Fantasy Baseball Prospect Tracker: Viciedo, Moustakas & More

Eric Stashin

Jun 18, 2010

We’ve been doing updates on a lot of the top prospects recently:

Update #1 included Brett Wallace & Daniel Hudson (click here to view)
Update #2 included Carlos Santana & Pedro Alvarez (click here to view)
Update #3 included Desmond Jennings & Jake Arrieta (click here to view)
Update #4 included Madison Bumgarner & Christian Friedrich (click here to view)

Now, let’s take a look at four more prime prospects.

Dayan Viciedo —Chicago White Sox—3B

Triple-A: .288 (67-233), 13 HR, 31 RBI, 29 R, 1 SB

He homered in back-to-back games, with hits in five of his last six games (including four two-hit games). His biggest success has come against left-handed pitchers (.352, 5 HR, 8 RBI, 10 R in 54 AB). While his strikeout rate is reasonable (52 K in 233 AB), he needs to work extensively on his ability to draw a walk. He has just eight walks this season, after drawing 23 walks over 509 AB at Double-A in 2009. If he continues to swing at that many pitches, major league pitchers just simply won’t throw him strikes. Unless he proves to have the ability of Vladimir Guerrero to smash balls out of the zone (unlikely), he likely will struggle early on at the next level.

(Of course, after writing this it was announced the Vicedo was called up by the White Sox after homering in his third straight game. He’s certainly usable in AL-only formats, though mixed leaguers shouldn’t depend on him quite yet for the reasons I outlined. If you have room to stash him, it certainly couldn’t hurt.)

Mike Moustakas—Kansas City Royals—3B

Double-A: .337 (60-178), 15 HR, 55 RBI, 40 R, 0 SB

Unfortunately the Royals have already come out and said that he won’t be making his major league debut this season, which certainly puts a sour taste in fantasy owners’ mouths. Still, he’s certainly making quite an impression. When we last checked in on Moustakas he was hitting .418 with six HR and 19 RBI. Clearly, there hasn’t been much “down” time for him in 2010. If you want another number that will bring a smile to your face: he has 30 strikeouts vs. 20 walks. In fact, the strikeouts have come more recently, with 10 Ks in his last 36 AB (hitting .194 over that span). When you put the ball in play, good things happen (his BABIP is at .338). For 2011, he’s going to be a prime prospect for sure.

Wilkin Ramirez—Detroit Tigers—OF

Triple-A: .240 (6-25), 1 HR, 3 RBI, 5 R, 1 SB

The last time we checked in on Ramirez he was in Double-A, where he hit for plenty of power (15 HR), but struggled with a .243 average. The major problem is the strikeouts. He whiffed 82 times in 210 AB before being called up (39.1 percent strikeout rate). He’s been better at Triple-A, with just four Ks, but it is an extremely small sample size. Prior to this year he had posted a 29.8 percent strikeout rate, so this certainly isn’t a new development. If he doesn’t make contact, his potential fantasy value is going to be similar to that of Jack Cust. Keep that in mind before getting too excited.

Jay Jackson—Chicago Cubs—P

Triple-A: 2.90 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 45 K, 15 BB, 3 W, 68.1 IP

He continues to roll, but for a while he was working out of the bullpen. Only recently did he return to the rotation (his last four appearances), where he has given up 12 ER over 23 innings (4.70 ERA). The lack of strikeouts certainly limits his potential value, though he entered the year with a career K/9 of 10.1 (including an 8.4 over 82.2 innings at Double-A). The control is better then he’s ever shown (3.0 BB/9 entering the year). Maybe he is better suited for the bullpen? We’ll have to watch closely and see how the Cubs decide to use him moving forward, but with the rotation depth the Cubs have, don’t go looking for him to make an impact in 2010.

What are your thoughts on these prospects? Who is the most likely to make an impact in 2010? Which are you highest on?

For more looks at prospects, you can check out the following articles: