The Kutty Katt's Thoughts

Exploring prospects outside of the top 100 I am keeping an eye on.

Every good dynasty team starts with a foundation of prospects. While its great having multiple top ten prospects at once, its hard to do that once the prospect reaches a certain point. Other owners will checkout the top 100 list and see players they should target. We need to go deeper, find the players that aren’t on the list yet, but could be soon or could be quality major league players. They aren’t players we need to roster immediately, unless its an opportunity too good to pass up, but players we need to keep on our radar.

Ever since my draft, I have been stock piling my scout team with minor leaguers to keep an eye on, now I want to share a few of those and my thought process on them.

Quick Note – I find it much easier to find pitchers outside of the top 100 than hitters. I think this is partially from the top prospect rankings have a biases towards hitters, as of writing this; 70 of the top 100 prospects are position players. A minor league pitcher hasn’t been the number one pre-season prospect since Matt Moore in 2012. Lucas Giolito became the number one prospect during the season when Byron Buxton and Corey Seager graduated out of the list. Ohtani and Roki both were number one prospects when they were initially signed, but not as minor leaguers.

Tommy White – Not to be confused with the #14 prospect Thomas White for the Marlins. Tommy is a third baseman in the A’s minor league system. After starting the year in Double A he was promoted to Triple A. He is only 23 years old and is hitting 0.306 with a 0.347 on base percentage in 42 minor league games this year. His biggest flaw is that he has only hit 3 HRs and has 1 stolen base in 4 attempts. He is very one sided with the bat, which is odd because his nickname in college was ‘Tommy Tanks’. He hit 27 home runs as a freshman in college, and then hit 48 more over his last two years. He has almost a 48% hard hit rate in Triple A this year, which would be great to continue. For example; Ohtani is at 52% for his career and Arreaz is at 25% for his career. So if Tommy keeps up that near 50% mark he would be an elite hitter at the MLB level. I think as he ages, he will find his power again. He is hitting the ball hard, he just needs to add some elevation. I don’t think he will ever someone who will carry an offense, but will be a very capable big league player.

Andrew Fischer – I think Andrew gets a bonus just for being in the Brewers minor league system. They just seem to consistently churn out talent. This year, Fischer, is batting 0.266 with 13 home runs in 139 at bats. He is still just in High A, but we have seen him compete at a higher level. Fischer was apart of team Italy in this last WBC. He played in 4 games, batted 0.357 and added in a home run. Obviously, a really small sample size, but shows he has promise. He is still a few years out, but look out for Fischer in Milwaukee in the coming years.

Tai Peete – Considered just an added piece of the Donovan trade for St. Louis, Peete has looked really good for the Cardinals High A minor league team. He has an OPS of 0.878 in 29 games with 5 Homers and 5 Stolen Bases. He is a raw prospect. He is only 20 years old and still growing into his frame. He is giving me the vibe of a 20/20 player in about 3 years for the Cardinals. He needs to get his Strike Out rate down and improve his Stolen Base percentage, but for a long shot prospect he looks good.

Justin Lamkin – I expect Lamkin to be on the top 100 prospect list at the start of next season, he even has a shot to creep into the mid-season adjusted list. He made 6 starts in High A this year and had a 1.27 ERA over 28.1 innings and struck out 38 batters. He got moved up to Double A after this crazy started. He has only made 2 starts so far and has a 3.97 ERA in 11.1 innings with 15 strikeouts. He had a rough first start but then bounced back. He is a big lefty in the Royals organization. The Royals have produced some quality arms the last few years and I expect Lamkin to be another one soon.

Khal Stephen – I don’t know if Khal will ever be an Ace of a staff, but I like what he has to offer on the mound. In Double A this year he has 9 starts, a 3.12 ERA, 43.1 innings pitched, and 45 strikeouts. Very solid numbers. He is 23 years old, so he is a guy I think the Guardians may try to bring up late this year or early next year. With their current rotation looking full, he may get thrown into their bullpen.

Ben Jacobs – After dominating Single A to start the year, Jacobs has already made the rise to High A. He started the season with a 1.08 ERA over 16.2 innings with 24 Strikeouts. High A has been more of a challenge with him posting a 3.21 ERA across 4 starts and only 14 innings pitched. There could be a theme to my preferred pitchers at this point. Jacobs is another power lefty pitcher who will get punch outs. I could see him evolving into an elite back-end of the bullpen arm. His strikeout percentage is elite, but I already worry about his ability to go deep in games.

Kash Mayfield – Pitching in High A for the Padres minor league team, Kash has a 1.30 ERA in 8 starts this year. This is building on top of his solid performance at Single A last year. Another big lefty on this left, Kash stands at 6’4″ and is 21 years old. If he continues his current pace at High A, I could see him getting called up to Double A this year. That would line him up to compete for a major league roster spot at the start of next season. The Padres could try to slow roll him to the majors, which could help him build as a pitcher. I see him being a front of the rotation piece in the next couple of years.

Yhoiker Fajardo – I will start with two truths; I do not know how to pronounce his name, and he is a very raw talent. Yhoiker caught my eyes, not just because of his name, but also his 13.02 K/9 rate and his 6.75 K/BB ratio. He is a strikeout machine, currently working as a starter in High A for the Cardinals. He is only 19 years old, so he has a long way to go before making his debut, but look for his name in the next couple years.

Justin Campbell – He performed well enough in High A this year to force the Guardians to call him up to Double A, and he has been even better there. Overall on the season 10 starts with a 2.05 ERA and 38 strikeouts. His defect? He is only averaging about 3 innings a start. That could be intentional by the club, but if he is ever going to make it as a starter in the big leagues, he will need to stretch out. His 3-4 innings busts have been really good though, he feels stuck between a quality starter and a bulk reliever at this point, but his upside is there.

Riley Quick – Crazy switch up here, Riley is a big righty. Standing at 6’6″ he gets on the plate quick. He made 3 starts in High A this year and had a 0 ERA. The Twins called him up to their High A team where he has looked solid still. Not perfect but he is learning. Ideally he would move ‘quickly’ through the Twins minor league system. but with many things to still work on, I don’t see him making it to the big leagues until 2028.

Obviously, there are a ton of diamonds in the rough that I did not mention, I can’t find every diamond out there, but I am hoping this list produces in the near future.