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Rookies and prospects who have recently been called up to the Major Leagues. Max Brill evaluates the most relevant rookies for Week 13 of the 2018 fantasy baseball season.
Nick Senzel's season came to an unfortunate end this past week when it was announced that he would need season-ending surgery. Those of you stashing the infielder in redraft leagues can safely drop him to stash another prospect. I suggest Kyle Tucker; the Astros front office has given Tucker rave reviews and indicated that he should be up within a few weeks, sooner rather than later. Whatever Tucker's projected call-up date is, I'm taking the under.
July is just around the corner which means we will hopefully get to see the other blue-chippers in the minor leagues graduate to the majors soon. I said the same thing at the end of May (about June), but I have a good feeling about this. I have to be correct eventually, right?
Franklin Barreto, Brian Anderson, and Reyes Moronta leave the list this week. Sandy Alcantara is the only guy joining the list. Without further ado, this week's rookie report:
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Prospect Call-Ups and Rookie Performances
Ronald Acuna (OF, ATL)
Ronald Acuna is expected to be back in the lineup on Friday. I probably should have put this in the "Quick Hits" section, but Acuna returning is more deserving than that. It's Ronald Time.
Sandy Alcantara (SP, MIA)
If you're looking for a boost in the wins category do yourself a favor and skip this blurb because Alcantara pitches for the Marlins. Alcantara has pretty decent numbers in the minor leagues but he is not very intriguing for fantasy purposes because his strikeout numbers are not that impressive. Yes, he struck out 10.8 batters per nine innings last year in his MLB stint, but that was an eight-inning sample of relief pitching. I much prefer to trust his 8.5 K/9 from 454 minor league innings, which is not bad by any means, but is not very exciting. If nothing else, Alcantara is a watch list add right now to see how he fares against major league bats. In deeper leagues I can understand adding him for the upside, but for now he's more of a wait-and-see guy for me.
Jonathan Loaisiga (SP, NYY)
After a middling second start from Loaisiga, the young righty absolutely dazzled against the Phillies, throwing four perfect innings before allowing a walk to lead off the fifth. Loaisiga didn't give up his first hit of the day until the sixth. He finished with 5.1 scoreless IP, 1 H, 2 BB, and 8 SO. The fact that he threw just 86 pitches and was not allowed to finish the sixth inning is a little disappointing for those of us in quality starts leagues, and it's possible that Loaisiga does not go deep enough into games to help out with quality starts, but everything else is going well so that should not make a huge difference. Like I said last week, Loaisiga's ceiling is high enough to warrant being owned in nearly every format.
Shane Bieber (SP, CLE)
Bieber is pitching himself into a rotation spot in Cleveland. Adam Plutko's last start was decent, but Bieber's most recent start was even better. On Wednesday night against the Cardinals, Bieber put up this line: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO. He lowered his season ERA to 2.22 and generated more ground balls than fly balls for the third time in four starts.
The strikeouts are not what we are accustomed to from Bieber in the bigs but nobody is complaining about this line. It's getting harder and harder for Cleveland to justify optioning Bieber back to Triple-A even with a fully healthy rotation so embrace your Bieber-Fever fully and do not see a doctor.
Mike Soroka (SP, ATL)
I told people not to panic when Soroka put up a clunker last time. Whoops. Soroka is now on the disabled list until late August at the very earliest due to the shoulder issue he is currently working through. An MRI revealed that there was no structural damage for the young righty but the Braves clearly felt it necessary to give him a lengthy break because he was placed on the disabled list earlier this week. He's a safe drop in all redraft leagues.
Quick Hits
Diego Castillo (RP, TB)
Castillo is still down there in Tampa doing his thing. Over the past week, he has thrown 4.1 IP, struck out three batters, and allowed just four baserunners. One of them scored. His ERA on the season is 1.76.
Juan Soto (OF, WAS)
Soto's OPS is now down to 1.008 so he's basically droppable (it's a joke, guys). Yes, it's down to 1.008.
Seranthony Dominguez (RP, PHI)
Dominguez picked up a two-out save on Wednesday night to improve his season line to a 2.10 ERA, 0.66 WHIP (yup, that's real), 11.9 K/9, 1.4 BB/9 and still one of the coolest names in baseball.
Gleyber Torres (2B/3B, NYY)
Torres' OPS is below .900 now. He, too, is droppable just like Soto. Again, I kid.
Josh Hader Update
He's going to be on the list every week so I'm just giving him his own section. This is probably long overdue.
2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO. ERA: 1.33. WHIP: 0.76.
