Ultimate Dynasty League

Offseason Adds, Who’s Hot?

by Brandon K (Boston Narb Sluggers)

With an offseason which brought some new faces to our league, the Ultimate Dynasty League is becoming vibrant and full of exciting competition. With all the efforts our general managers have put in speccing out new players, some of this hard work has begun to materialize. With over 30 new players added to our league during our first weekly waiver wire drafts alone, a seemingly endless list of exciting new talent has emerged. So who is hot right now? Let’s take a look.

Yordan Alvarez

With their first waiver wire pick, Cat Scratch Fever selected Yordan Alvarez. Kyle Tucker? Kyle Tucker! Push The Boston Narb Slugger aside, a new sheriff is in town. Alvarez, the outfield and first base home-grown Astros prospect has been khrushing the ball in AAA this year. He is sporting 10 homeruns with a 339/451/915 slashline in 71 plate appearances. Sure his homerun to fly ball rate is a bit spiked and he plays in a bandbox PCL league, but he is easily one of the hottest prospects in baseball right now. If his lowered strikeout rate sticks, he may just force himself into the Astros lineup in the coming weeks. With Tucker seemingly needing more time to develop and Matt Kemp struggling, it could very well happen this year! He’s only 21, and truly the sky is the limit here. Try not to make GM Brandon too sad when he gets called up before Tucker and takes the league for a storm!

Willians Astudillo

With their first waiver wire pick, Havana Pigs selected Willians Astudillo. Who is Willians? Well they call him “La Tortuga”, Spanish for The Turtle. He’s a 5-foot-9, 225-pound stud. As a career 300 hitter in the minors, he’s always shown the ability to make high contact. However, he does it in the most unusual way. He doesn’t strikeout, sure -- ok yes that typically goes hand in hand with high contact. However, he doesn’t walk either! His minor league walk rates and strikeout rates were roughly 3%. In his rookie year last year, he walked 2.2% and struck out 3.1% with a sparkling 355/371/516 batting line. To put into perspective on how extreme he is as a player, he had 1 walk and 0 strikeouts this spring training. His success has carried into this year where he continues to carry an obscene 90% contact rate with 2.1 bb% and 2.1 k% while hitting a robust 295/313/523 with 2 homeruns in 48 plate appearances. Perhaps his defensive woes will prevent him from turning into an all star we all know he is capable of being, but one can dream right? Pitcherlist’s Alex Fast chanting “MVP!” from afar. Jokes aside, if Astudillo gets the playing time, he could very well be one of the top catchers to own in fantasy baseball. Certainly he is not slowing down, and we can probably look forward to seeing more of this:

JD Davis

But, he’s not even producing that much? Wrong, look at JD Davis’s statcast numbers and you will see that he is probably about to massively breakout. He is currently sporting a smooth 15.2% barrel rate with an eye-popping 437 XWOBA. With a healthy 15.2% strikeout rate, and the ability to take a walk (15% walk rate), he seems due for some positive regression. The story on JD has been his inability to lift the ball in the air with somewhat poor defense and while he’s still sporting a 50% groundball rate this year he’s striking out little and barreling the ball like crazy. Hopefully the Mets keep patient with JD as he learns the outfield, his natural position at 3rd base, or whatever role they end up wishing to use him in. Simply put, he’s one to watch!

Nathan Lowe

With the 4th to last pick, Hone Ron Runners selected Nate Lowe. Peter Alonso is getting all the attention, but there’s another top first base prospect that is killing it right now. Sure Alonso is actually playing in the big leagues and doing so as if it were batting practice, but let’s not overlook Nate Lowe. Lowe is someone who is also capable of taking the league for a storm. At age 23, a year younger than Alonso, Nate Lowe is sporting a 308/455/596 line with 3 homeruns and 1 stolen base in 66 plate appearances at AAA this year. After a quick adjustment to AAA last year which saw a temporary downturn in production, Nate Lowe is now continuing where he left off from AA with a ridiculous 1051 OPS. While the Rays are notorious for being overly patient with their farm, Nate Lowe could be a mid season call-up and immediately produce. With the addition of Tommy Pham, the Rays lineup could provide a strong slot for Lowe to excel.

Casey Mize

Torrano Beisbol Birds selected Casey Mize with their first waiver wire pick. Casey Mize was certainly a well regarded prospect entering the year, but he’s been taking it to a new level. Mize has a strong array of pitches including a nasty fastball, splitter, and slider. He’s even been experimenting with a Betances-esque mid-80’s slurve. He has struck out 25 batters in 26 innings in Single-A this year with a miniscule 0.5 bb/9 and recently just got called up to AA Erie. He will be playing in the same AA rotation as Matt Manning, making the situation a fun one to watch indeed. While he might be a year away, Mize has exceeded expectations and is a very exciting spec to watch this year! Say no to TINSTAPP! Now repeat.