Stashing Minors On Your Bench

It’s that time of year where we will start to see more and more players being called up, the AAAstros just brought up Trevor Crowe and Jimmy Paredes. The Rockies called up Nolan Arenado and he has already paid dividends. Everyone wants to find the next Trout or Harper and stash them on their bench until they make their MLB debut.  Now we are only talking about single season pick-ups because all these players are already on Dynasty teams. Here are the 10 most owned Minor Leaguers in CBS Fantasy Baseball and I will try and give you an analysis if they are worth stashing and taking up potentially valuable bench space.

PLAYER	% OWNED
Wil Myers, OF, Rays	79
Jurickson Profar, SS, Rangers	52
Oscar Taveras, OF, Cardinals	49
Yasiel Puig, OF, Dodgers	41
Zack Wheeler, SP, Mets	40
Billy Hamilton, SS, Reds	38
Dylan Bundy, SP, Orioles	34
Gerrit Cole, SP, Pirates	34
Travis D’Arnaud, C, Mets	34
Mike Zunino, C, Mariners	29

Myers is a must own. He will get the call sooner than later. Myers is already better than Sam Fuld or Matt Joyce who TB is currently running out there every day.  He presently has 3HR and is hitting .275 for Durham. The Rays can still win the AL East but they will need Myers’ bat to do that. If you can pick him up do it today.

Profar was seen in spring training as someone who could break camp with the big club but that didn’t happen. The reason; he has no open position in Texas' infielf plus his .231 average in Triple A doesn’t help either. Unless there is a significant injury to the Rangers infield I do not see Profar having any impact in Fantasy this year.

Taveras will be no more than a September call up because power hitting Matt Adams is in his way. Yes I know Adams doesn’t play OF but Adams bumps Craig to the OF and thus blocks a path for Taveras. Taveras too will need probably two major injuries in St. Louis to get his shot this summer.

Remember when Puig hit over .500 in the spring with a ridiculous 1.333 OPS? People thought he would replace Ethier or the Dodgers would trade Ethier, well neither happened and Puig plays a position that the Dodgers are incredibly deep at currently.  I just see no scenario where Puig gets a shot this year.

Wheeler has MLB stuff and has had 3 consecutive QS in the minors. The problem is the Mets will not contend this year and there is no reason to bring him up. They will let him build up innings in the minors and let him perfect his newly acquired change-up. His fastball and curve are already MLB ready.

Hamilton was a lock to be called up when the first Reds player went down. Well Ludwick went down and then his replacement Heisey went down too; then Hamilton and his speed on the base paths stayed down as well.  The reason he stayed put was a below the Mendoza Line batting average. No matter how fast you are if you can’t get on base you are not MLB ready. Until he hits at least a consistent .240ish he is not getting called up until September.

Bundy has already seen Dr. Andrews and that is never a good sign. His sore flexor tendon has him shut down for 6 weeks. Then he will neeed another month of throwing…not pitching. Then he can start pitching and now it’s July/August. So now he has to have at least 3 starts at Double A. Yes he is good and yes he will be a stud #1 but this year is shot people. He has no Fantasy relevance in 2013.

Garrit Cole is one I would stash immediately. The Pirates are contending and have played the toughest schedule to date in MLB. That means the next two months they will be playing below average teams and get the Cubs 2x along with Houston and the Mets. If any of the Pirates SP goes down or cannot produce Cole is up immediately. He is a pure #1 with size, power, durability and poise.

D’Arnaud was supposed to get a little seasoning and take over for Buck around this time. But now D’Arnaud is out with a broken foot and Buck is the best Fantasy Catcher. The young Catcher should be down for 2 months so why hold a catcher for that long when other options are available at Catcher.

Mike Zunino may be the best catching prospect around but he has Jesus Montero in front of him. It would take a combination of trades and injuries to propel Zunio to a starting role this year. Plus he is only hitting a .195 and that doesn’t help his cause.