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Welcome to the 2021 edition of RotoBaller’s Recently Promoted Prospects series for fantasy baseball! Here I discuss some recently promoted MLB prospects and rookies - making note of what I think their upside could be for fantasy baseball managers, and whether they are potential risers or fallers.
It’s early in the season and we’ve already seen 38 rookies make their MLB debut in 2021. For the initial piece, I will highlight five prospects to know for fantasy baseball and their projections. I will use video looks, scouting reports, analytics, and RotoBaller’s premium projections to predict what each player could do if given a continued opportunity in 2021.
Here are your recently promoted prospects for Week 3 of the fantasy baseball season.
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Akil Baddoo, Detroit Tigers
60% Rostered on Yahoo
Situation: The Tigers’ Rule 5 selection of Akil Baddoo in the offseason looks like a stroke of genius by the organization. The 2021 season is young, but the 22-year-old Baddoo looks very worthy of an active roster spot for the rebuilding Tigers this season.
Skill: Baddoo displayed flashes of some intriguing tools when with the Minnesota Twins organization, but he never really had a season where everything coalesced. His raw power (75th percentile max exit velo in 2021) and speed (93rd percentile sprint speed) have been on full display in the Show thus far. The power is real, with Baddoo muscling out three opposite-field shots and this 450-foot tank against Zack Greinke:
450 feet for @AkilBaddoo. ? pic.twitter.com/fkGuSSN0ZC
— MLB (@MLB) April 13, 2021
Projection: Our preseason ATC projections gave Baddoo a .199/.271/.342 slash line with 6 home runs and 6 stolen bases in 228 plate appearances. I will gladly take the over in every department at this point. I think Baddoo will play his way into 400+ PAs and should be a threat for 15 home runs and 15 stolen bases. Just watch the batting average.
Jonathan India, Cincinnati Reds
66% Rostered on Yahoo
Situation: A former first-round pick by the Cincinnati Reds, Jonathan India’s prospect stock took off at the alternate site in 2020. We heard a lot of positive vibes coming from the team, and it culminated with India securing the Reds’ starting second base job right out of spring training.
Skill: India was known as a prospect with the ability to do a number of things at an average or above-average level in the Show. His performance in 2021 thus far would agree with his penchant for contributing value in multiple ways. And even more intriguing, his max exit velocity (79th percentile), sprint speed (86th percentile), and all fields hitting approach suggest that there might be some more progression to come from India’s game this year:
Projection: Our ATC projections give India a .241/.334/.400 slash line with 13 home runs and 7 stolen bases over 460 PAs in 2021. I’m sure he’s unlikely to retain a BABIP over .400 moving forward, so the ATC line is a really sound projection to anchor yourself on when thinking about his rest of season stats. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if India was able to maintain a slightly higher triple-slash line throughout the year.
Kyle Isbel, Kansas City Royals
5% Rostered on Yahoo
Situation: He's not a highly ranked prospect by any stretch of the imagination, Kansas City’s Kyle Isbel left spring training with a surprising roster spot. Isbel was the team’s 3rd round draft choice out of UNLV in the 2018 MLB draft. He seems to have the inside track on the Royals' right field job early on in the 2021 season.
Skill: Similar to Jonathan India above, Isbel is a player with a lot of average to above-average traits. Isbel makes all of those traits play up with his smart and hard-working approach to the game as a whole. He’s a very good athlete. Don’t be fooled by his listed 5-11, 190-pound frame. He’s got plenty of wiry strength and should be capable of hitting for some pop at the big league level. He’s also got above average ‘game speed’, as evidenced by his posting speed scores above 7.0 at every stop in the minor leagues. Finally, his glove is good enough to keep him in games as well. That is something to consider when looking at his playing time this season.
After collecting three hits in his big league debut, @Royals No. 5 prospect Kyle Isbel has two more today, including this RBI single, as KC has stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to take the lead. pic.twitter.com/dyK9f1ennM
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 3, 2021
Projection: Isbel wasn’t a likely enough player to garner a projection with the ATC system pre-season. I would peg his production this season as something like .250/.300/.400 with 5 home runs and 10 stolen bases in 350 or so PAs. All of those numbers have the potential for more in the tank, especially if some of his raw power starts showing up more in MLB games.
Taylor Trammell, Seattle Mariners
9% Rostered on Yahoo
Situation: Taylor Trammell was traded to Seattle in the deal that sent Austin Nola to San Diego. A compensatory round pick in the 2016 draft by the Cincinnati Reds, Trammell has long been a highly touted prospect but is still only 23 years old. He’s been the Mariners’ everyday center fielder since the start of the season.
Skill: Trammell’s two primary skills are his on-base ability and his defensive versatility. Despite a rough .156 batting average to start the season, he’s still getting on base at a .325 clip. In the minors, he’s shown enough power and speed to make an impact at various stops. If he can get the MLB game to slow down for him a bit, there’s still a chance that we can see the 5-tool stud that took home the Futures Game MVP in 2018:
Happy 2️⃣1️⃣st birthday to Reds prospect and 2018 MLB All-Star Futures Game MVP, Taylor Trammell! ? @Taytram24 pic.twitter.com/sXdrFyiLFI
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 13, 2018
Projection: ATC’s pre-season projections gave Trammell a .225/.313/.346 slash line with 7 home runs and 11 stolen bases over 350 PAs. I think the slash line unfortunately feels mighty prescient. If Trammell can’t push his OPS over .700 soon, there’s a real chance he starts losing playing time to one of the team’s next big prospects in the pipeline.
Brent Honeywell Jr., Tampa Bay Rays
5% Rostered on Yahoo
Situation: It’s easy to sit back and dream about what Brent Honeywell Jr.’s career would have looked like had he not dealt with a myriad of arm injuries. Honeywell was out of competitive action for over three years as he underwent four different surgeries on his throwing elbow. However, he persevered through all of it and made his MLB debut this week in a two-inning stint as an opener against the Yankees.
Skill: Honeywell looked awfully sharp in his brief MLB debut. We haven’t seen him in-game action in ages, so it was great to see his fastball sitting around 94 mph. He also had some feel for command of the pitch. Honeywell’s marquee pitch as a prospect has always been his screwball, a unique look that can draw plenty of whiffs at the top level. However, in his debut against the Yankees, he featured a number of changeups as well. The cambio pairs well with Honeywell’s fastball/screwball combination, giving him a very unique look:
Brent Honeywell, Screwball (slow) ?
First Major League K. pic.twitter.com/OLKKxhfhz5
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 11, 2021
Projection: Honeywell didn’t draw a pre-season ATC projection. And honestly, it’s kind of a profile that defies projection at this point given his scant track record and unique health history. I do not foresee the Rays giving him many innings this year, as they continue to build up his arm to a regular workload. 50 innings of work is probably a very good outcome for him in 2021.
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