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Fantasy Baseball Today: Where to rank Wander Franco, most added/dropped players, Kyle Schwarber power surger

Jun. 21, 2021
Fantasy Baseball Today: Where to rank Wander Franco, most added/dropped players, Kyle Schwarber power surger

With the Tampa Bay Rays losing six straight, they finally decided it was time to promote arguably the game's top prospect in Wander Franco. He's the latest in a long line of super prospects in the mold of a Juan Soto. Of course, it's never fair to compare a player who's never taken a Major League at-bat to a superstar, but I'll do it anyway. Why? Because it's fun! You can read more about Franco below.

In the meantime, I'd like to focus on a different Rays player: Shane McClanahan. The 24-year old southpaw turned in his best start of the season Sunday, limiting the Mariners to just one run over six innings while striking out eight. McClanahan finished with 17 swinging strikes on 86 pitches. What's even more exciting is that he's being stretched out further. He's now thrown over 80 pitches in back-to-back starts. With Tyler Glasnow going down, the Rays need each of their starting pitchers to step up. Based on his stuff and new usage, he needs to be rostered in more leagues.

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It feels like we've been talking up Rays SS prospect Wander Franco for months now as he continued to tear up the ball off anyone who pitched it to him. After moving up to Triple-A, Franco continued to look like the best prospect in baseball -- some have even called him the best prospect since Vlad Guerrero Jr. And on Tuesday, he will arrive in the MLB and in the Rays lineup.

On Sunday, Chris Towers delivered an in-depth breakdown about what Franco's arrival means in Fantasy and what to expect. I also wanted to pick Scott's brain on what his arrival could mean in a year where top prospect call-ups have mostly gone a lot worse than expected, so I tasked Chris with finding out.

Scott: "SS15 or SS16 sounds about right for me in my rankings right now. I would have him over Dansby Swanson, Jorge Polanco and Gio Urshela. The upside is an impact bat right away. If somehow Franco is not already rostered, go as high as 50% of your FAB.

Chris also dove into the prospect of looking to deal Franco if a manager is buying in on the hype. If you're going to trade Franco, you want to deal him at his best-case scenario. One player to look to target is Corey Seager.

Nationals OF Kyle Schwarber is on a wild power surge at the moment. He now has three multi-HR games in his past eight played. He is batting .400 in that span with eight total home runs. There is also potentially room to grow according to the advanced stats. He is underperforming his xwOBA by 20 points. His OPS is now up to about .850.

Schwarber has been really good since April, and if you view that month as an anomaly, he's been the best version of himself in a long time.


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