There’s no such thing as a can’t-miss baseball prospect — but, if there was, their numbers would look almost exactly like Roman Anthony’s.
Over the past two seasons, Anthony has slashed an outrageous .319/.443/.503 at Triple-A Worcester with eight steals, 76 walks, 35 extra-base hits and 11 home runs. He only recently turned 21, yet he’s been one of the toughest outs at the highest minor league level dating back to last year.
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Abraham Toro, a veteran of five different organizations across nine seasons, recently offered some pretty strong Anthony hype:
“I don’t say this lightly — I think he’s the best minor league hitter I’ve ever seen. I think he can be an absolute star in MLB.”
It’s honestly somewhat shocking Anthony has not yet been called up by Boston (although his situation is obviously affected by Rafael Devers’ positional inflexibility). Whenever he arrives, he’s likely to deliver useful across-the-board contributions. Anthony may not be dominant in any single standard fantasy category, but he should be helpful everywhere.
This swing is art:
Here’s hoping we see Anthony in Fenway very soon. He’s obviously worth stashing ahead of the eventual promotion.
Chase Burns is gonna need a new challenge
Ideally, that new challenge would await him in Cincinnati, but Triple-A Louisville might be more likely. In any case, Burns has been unreasonably good in the Southern League.
The right-hander has struck out 49 batters and walked only four (!) over 35 innings at Chattanooga, producing a 1.54 ERA and 0.77 WHIP. It’s difficult to argue he has anything left to prove at Double-A.
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Burns is certainly capable of making a late-season fantasy splash, so he’s a priority player to slide into a vacant NA roster spot.
Jonathon Long is launching missiles
Seriously, just look at this thing:
Long is crushing at Triple-A Iowa, hitting .344/.419/.561 with nine homers among his 21 XBHs. He’s primarily playing first base, but he’s also seen time at third and in left field, so he offers some defensive flexibility.
The Cubs don’t have a glaring lineup need at the moment, and Long is much too good to waste away as a bench bat, but he’s an injury away from fantasy relevance. He’s batting .342 in the high minors over the past two seasons.
Ryan Ritter, also raking
Colorado is a dreadful team off to a historically poor start, and it is clearly willing to shuffle pieces in and out of the major league roster. Perhaps they could soon find a use for a 24-year-old middle-infield prospect who’s produced a 1.059 OPS at Triple-A Albuquerque. Ritter is scorching hot in recent weeks, with six multi-hit games and seven home runs in his last eight. He’s up to 16 bombs for the season and he’s getting himself on-base at a .416 clip. Ritter has a 20/20 season to his credit in the minors, so he has all-category appeal in fantasy.
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Bubba Chandler remains obscene, needs to be rostered
Chandler’s 101-mph heat has proven to be too much for the hitters of the International League. After 11 starts at Indianapolis this season, Chandler’s ERA is 2.03 and his K/9 is a ridiculous 12.8. Every time he takes the mound, it’s another five innings and 7-9 strikeouts. He’s allowed only two homers all year. Pittsburgh has just about run out of baseball reasons to keep him stashed in Triple-A.
Ronny Mauricio gets the call
Mark Vientos is dealing with a hamstring issue, so the Mets are calling up one of Earth’s hottest hitters. Mauricio has gone 17-for-33 over his nine games at Triple-A, launching 3 homers, scoring 10 runs and swiping 4 bags. His recovery from knee surgery has clearly gone about as well as it could possibly go.
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Defensively, the 24-year-old Mauricio has been seeing time at second base and third, which of course makes sense in consideration of New York’s most pressing needs. As great as the Mets have been so far this season, the bottom-half of the batting order isn’t so intimidating. Mauricio is worth an add if you have middle-infield needs.
Justin Crawford, running wild
Honestly, the entire roster at Lehigh Valley has been pretty great — the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate is currently 41-16 and we’ve already written up various other members in previous Farm Reports. Let the record show that Crawford is also cooking. He’s delivered back-to-back three-hit games, raising his season average to .338. He’s stolen 20 bags over 49 games and he’s boosted his walk-rate to 10.5%, nudging his OBP above .400. Crawford is a .320 career hitter in the minors with a pair of 40-steal seasons to his credit, so nothing about the year he’s having seems fluky. There isn’t much power in the 21-year-old’s game, but he has a clear chance to be a category leader in speed and average.
