Baseball is back! And with the super fun way the rules are set up in MLB, now is the only time to watch the best young players compete in MLB uniforms and in High Definition on your television screen. When the games start to count, you can watch them “work on their defense” in grainy footage on your laptop, although MiLB.tv is claiming more games will be available in high quality video this season. We shall see. Here is The Dynasty Baseball Rundown (2/24/19):
Click the below links for my previous off-season content:
2019 Top 1,000 Dynasty Baseball Rankings
2019 Top 472 Dynasty Baseball Prospect Rankings
11 Dynasty Baseball Rules to Live By
2020 Top 90 Dynasty Baseball First Year Player Draft Rankings (1st Edition)
Yoan Moncada CHW, 3B/2B – Writing about Moncada brings back memories to the very first Rundown I wrote back on April 11, 2016. It was a simpler time back then, when doing a write-up like this was a novelty and there weren’t 1,000 other websites in the fantasy prospect game. Other than Baseball America’s prospect hot sheet, my fantasy prospect rundown was just about the only other game in town, and definitely the only fantasy slanted one. I like to think I helped inspire the boom in prospect and fantasy prospect coverage which transpired very shortly after that first rundown hit the wire, and while the landscape is more competitive, dynasty baseball fans deserved the content explosion. Watching the community build from the ground up has been awesome. As for Moncada, he went 2 for 3 with a run, RBI, and K. Adding him in the rundown was more about bringing this thing full circle than for his performance, but also to remind you that he is still a future stud despite his lukewarm MLB numbers thus far.
Pete Alonso NYM, 1B – Pete “don’t call me Peter” Alonso blasted a mammoth homer to center field off a 94 MPH Touki Toussaint fastball. If he keeps this up, he can make us all call him P-Diddy for all I care.
Willie Calhoun TEX, DH – The re-motivated Calhoun lost 24 pounds this off-season by not eating after 7:30 pm and not playing late night video games. I cut down on video games in my early 20’s too, which resulted in me playing more Baseball Mogul on my computer. I don’t know, it felt like a win at the time. Being that Calhoun was already a relatively small guy, I hope dropping that weight doesn’t negatively impact his power at all. He went 0 for 4 to kick things off in the DH spot, and was one of the few players around baseball to get a full game of at-bats.
Byron Buxton MIN, OF – 2 for 2 with a homer and 5 RBI. He was atrocious in the majors last year and wasn’t all that hot in the minors either, so any glimpse of dominance is a good sign in my book.
Yusniel Diaz BAL, OF – Smacked a 2 run homer to left field on a swing where he wasn’t even completely on balance. Diaz looked like an absolute beast at the plate too, and while I gave him a prime projection of 23 homers, I’m thinking even that might be too low.
Cedric Mullins BAL, OF – Set the table going 2 for 2 with 2 runs, a walk and a stolen base. Don’t be surprised if this is common practice for Mullins during the season. He’s still being underrated.
Enyel De Los Santos PHI, RHP – 2 IP with 4 K’s, 0 BB and 0 ER. He isn’t going to crack the opening day rotation, but he has some nasty stuff, and when injuries/ineffectiveness inevitably hits the Phillies starters, you should scoop Enyel before it’s too late. Adonis Medina pitched a clean inning in this game too, with 1 strikeout and a fastball that reached 96 MPH.
Max Schrock STL, 2B – 3 for 4 with a homer, 2 runs, 4 RBI, and 0 K’s. Somewhere far, far away (Canada), in a windowless office deep in the bowels of the stadium with a single fluorescent light bulb overhead, Carson Cistulli is smiling. Or at least that’s how I imagine it anyway.
Sandy Alcantara MIA, RHP – Will need a strong spring to lock down a rotation spot, and Alcantara showed well in his first outing, going 2 IP of scoreless ball with 3 K’s, 1 BB, and 1 hit. He hit 98 MPH on the gun, and was generally in control of his plus stuff.
Adalberto Mondesi KC, SS/2B – Possibly the most divisive player in fantasy baseball this season, Mondesi opened the spring going 2 for 2 with 2 runs scored. He’s going to be one of the most fun players to follow all year … or one of the most depressing.
Kris Bryant CHC, 3B – 2 for 2 with a dinger. Bryant was feeling good about himself after the game too, basically telling all of his doubters to piss off and how the negative chatter only motivated him coming into this season. Not gonna lie, I’m a little concerned about trading him away in my hometown dynasty league for Joey Gallo, Bo Bichette, and Garrett Hampson. I needed the haul to kick start my rebuild, but I’m starting to sweat a bit.
Corey Ray MIL, OF – 2 for 3 with a homer and more importantly 0 strikeouts. Considering he is the former 5th overall pick in the draft and coming off a season where he hit 27 homers and stole 37 bases, the hype around Ray is mighty quiet.
Gleyber Torres NYY, 2B/SS – Smoothly lifted a homer to dead center field. With The Boss’ sons now pinching pennies, Gleyber may end up the Yanks long term SS if they don’t pay up for Didi next off-season.
Michael Chavis BOS, 3B – Scorched a frozen rope the opposite way for an impressive homer. Chavis has one of the quickest and most powerful bats in the minors.
Nick Madrigal CHW, 2B – 1 for 3 with a strikeout. Only mentioning him because I’m just shocked he struck out.
Taylor Ward LAA, 3B – 1 for 3 with a grand slam. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ward snuck his way into legitimate playing time season, and would keep an eye on him in deeper leagues.
Shed Long SEA, 2B – 1 for 3 with a bomb to dead center. He’s blocked right now, but if Seattle continues to sell off during the season, Long has a chance to put up some fantasy friendly stat lines.
Colton Welker COL, 3B – In his first career MLB (spring training) at-bat, Welker blasted a 2 run homer off a 79 MPH curveball. I’ve loved his swing for a long time now. Sam Hilliard knocked a homer in this game too
Jake Faria TB, RHP – After an awful 2018 it was nice to see Faria look crisp in the early going, throwing a perfect 1.2 innings with 3 strikeouts and his fastball reaching 93 MPH.
Chance Sisco BAL, C – Sisco is trying to nail down Baltimore’s starting catcher role, both for this season and the future. He made a strong opening argument yesterday, going 1 for 1 with a homer and a walk. He always had more raw power than he showed in the minors, so hopefully this is just the start of things to come.
Fernando Romero MIN, RHP – 1 IP with 2 K’s. Romero is in that hype-less prospect-ish void where he isn’t quite a major leaguer yet, but has also graduated from prospect status. Regardless of the role, Romero is ready and has the stuff to make an impact in fantasy leagues this year.
Ramon Urias STL, 2B – Luis Urias‘ older brother. Ramon raked in the Mexican League before slashing .300/.356/.516 with 13 homers and a 58/24 K/BB split between Double-A and Triple-A in 2018. He continued to impress yesterday going 2 for 4 with a dinger. St. Louis has about a dozen underrated infielders in the majors and minors, so who knows if he can find playing time.
Derek Fisher HOU, OF – 0-3 with 2 K’s. He is going to need to play better than this to force his way into an overstuffed Houston organization.
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By Michael Halpern (@MichaelCHalpern)
Email: michaelhalpern@imaginarybrickwall.com
Twitter: Imaginary Brick Wall (@DynastyHalp)