matching last season's career-high of 22 in 50 fewer games. While the speed is showing well this year, his power numbers are slightly down from last year as he is currently on pace to hit eight home runs and his .438 slugging percentage is more than 100 points lower than last season. While owners should keep an eye on this lack of power, it's very likely he will have a resurgence later this year, as he currently sports a career-low 4.8 percent HR/FB rate despite posting a career-high 43.8 percent fly ball rate.
SP Matt Manning - West Michigan Whitecaps (Single-A: Detroit Tigers)
Projected starts: vs Dayton 6/15, at Fort Wayne 6/23
The Tigers' first round pick in the 2016 Draft, Manning has been putting up some of the best strikeout numbers in the minors this season, averaging almost seven strikeouts per start with a 13.4 K/9 that ranks him 11th across all the minor leagues. While those strikeout numbers look great to fantasy owners, his career-high 14.7 percent walk rate and 5.83 BB/9 give some pause to his hype. Over his last three starts, while he has shined with 19 strikeouts in 15 innings, he has also allowed 10 walks in that span. The good news for those owners wanting to invest in Manning is that he is still young and has some time to cut back on the walks, and if he can do that he could end up being one of the top rookie pitchers two years from now. If you can acquire him for a reasonable price, now is the time to acquire Manning in dynasty leagues.
C/OF Francisco Mejia - Cleveland Indians
Upcoming games: at Chicago (AL) 6/12-14, vs Minnesota 6/15-17
Now we're back to discussing Mejia and his call-up to the majors. After getting national attention in 2016 for his 50-game hitting streak, Mejia saw his average drop from .342 to .297 in 2017, to now .214 this season. His OPS has also taken a tumble in that span, going from .896 to .835 to .605, while his strikeout rate has gone from 14.2 percent in 2016 to 21 percent this year. Basically ever since Mejia got promoted to Double-A his numbers have begun to take a dip, with that dip coming more sharply in 2018 at Triple-A. While those numbers aren't what fantasy owners have come to expect from Mejia, he has begun to turn his season around prior to his promotion. Over his last 10 games, Mejia was hitting .342 with three doubles, a triple and a home run. This is a promising sign that he is starting to come around, but he still has plenty of work to do to regain his fantasy value for this year.
